If I could write a letter to me....

I have been getting so (nervous? excited? pumped? apprehensive?) who knows- about the upcoming school year, that I've started doing some lesson planning.

The first unit deals with The Readers/Writers Notebook and I was trying to think of ways to get kids sort of excited about their writing and inspiration struck (Inspiration came in the form of googling "Writers Notebook Ideas")

But one idea was to have kids write a letter about themselves, and about their future year. And I have tons of ideas of how I want my students to write these letters, but that's not what I'm interested in writing about here . (and what if future students is reading this? I don't want to ruin the surprise! PSYCH- I don't really want future students or any students reading this)

SO to sort of kick this off I wrote a letter to my 7th Grade Self. Here it is.

Dear Abby,

7^th grade seems like it’s starting off so great. Your parents let you go to that N*sync Concert the night before your first day of school. You could of sworn Justin Timberlake, was looking right at you and your best friend Carmen. Who knew he would still be famous now?

This year might be rough for you- but on the bright side things will go waaay uphill. But not for a few more years, you have a lot to learn about yourself and the people around you.

My first piece of advice, is to think carefully of who your friends are. I know that Carmen, Rosa and you are inseperable right now. But ask yourself this question, did you get in more trouble before or after you started hanging out with them? They are good friends to have, but you can find even better friends, who will ALWAYS have your back.

My second piece of advice, is to TRY HARDER in school! You’re a pretty smart kid- but it’s hard to keep up with the other kids at your school. You probably will never get 100 in Algebra, and Mrs. Mika may never like your writing. But if you actually tried harder on your homework and paid more attention in class, you would start getting grades that you were proud of. And in the end, your opinion of yourself is the only thing that counts.

My last big piece of advice is this, WAKE UP. There are so many wonderful, amazing things around you all the time. It’s so easy to let all of them pass you by. Your brain is always somewhere else, and you never seem focused on what’s in front of you- only on what’s next. You are incredibly lucky, your parents aren’t so bad, and you’ve got so much to appreciate. And you will appreciate it, when you finally learn to notice it.

Here are a few minor pieces of advice, but pay attention they will help you now and when you’re older (like now!):

That guy is dumb, and is always playing games. Move on.

Spend less time online, and more time outside. Your happier when you aren't always in front of a screen!

Your parents really don’t want the worst for you, although it seems like it.

Be careful what you wish for, it won’t always come out the way you want it to.

Open your mind to new ideas and new things. New friends don’t mean their bad or worse than your other friends. It just means their new.

Always stay loyal, trusting and looking for the good in people. It is one of your best traits and can only take you farther.

If you know it’s wrong, don’t do it.

Good luck, and I promise things are always getting better!

Always,

Abby Green

PS: Take out those purple contacts, be happy with the eye color you have, it suits you.

Sometimes we forget what we got.

I spent all of yesterday cleaning and working on lesson stuff for this week. It's so frustrating to work from 11 AM until 11 PM (more or less) and still have so much to do. It seemed like the grading would never end and I still need to get some things organized for the rest of the week. I want to do things after school and have a life... but I just feel like I should move in to my classroom sometimes.
I had an emotional moment with my mom yesterday- just because I feel like I have no life, and have become a slave to my job. But at the same time when I do things and have a life, I end up feeling so behind. In a way I almost feel guilty for doing things on the weekend or something fun because I know there's something I should be doing for my class.

I'm ready for this to start getting easier- not harder.

Today I had some classroom management problems. My 3rd and 4th period drive me up the wall. I just need to give out some detentions and lay down the law. I just feel like with those 2 groups I have to be mean EVERY SINGLE DAY and other groups I only have to it occasionally.

I've also been devoting most of my weekends to apartment cleaning and organizing- and sadly there' a huge bag of trash waiting of me to take it to the dump. Sometimes I love living alone- when I get home and am tired, I don't have to speak to anyone. Or when I wake up early and I don't have to be quiet or considerate. But then around 8:00 o'clock at night or in the afternoons on the weekend I'm left thinking...."oh, I"m alone again. Still." So i can't decide about next year. I'll revaulate at some point in time I'm sure.

I think I need to slow down a little bit in class too. I feel like I'm running with my students all day long and sometimes I don't feel that way. But when I do feel like I'm rushing through everything I think that my students behavior changes.

I started a Bingo activitiy in class for my TAG students. It will last all week- and at first they seemed not to like it. But once they understood it, I think they really did apperciate it. They wanted to do more than what was on the list. Which was good... I need to look into imagery for them. I'm always rememebering somthing I'm not doing.

I hope this week ends better than it started...