Some Weeks Are Sprints

How a week can be so short and still so exhausting is beyond me. This week NYC public schools had off because of Yom Kippur (a BIG "thank you" to all of my Jewish students… none actually come to mind).

Tuesday was a “normal” day- well, as normal as kids can be after a 3-day weekend.

Wednesday was the trip to the American Natural History Museum (yep, the one from Night at the Museum AND The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler). The trip was nearly a complete success except for the unfortunate fact that the general education teachers (that’s me) planned it just for the classes they teach- not the 7^th grade special education or bilingual. This was a huge oversight on our part and caused some definite hurt feelings... We are now holding weekly teacher meetings, so this should NOT happen again.

Thursday and Friday were attempts to fit in a week’s worth of curriculum which went well enough. However, I have really been disappointed by the quiz grades so far… Because my management is SO much better this year, I just assumed that kids were “getting it.” Unfortunately, that is ABSOLUTELY NOT the case (especially in Social Studies), so it’s back to the drawing board to brainstorm some ways to make the lessons/key points more memorable to my students... We're talking about study skills on Monday! PS: Please send any ideas my way.

Next week is a long one- 5 days plus a graduate school midterm and project BUT it’s followed up by Columbus Day. God bless that man and his accidental “discovery.”

Lots of love,
Ms. Newton

PS: There are very few things that I love more than NYC adn Central Park in the fall. The humid summer leaves behind air that is thin and crisp and the outdoors smell like apples and Halloween. Please come visit!