It's all about the future

Ask a student if they feel they should be paid to go to school and you may be surprised by their answer.  I know I was.  Today all three of my classes reminded me why I teach.  Our warm-up required the students to list the pros and cons of getting paid to go to school, then they had to state their opinion. 

All three of my classes determined that being paid to go to school would be a negative thing!  I was amazed!  The kids brought up amazing points about taxes, school funding, crime and teacher salaries.  I was impressed with the maturity that the kids brought to the discussion.

We followed the discussion with a lesson about how reading is like making a deposit in your banking account.  Ask your students about how reading will help them make more than 1.2 million in their lifetime.  This number should spark their memory.  Students created reading goals for the year and a plan for meeting these goals.  This may be something else you want to ask about.

The fiction summary strategy we are working on is called Somebody Wanted But So.  Ask your student to tell you a story or summarize a text using this strategy.

Homework: Read 30 minutes, students if you have created your blog, please e-mail the link (web address) to me so I can add it to the class blog.  Anyone unable to do this at home will be invited to come up at lunch on Friday to work on it.  Let me know if you need help.

Sorry if this post is shorter and less detailed than others, I am going to my first class tonight, tomorrow night and Thursday night.  After this week, I will be in class Wednesday and Thursday nights (and one Tuesday each month).  I will do my best to keep up with things.