Beginning of the year... whew!

Wow friends! I can hardly believe a whole 3 weeks have gone by already! We started school on Wednesday August 26th (with the students) and have been going since.

I started off my English 9 classes with a short stories unit. We had already read "The Necklace", "The Most Dangerous Game", and "A Sound of Thunder". Lots of long chats about literary devices and filling out plot development charts. Sometime I forget how young they are and how basic I need to think/teach to make sure they have the background knowledge.

In English 11 we also started with some short stories, but I was having a tough time with the dry American literature. That meant a quick detour into grammar! For most people I know that doesn't sound like more fun, but for me it is! We have been working for the last week on reviewing the eight parts of speech (pretty easy). That means we've been doing lots of activities and even some games. My juniors will have their parts of speech test Thursday. After that we'll go back into some short stories, but this time they aren't as dry! Hopefully they go well.

Lots of other teachers and some of you have asked how my classes have been going, and to be honest, English 9 and 11 aren't bad. I know that the "right" answer for a new teacher is AHHHHH SO TOUGH ;) But I feel mostly confident with my students and my material now. Journalism is where I feel the most pressure and where I'm struggling the most. I had a great time and learned a lot at the Jostens workshop from this summer, so the yearbook is not too intimidating. However, the printed newspaper is another story. I have zero journalism background, so it is exceedingly difficult for me to know how/what to teach to a brand new journalism staff. It will probably be a miracle if the newspaper makes it to print next week and doesn't have great big empty white spots... I'll take all the prayers and well-wishes you've got, friends!

I revamped my bulletin right by my door to go with this year's school theme: Be BV

Dad helps me grade papers and he is a ROCKSTAR!

one of my favorite parts of driving to school is watching the sunrise :)

we had an awesome storm last week that left behind some crazy clouds!

Overall I am beyond ecstatic to be back at BVHS this year. It is everything Egypt wasn't, and much more in line with what I imagined my teaching career would look like. I'll try and keep you posted often :)