The chest cold lifted at last. I got my voice back, I can yell, I can almost sing again. The kids were a bit surprised when I started in on them yesterday but I got the chaos under control for the first time since Spring Break. "Why we gotta do work? Why can't we chill?" they demanded.
Hmmm. We "gotta do work" because you read at a 5th or 6th grade level in 8th grade, and you write at a 3rd or 4th grade level, and you're going to start HIGH SCHOOL IN FOUR MONTHS. 36% of those who enter high school in B'more manage to finish with a diploma.
That's why we "gotta do work." Some of them actually respond to this schpiel.
The City wants us to teach Lois Lowry's The Giver again this year. I'm down with that--I already have some plans I used last year. But we don't have the books, and Amazon is selling them for $7 a pop, but with a 4-for-3 special I can afford to spring for a class set plus the iTunes audio book on download. We'll start by making our own utopias I suppose.
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