Two weeks in...

II'm here, I'm here! Happy sigh. I've been swamped with work, but it's been wonderful - preparing meaningful (I hope) lessons for students, sharing stories with each other, and starting a Harry Potter book club. Yes - you heard correctly - A HARRY POTTER BOOK CLUB!!!! I've never read the books entirely (by this, I mean I've only read the first two books), and I really think it would be cool to experience the magical world of Harry Potter with other eager readers/students.

There's no way we're going to get through all seven books during this school year, so in an ideal world, I'd like to get them done in two years. Our first meeting is tentatively planned for Wednesday, October 2nd. I have SO MANY fun ideas! I already began reading The Sorcerer's Stone so I can pull out main/big ideas to share with students. I'd also like to be well-into the story by Halloween because I'm planning to hold a Harry Potter-themed Halloween party! I'm also thinking we could watch the film-versions of the books as we move along. If you have any ideas or suggestions for me, please leave them in a comment. I'd really appreciate any and all ideas! Also, this will be my first book club, so if you have any tips of book clubs in general, I'd love some of those as well.

Wow! My first two weeks at East have been AMAZING! I am just so happy with where life has taken me in this past month alone. My students are so great, especially my ESL students. While I was registering for classes at Trinity Christian College, my advisor suggested that I obtain my ESL endorsement because it's a very marketable and much needed degree. I knew nothing about ESL, but I took the suggestion anyway. Wow - four years later, I am SO thrilled that I followed through with it. I am literally working at my dream job. Not only am I teaching English (reading, writing, literature, etc.), but I am teaching ESL English. The students are so eager to learn! They are also polite, respectful, and always wear smiles to class. I am so impressed by how strong these students are and how much they have accomplished in their short time spent in America. To the left is a note I wrote to one of my students. I was given a box of 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. I decided to give a copy of this book to one student in particular. She has an orthopedic disability, but let me tell you - she is the most independent, organized, and successful student I have ever met. She is so eager to learn how to prepare for life after high school (she is a senior) and was so happy to receive this book from me (but I was more happy to give it!).




I was SO EXCITED to receive my
Erin Condren Teacher Planner!

Right now, minimize this screen and visit www.ErinCondren.com. Ms. Condren makes personalize items, and I just received my very first Teacher Planner in the mail (thanks to my very good friend, Linda E.). Let me explain. A planner is cool, a lesson planner is REAL cool, but a Life Planner/Teacher Planner with TONS of personalized thingies is outrageously sweet!! 

Miss Noonan
East High School
<33 LOVE!!

Linda ordered my planner on August 17th. It shipped out on September 2nd and I received it September 7th. It was a long wait, but well worth it! I would much rather wait for something to be personalized just for me than to buy some generic planner that I'm not in love with (because, yes, I am IN LOVE with this Teacher Planner!).

Yep, I'd say my plans are done for this week!

 

Mr. Johnson, my ESL partner-in-crime, and myself thought it would be better for our ESL students if we moved the textbooks down one level. So after two weeks of teaching from the books that we were given at the start of the year, this week we are redistributing textbooks so that our students will have less of a struggle working through the other ones. Get a load outta this picture below!

 

Ms. Noonan is SO SORRY!
(Here, have some candy.)

 

So my amazing students have already completed a number of activities in anticipation of reading certain stories from the textbooks. My amazing students have also completed these long and grueling Pre-Assessments. On Monday morning, I'm going to enter my classroom(s) (I teach in five different classrooms throughout the day) looking just like this. I'm going to apologize to my amazing students about having to collect their texts, redistribute new texts, and have them complete ANOTHER Pre-Assessment which correlates to the new textbooks.   :SIGH:   I will then hang my head and offer them candy. I say again - I have amazing students. One of the reasons they are amazing is because they will be totally fine with this whole process.

Gosh, I love my job :)