I can hardly believe we’re already wrapping up the third week of school!  Some days, the newness of the school year still lingers in the air.  Other days, it seems that students are as comfortable as they were by the end of last year.  Either way, it feels good to be getting into the groove of the new school year and hectic schedule. 

Today we wrapped up our first unit with both the seventh and eighth graders.  These past two weeks, students have been good reading and writing skills and test-taking strategies.  In this unit, students have completed the following tasks:

• read two selections and completed comprehension questions
• crafted a written response where they used evidence from the reading selections to support their position on a topic
• written a brief story based on their knowledge and/or experience
• provided feedback on student writing and identified qualities of the writing that both enhanced and diminished the overall success of the piece.

This unit also contain embedded lessons that allowed students to discover the value of working together as a team.  Students were also introduced to the process of formal writing, where specific details from the text are used to support an opinion. 

In other news this week, I am continuing to assist with the middle school cross country team, and am thrilled to have completed my first 5k run last Saturday.  I accomplished both of my goals, which were to run the entire course and not come in last. 

Students received their first reading logs this week as we visited the library for the first time on Thursday.  I plan to upload a copy of the reading log to Edline as well.  I’ve explained to students that the format of the log might vary as we learn the best ways to make use of the paper.

Thanks for reading and I hope that you find time to relax this weekend.  How will you be celebrating the first day of Autumn?