Pleasant Surprise

Now today was a good day. A very good day.

Considering the fact that today kicked off new units for my GT and Strategies classes, we had two IEP meetings (including one at 3:15 after bus holding), and I made a major change to one of my long-term unit plans, the end results left me feeling pretty happy.

First, the major change. Originally, I had decided to go with Bridge to Terabithia as the novel study for my Strategies kids. But I got a heads-up from our inclusion teacher who helps me out in 1st period that it might be too heavy for them content-wise. Plus, the novel didn't appear on our sixth grade reading list to begin with. Not that such an occurrence would preclude me from using it anyway, but considering this is my evaluation year, the last thing I want to do is bring unnecessary attention to my planning strategies.

So I abandoned Bridge and started a hasty search for a replacement. In the end, I went with Chasing Vermeer. I dug up some interesting unit plan ideas on the Greenville County School District curriculum page that I can definitely put to good use. I sent in a request to the warehouse for a class set, but obviously, since I'm doing this so late, it's gonna take at least a week for my books to arrive.

That means I'll have to drag the preliminaries out longer than planned. Which is no huge deal. I can manage that.

Both IEPs went well. No major surprises.

But the real highlight was the successful beginning of both new units. My 1st period sparkled under a new seating chart that eliminated some hot spots (i.e., talking) in the room, at least for now. The remaining three did great too, but 1st period really set the tone for the rest of the day. Without meaning to brag, I was on my game, the kids were paying decent attention, we had varied activities - journal-writing, read aloud, author share, large group discussion, a summative activity...

Would that an ADEPT evaluator could have visited at any time today. :)