Yesterday I got a new student. I think of that because we were just getting ready to do Seurat Day 2 when he left for testing so that they know what reading level he’ll be in. He doesn’t know any division, and only single-digit times single-digit multiplication. Fun.
Anyway, Monday night I remembered what else we’d done at that workshop. People posed as the people in the painting. That painting didn’t have many people in it, whereas Seurat had a ton of people. That was fun, getting the kids to pose as the different people! How often have you done that? I never did! So they got to be the characters in the painting and think about what that person might be thinking. Empathy isn’t their big skill, but you have to start somewhere!
Then I got to huge pieces of paper, and on one they wrote what they liked about the painting and on the other what they didn’t like. I’m still looking for a place to hang those up. When I do, I’ll take pics. So tomorrow (since we have no school today) we’ll actually do a chunk of writing about this. I’ll let you know how that goes!
I was going to do the after-school tutoring this year, but I’ve changed my mind. Here’s the thing. Mondays, we will have no after school time because fourth and fifth will be at another school working overtime. Remember that we have no specials, so the only alone time I have is lunch, and that’s if I don’t have detention. Tuesdays and Thursdays would be tutoring days, and they’re thinking of making them last forever again like last year because they are losing a chunk of Monday teachers (thus they have to squeeze the same number of hours into two days instead of three). We lost our Wednesday prep time a year or so (at least) before I started working there. The rule is that the staff meeting only lasts so long (which is why the kids get out an hour early) and the teachers still have their prep time. Nope. They not only take away all of our prep time, but sometimes the meetings last longer than 3:00 so we’re working overtime then, too. Free, of course. Our union rep never did much except tell the principal she was violating the rules. Fat lot of good that did! So anyway, if I tutored, my entire weekly prep period would be after school on Friday, even though now I’d have even more to prep for with the tutoring! Sorry, I just can’t do it.
NaNoWriMo is moving right along, finally. I was behind for a few days. I don’t have today’s ending word count met yet, but I do have some of today’s done. 
I will be 52 on Sunday. I feel like I’m in my 30s! It’s just so unreal!
