"I Have Been"

I found this cute little meme over on Jillian's blog (she found it at Elinor, Elizabeth and Emma). Since I am procrastinating just a little bit on reading things over for my classes tomorrow, I decided to participate. :)

I have been:

{writing}
Lesson plans and grammar notes. Sounds like a blast, doesn't it? We're really trying to focus in on some of the subtleties of grammar to help the kids improve their writing (parallelism, anyone?). I'm also having my kids maintain grammar/writing notebooks throughout the semester to get them writing more often and integrating their grammar lessons right away. I'll let you know how that goes. :)

{reading}

I've been a bit of a reading machine the last week or so-mainly flying through Harry Potter. Whenever I am super busy, I seem to find more time to read. I don't know how that works, but it does. Right now I am in the middle of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I am only about 150 pages from the end. I'm kind of amazed that I'm chugging through them this fast...I only started the series on Saturday!

I'm also reading When I Whistle by Shusaku Endo and working my way through Mythology by Edith Hamilton.

 

{listening}

Both Matt and myself are sick (he had it first, then I came down with it on Monday...the day before school started), so I've been listening to the sounds of us coughing all week. :)

 

{watching} 

Right now I'm watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory. But I've also been watching seasons of That 70s Show on DVD at night before bed. 

 

{looking}

Right now? At the sleeping cat on the couch next to me. He has been my snuggle buddy while I've been sick.

 

{learning}

About everything. I'm trying to branch out as much as possible in the areas I'm teaching to make my lessons more interesting. I really want to bring MORE into the classroom than a traditional textbook and lectures, so I am trying to find inventive ways to get the kids interested and learning. I feel more comfortable doing this in my English classes, since all my teaching methods classes were in that subject. I'm looking for things online to help me with my history classes. I found some great resources online, and I am reading all kinds of things to make lessons more interesting. :)

  

{feeling} 

Better than I was yesterday. I woke up yesterday morning at 2:30 coughing and couldn't fall back asleep. I got to school at 6 and tried to stick it out...and ended up coming home at lunch time with chills on top of everything else. I ended up going to the doctor, where he gave me some glorious medicine. I feel better, not 100%, but better. Like a functioning human being. 

 

{anticipating}

Going back to school in the morning. And starting on the first units of the year (the last couple of days have been focused on setting up, etc).

 

{wishing}

For a magical fairy to appear and clean the apartment. It needs a good cleaning...especially with both of us coughing and blowing our noses everywhere.

 

{loving} 

Having a real teaching job. It is amazing to have my own classroom. :)