Pride, Yearbook and the Akeelah Bee
Chapter 2: Personal Narrative
We just finished this really great project on the topic “One thing I am really proud of.” And the kids generated some great essays about football games, surviving the Hurricane, passing state tests, working a summer job cleaning pools, etc. I really enjoy reading their writing projects, but it is SO hard to grade objectively. I mean, pretty much impossible, so I do what I can. I feel like I really get to know them as people on a kind of secret level few others do, because they open up so much in their writing. It’s almost like the paper allows them to be really honest, and they don’t mind that I’m there to read it too.
Right after we finished the Personal Narrative, we jumped into doing a Fab Fifth Yearbook, which was a great project too. Many of them said it was their favorite of the year. I ran it much like my high school yearbook class… about 9 different sections each had an editor and a different topic. One group designed a beautiful cover and took all the student portraits. I had each student sign their name under their photo, which was cute. This week was a stresser getting it done, and I induced my own sickness, but it was worth it!! We’ve gotten a lot of compliments, and the kids worked really hard on writing one paragraph of “copy” about the subject and laying out their pages. It was kind of intense to teach them something BRAND new in the last couple weeks of school, but they were super invested because it was all about them!!
A couple of awesome things that have happened lately… We took all the kids to see the movie “Akeelah and the Bee,” about a girl from South Central LA who participates in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. So then we held our own Fifth Grade Spelling Bee, I ordered a trophy and everything! The winner was Tory Sanchell (one of our top students) with the word: TRIUMPH. Perfect. We also took 15 students to a Houston Astros game, some of our most improved attitude/academic kids. It was super fun, and they always love being able to spend any extra time with teachers. They’ll probably never forget it. So, lots of fun stuff happening at the end of the school year.
Last weekend, we took 8 of our best kids to Lake Texana State Park to camp for
Friday night. We slept in an 18 by 12 foot tent all together, and it was great. Some of them I don’t think slept at all, out of excitement. For example, Rashad Harney was wide awake and staring at all the teachers every time I woke up during the night. I don’t think he slept at all. I absolutely love taking our kids to do things out of their normal routines. Some of them had camped before, but it’s definitely not a common thing for them. Next Monday we take a group of kids to Sea World in San Antonio, and we are in fact sleeping next to the Shark tank. That sounds better to me than Whale Tank (I’m whale phobic) but insane nonetheless. Look for another post soon!
We just finished this really great project on the topic “One thing I am really proud of.” And the kids generated some great essays about football games, surviving the Hurricane, passing state tests, working a summer job cleaning pools, etc. I really enjoy reading their writing projects, but it is SO hard to grade objectively. I mean, pretty much impossible, so I do what I can. I feel like I really get to know them as people on a kind of secret level few others do, because they open up so much in their writing. It’s almost like the paper allows them to be really honest, and they don’t mind that I’m there to read it too.
Right after we finished the Personal Narrative, we jumped into doing a Fab Fifth Yearbook, which was a great project too. Many of them said it was their favorite of the year. I ran it much like my high school yearbook class… about 9 different sections each had an editor and a different topic. One group designed a beautiful cover and took all the student portraits. I had each student sign their name under their photo, which was cute. This week was a stresser getting it done, and I induced my own sickness, but it was worth it!! We’ve gotten a lot of compliments, and the kids worked really hard on writing one paragraph of “copy” about the subject and laying out their pages. It was kind of intense to teach them something BRAND new in the last couple weeks of school, but they were super invested because it was all about them!!
A couple of awesome things that have happened lately… We took all the kids to see the movie “Akeelah and the Bee,” about a girl from South Central LA who participates in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. So then we held our own Fifth Grade Spelling Bee, I ordered a trophy and everything! The winner was Tory Sanchell (one of our top students) with the word: TRIUMPH. Perfect. We also took 15 students to a Houston Astros game, some of our most improved attitude/academic kids. It was super fun, and they always love being able to spend any extra time with teachers. They’ll probably never forget it. So, lots of fun stuff happening at the end of the school year.
Last weekend, we took 8 of our best kids to Lake Texana State Park to camp for
Friday night. We slept in an 18 by 12 foot tent all together, and it was great. Some of them I don’t think slept at all, out of excitement. For example, Rashad Harney was wide awake and staring at all the teachers every time I woke up during the night. I don’t think he slept at all. I absolutely love taking our kids to do things out of their normal routines. Some of them had camped before, but it’s definitely not a common thing for them. Next Monday we take a group of kids to Sea World in San Antonio, and we are in fact sleeping next to the Shark tank. That sounds better to me than Whale Tank (I’m whale phobic) but insane nonetheless. Look for another post soon!
posted by MissBliss at 6:15 PM
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