Wednesday, February 10th

Today the kids and I began their outlines. I thought that since they'd created outlines for their how to speeches during the week prior that modifying the same type of outline to highlight info for their persuasive papers would be a relatively easy transition. I was wrong. I'm quickly discovering that this is the most difficult unit so far, and definitely the most labor intensive. But I'm doing my best to remain optimistic. 

I'm finding myself continually surprised by the tremendous difference in ability and work ethic that these kids have. Some zip through my assignments and earn near perfect scores on almost everything they do. I'd love to have the opportunity to challenge those kids, show them more, and see how far they could go. But then I have another significant group of students who need extreme amounts of assistance with each step of an assignment; and don't get me wrong- I actually prefer helping these kids. I feel most accomplished in the classroom after helping a student to finally reach that "Ah ha!" moment. But the trouble is that I struggle to provide these kids the adequate one on one time that they need while still manage and push the other students. I feel bad because more often than not I find myself pulling up beside some of the students who require the extra help, getting completely engrossed in aiding them, only to look up at the clock and discover that most of the hour is gone and I've yet to help the majority of the class. I need to discover the secret to balancing my time between kids. In my perfect world, I wish that I only had a class of about maybe 10 students, so that I would be able to spread myself out more adequately among them all.