Boxes

are what my apartment is full of. Mom, Dad, Auntie Nancy and Uncle John came up last weekend, and it's a good thing they didn't wait any longer. The bookshelves are gone now, and there are piles of books on the floor, on the table, and in boxes all along the walls. It looks bare, but at the same time very cluttered. I really should tidy up, but everything in a transitional sort of phase; nothing can really be put away, because there's nothing to put it away in (furniture keeps getting up and leaving), but it's too soon to pack a lot of stuff. Boo.

Summer school is swimming along. I'm doing a lot of pressing for explanations, yet I don't feel like I'm really pressing for deep conceptual understanding--and we're just doing proportions, which aren't that difficult to grasp. Part of it is the timing; I think our pacing is right in terms of the number of days we've actually spent, but we have three and a half hours of class every day, so maybe we should be going faster through the material. But it takes time to absorb concepts, and more hours per day doesn't really speed that process ... at least, it doesn't seem to. Plus, things don't go totally smoothly. Students are still getting used to working in groups and stuff like that. For the most part, I think they're doing a good job--but not everyone shares that opinion. In their journals, the students seem reasonably happy with their groups, and in conversations I've had, they do say that they're learning things, which is confirmed by my informal assessments of their classwork. But a parent volunteer stepped into class today to announce a missing wallet, and when I saw her after school in the copy room, she said, "So, you have all the freshmen? ... um, is it always that disruptive?" Apparently, she is used to seeing the rigidity of her daughter's current school (which is Catholic). It was pretty noisy, though. It's hard to manage a class of 30+ students. I could be doing more to make my expectations clearer, though. Targeted retaining during the break and after school, for example. I should be doing a lot more of that. Did some today at break, and it was very productive. It's a weird situation, though; two more days, and I'm out of there! So I'm investing all this energy in setting up expectations just so I can leave. Well, not true, it will help the next teacher, I hope, and it will help the students while I have them. But it's so easy to be selfish and just let things slide for two more days. In any case, I'm learning a lot about classroom management. I'm starting to understand some of the things Deborah told me last year.

I'm starting to develop relationships with a bunch of the students. I feel goofy about this, too, since I'll be leaving so soon. One of them reminds me strongly of a girl in my class last year. Exuberant, popular, such potential for leadership--combined with a desire to be cool, to be accepted and adored. Sometimes a great leader, sometimes a horrible distraction. Troubled in her personal life, too. One of her friends just died in a car crash.

I think that's all I have to say for now.