Spare Time?

Soccer ends next week... On one hand, it'll be nice to go to the gym right after school, get back into running and finally try out the GPS attachment to my sports watch (I know... I'm using soccer as an excuse)- but really... I will have some additional time- but I'll miss the two hours spent outside with the girls.

We have our three last games this week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. All in all, the ladies have one of the best JV soccer records our school has ever seen. I'm really proud of how far they came in three months. Last week, they beat one of their biggest rivals in over time. We tied this team twice already this season. (I finally agreed to over time play.) It was an awesome game.

With soccer ending, new projects are starting. As part of my annual professional development plan, I am reading several "teacher texts" to figure out what the experts are saying about writing, editing and struggling readers. One of the texts I'm most excited to read is Chris Tovani's I Read It, but I Don't Get It. Comprehension instruction has been a main focus in my classroom because of the NYS ELA exam. After analyzing our results we realized what our kids were doing and how they were approaching reading tasks. I think Tovani's book will offer some insight into the kids who are reading fluently, but still not recalling or capable of summarizing what they just read and gleaning meaning.

Some of the other projects are home office related. After finishing my Masters, I ended up with binder upon binder of information, class projects, reading strategies hand outs etc.etc. This wintr season I'll be cleaning up the home office area and finally weeding through that stuff to figure out what I might actually use again in my classroom.

But all that said... One more week and I think I might be helping out with the varsity team as they enter sectional season.