Day 54

Technically this should be dated 11/17/06, but I didn't get a chance to post it yesterday.


So Thursday night we had Parent-Teacher Conferences. For the first time I got a ton of parents of students who were actually struggling in the class (usually it's just parents of honors kids who want you to reaffirm their child's intelligence - don't get me wrong, there were a lot of honors parents there too), and they were concerned about what they could do to help their child. A lot of what I said was having kids review stuff they learned in Spanish 1 (for the level 2 kids) and Spanish 1& 2 (the level 3 kids) by a) looking at the earlier chapters in the books or b) seeing me/someone for extra help. One girl who didn't want to take Spanish in the first place and thought she'd fail out of the year (got a 66 for the quarter, which is technically passing with a D) actually studied on Thursday night for the big test she had yesterday and managed to get a 70 (C-)! I hope she'll be pleasantly surprised on Monday when she gets it back.

Yesterday turned into movie day for the kids who didn't have a test. I gave a big test to one class on Thursday, and I figured it would be pointless to start anything new before Thanksgiving break (I see them on Monday and Tuesday next week), so I put in a movie for them. Then I decided to just show the movie for the rest of my classes, adding in more questions about the movie for the Spanish 3s than I did for the 2s. I showed "Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey" but the Spanish version, of course. They really had to watch & listen because the movie had no subtitles! I think most people have seen it in English to get the gist of it, so it's all okay.

I can't wait for next Wednesday. I have no classes, it's spirit day (which means class competitions in the gym), and we get out at 11! Then the long weekend of fun and eating begins. Yay! To those of you already on Thanksgiving recess, I envy you, but I hope you have a fantastic break!