sunday's "so they said" is back for my fifth year in the classroom

Truth be told this little blog started back in August of 2009.  I was new to this whole process and was trying to figure out what I really wanted from this little page.  It began with people constantly telling me to write down my crazy teaching stories so that one day I could write a book.  Well I tried that whole writing down thing and it just wasn't my thing.  Turns out I'm a pretty fast typer and I love incorporating photos with my rambles.  So, blogging began.  Now last year I really picked up posting as well as some awesome readers, and even started a weekly tradition I called "so they said".  Just one of my favorite quotes from the week of teaching.  My plan was to get right back on these posts in August, but it turned out that with 180 students I had no idea what they were saying to remember a quote come Sunday!

Finally this week I felt like I was back to my old self.  After throwing my own little personal pity party last week where I mourned the loss of getting to be an elementary school teacher as well as feeling oh so sorry for myself having to get my masters degree on top of everything, I cried it out.  Like big time.  Once that was done, I woke up Monday morning still not ecstatic to be going to work (yes, in years past I really have felt this way!) but I sucked it up, and turns out, the tides had changed.  All of a sudden, my kids were cracking me up, producing some amazing work, and all around making my days pretty great.  I was told it took longer to bond with middle schoolers, they were not lying.  And once I got over my own issues I was ready to just have a better year.

So, that was quite an introduction for this week's quote.  Typically, it won't be quite so wordy!

On Wednesday we held our Colonial Travel Fair where students set up mini booths about their assigned colony.  They displayed a slogan banner, travel brochure, tourist map, and colonial newspaper they had created over the past few days in class.  I must say it was a pretty fun day as the kids promoted and argued, in the best way possible, as to who had the best colony.

Before starting in one of the classes I had one of my girls come up to me and ever so seriously ask me

"So Mrs. Lewis, which colony has been trending so far?"

Well, I paused for a minute, realized what she was referring to, and responded that "currently the middle colonies had been trending".  I hope my response was grammatically correct according to twitter.  Well, I thought I was the cool young teacher, looks like I have a tad more work to do.

And, just because I didn't feel like this post was lengthy enough, I also want to try one more thing in the "so they said" posts - poetry, or writing in general.  When going through my inboxes for each class (that are currently empty & awesome) I began grading some extra credit poetry some chose to do for September 11th.  This one just caught my eye - so here it is.

We walked down the street
our hands intertwined
you smiled down at me and I looked into your eyes
you dropped me off in a twin and headed up the stairs
you pushed the button for the elevator
and walked on in
there was a rumble outside but no one paid a mind
there was a crash and a boom
and screams all around
as the plane crashed into the tower
and I heard the death filled screams
I closed my eyes real hard
and pretended it was all a dream
-Alyssa

And just because I think every post deserves a picture - here's a peek at what we did yesterday.