End of Quarter Two!

As of today, the school year is officially halfway done. There was a bit of a scramble to get everything turned in on time, but we made it! All but two of the 7-8th graders left at noon to get ready for the Lakefield tournament. Only two of my seven left, so we're having class as usual. 

If all my planning yesterday wasn't enough, I planned another field trip today too. This one is an opportunity through Junior Achievement. We're doing lessons as usual, but afterwards, there's a career day at FarmAmerica. Sweet! So I don't have to do much planning with that (for now) besides sign up.

I also got an email back from the teacher of our class's pen pal. We were matched up with a class of 5th graders at a school on Staten Island, New York. Wow do my kids have stereotypes of people in New York. They think all the people who live there are rich and stuck up. Ha. I'm hoping to shatter those views over the course of our letter writing. 

It's their first time having pen pals. Their teacher seems awesome and we're going to get along great. She's 32, loves music/disney/books/plays violin. Her teaching specialties are special ed and music. She has eleven 5th graders in her sped class and hopes to get them to be better writers and show them there's more to life than screens. Most of them did distance learning and are kind of addicted now... I haven't told my students that their pen pals have disabilities, and I don't think I will. I don't want stereotypes to play an even bigger role in their letter writing.