A list of great things

1. Yesterday I had a meeting with my principal to discuss her observations of my class two weeks ago. She came in unexpectedly to observe me and I wasn't sure if she'd like the lesson I'd planned. I liked the flow of it and felt like it was decent, but it's hard to tell what an administrator is hoping for in an observation. In the meeting she began by telling me that she'd used my lesson as an example in her meeting the day before with all the county principals. She's difficult to read, so I wasn't immediately certain whether this was good or bad. She went on to explain that it was an ideal lesson and that I'd incorporated all the elements one could hope for. She loved that the students were engaged for the entire period, that they seemed to be fired up for a subject that could have been quite boring, and that she was impressed with my use of technology, funny accents and enthusiasm to present the History of Cell Theory. Woot!

2. It told two unmotivated but intelligent students I'd buy them each a pizza if they did tomorrow's classwork in advance (extra homework, essentially). Why would a teenage boy NOT do this for a free pizza? One of them stepped up, the other one forgot about it. Amazing.

3. Two months ago I found an acorn that had grown a small root structure. I put it in a pot and it's now 6 inches high with 4 leaves! My students think I'm full of magic. I think nature is magical. :)


4. I started to edit a science project for a student before she pastes the final copy onto her board. I knew right away that she hadn't written it. All the words are spelled correctly, the level of the vocabulary is college or higher, and the format doesn't match any of the requirements of the project I assigned. I didn't ask my students to do a research paper but she included a bibliography. This is the first entry: "Parent Involvement in Science Fair Projects: by Board of Education Prince Georges Conty, Maryland, 1999."

Seriously?