I wish I had more time to update this thing, because so many amazing things have happened in the last few months. Today after school, I got to watch our schools National Junior Honor Society induction, which was awesome to see. All of the parents came out and it was great celebrating the students' accomplishments.After that I got to be a "mom" for one of the students. For one of the after-school programs, there was a mother-daughter dinner. The girls could invite a "mom for the night" if there mothers couldn't make it, so one of my former students invited me along.

While there, we ate dinner and played goofy games. Then we had to make a collage with our "daughters" about what goals we have for them for their futures. After that, we presented them to the group and they voted on the best one. Ours won. :) The lady in charge told my "daughter" to go pick out a prize and take it home for her mother. She then turned to me and said, "I am giving it to my mother who is here tonight" and handed it to me. After this, the girls all read poetry. What they said after the poetry made me cry.

The girls were then allowed to stand up and recite more poems or say anything they wanted to. Unbeknownst to me, two of my students had prepared a tribute to me. One girl stood up to thank me for getting Maya Angelou to read her poetry and autograph a book for her (Maya is her idol). She talked about how much it inspired her to make something of her life. The next girl was my "daughter" for the evening. She got up and talked about how much I mean to her, and how much I have helped her in her life. You always hope you are making a difference in the kids' lives, but I don't think it really hits you until you hear it vocalized.

This week in English we have written cover letters, resumes, and college application essays. We have also filled out job and college applications. The students are doing really well at this.

In social studies, we are reading a graphic novel called Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (I put a link at the top of this post). I read and analyzed this book in college, and here my 7th graders are doing amazing with it. It deals with the Iran-Iraq conflict of the 70's & 80's. My kids are so into reading this book, that they don't want social studies to end every day. They keep asking if we can be a little bit late to lunch, so we can read some more.

A few weeks ago I took some of my students to a Saturday workshop at a local university to read their poetry and discuss the activities we do in class in front of a panel of English teachers. They loved my kids and asked them so many questions. I think it was a great self-esteem boost for the students.

So many crazy things have happened in the last few months, I think I should stop for now before I get carried away. :) Although, I will mention the craziest thing that happened last month - one of my girls was hit by a tow truck while crossing the road. After a few days in the hospital, she was thankfully alright. She had a broken bone in her skull, eight missing teeth, and a bunch of bruises - but no permanent damage!

So as I have said before, the girls in my class outnumber the boys more than 2:1. The girls in my class are all fighting right now. They are starting arguments in school and trying to jump each other after school. Next week for 45 minutes I am going to have the principal take the boys in my class, while I work with the girls. I really want to make them work with those they don't get along with doing some time of team building activity. I need some suggestions as to what to do with a group of about 20 girls (that mostly can't stand each other).

Any thoughts???