sick sick sick

I am miserable. I know it could be worse, but having a cold is so blah. My students all made fun of me.... asking me why I'm crying, telling me I look like Rudolph,  lame lame lame. I'm exhausted and I think I'm going to bed now so I can be ready to go for LOST tonight. 

Let me just say that I'm somewhat terrified of my new teen leadership class. Instead of sixth graders, they're mostly 7th and 8th now. And they're so big and scary! How am I going to effectively teach the big ones when I'm so used to the little ones? There's a HUGE difference in maturity levels between them. Now that I have all three in a class, I'm worried about how I can cater to them individually while maintaining classroom control. I have some of the 'bad kids' but I don't want to put them in a stereotype without getting to know them. Then I have full-time ESL kids... so needless to say it will be quite the experience this 9 weeks. Dear Lord, please let me make it through!! 

Off to bed. 

January.

Life is so good. I haven't updated since we found out Mike's dad has leukemia, so for a quick update... he is doing very well, is back at work, and all he has to do is take a pill everyday. Praise God!!! We had a wonderful first Christmas... went on a road trip, spent a lot of time with family... yeah, it was nice. It's hard to update even though it was only two weeks ago. It feels like eternity has passed already! I feel like a different teacher going into the second semester. I am confident with the minor details (like paperwork and administration stuff) and now I am excited about creating better lesson plans. We are finishing up elements of fiction (which equals lots of short stories) then doing a novel study on "Hoot" (which is a fun book!) Then they'll finally learn how to write, and lastly we'll do a novel study that I can choose! I am really happy about being able to choose, although it's a pretty monumental task. What book do I choose that will 'speak' to my kids as a whole? Do I pick an action-packed book or one with a deeper meaning that will *hopefully* have a profound impact? Can I pick a book that tackles tough subject such as race relations or themes that have the potential to be 'sticky,' or do I stick with the 'safe-stuff?' It's a tough but awesome decision. Let's just say that I have a lot of reading and planning to do over the next couple of weeks.