Thanks, Bottomshollow. Yes, I iced and elevated. Although today was so busy at school, I couldn't find the time. I'll work that in. As I wrote that last sentence, I felt bad, like I have to emphasize that I am not yet healed, that I am old and infirm. The other teachers in my team are younger. I loved being the younger one. Time to figure out how to get help, AND give it. I have tons of experience and could share that. I did do a wonderful lesson today. Shared Ernest Hemingway's six word memoir. "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Had the kids write their own. Sixth graders, my dear students last year, understood that this was a metaphor. Fifth graders thought that maybe Ernest Hemingway was a shoe salesman. He got poor and had to sell his baby shoes. One fifth grader, a new boy who is clearly feeling new and out of the group, couldn't write a thing. I suggested he begin, not worry about six words...cut out words later if he needed to...and at the last minute he wrote...and wanted to share this: I've never lived with my father.
The entire year I am helping kids be brave, vulnerable, honest in their writing. He was all three on the first day of classes. I told him I was proud. I hope he can sustain this. Another new boy, a sixth grader, wrote: Old school, small campus, no supplies.
Wow. I feel so blessed to have such brave writers in my class. I have much less time for reading and writing, which is now called "English" in Middle School," than I did when I taught fifth grade in Lower School. I joked with the chair of the all school English Department (also my best friend) who visited today during one of the classes: "Since there is so little time, I think all of the assignments I give will be "six word assignment." Hey, I could be through the expected curriculum in three weeks.
Thanks for reading, anyone who did. This work is my passion. I forget my knee completely when I am doing it.
United Kingdom
Very cool!
