Vera Dietz Thus Far

In class, the juniors and seniors are reading A.S. King's award-winning young adult novel Please Ignore Vera Dietz. I have been away on Kairos, so the students were asked to read pages 129-211 on their own. In their own blogs today, students should summarize their reading from the past week and then answer the following questions for an honest reflection. (Student responses may be in the form of a paragraph and can be answered in any order they choose. Students should not feel limited to only use that section of reading to write their responses.)

1. Summarize last week's reading of the novel.
2. How do you feel King is doing at depicting typical teen life in today's world?
3. Is she covering important teen issues accurately? How does the world of the novel relate to today's world concerning ideas like drinking, drugs, sex, relationships with parents, jobs, responsibilities, the future, personal stress, dealing with stress, avoiding feelings, guilt, growing up, rumors, bullying, relationships with peers, etc. (Talk about as many as you want. For each topic, please write about how this issue is handled in the novel and then compare to how you see this issue existing in the world today. Each topic should be a separate paragraph.)
4. If anything, what are your thoughts on some of these issues?
5. What questions or confusions do you have?

Afterward, students will respond to other blogs by posting comments.

NOTE: Please make sure you title your blog post and look professional (use complete sentences, proper paragraph structure [one main idea per paragraph], and proper spelling and grammar). I am assuming this writing assignment will take a while in order to be good.

So I had to lead a prayer at this seminar...

I was assigned to lead Thursday morning's prayer at this seminar (Jesuit School Network's Seminars in Ignatian Leadership at Vallombrosa Center in California), and I thought I would share it with this blog since it has so much to do with U of D Jesuit and my students. Here you go:

I appreciate retreats and conferences because they are a great opportunity for educators to stand back and take stock in the wonderful chaos that we call teaching. It’s beneficial every now and then to hit pause in order to take stock and take notice of the little things we do every day without even acknowledging them. It’s nice to be able to stop, talk, and know we are not alone in our instances we previously believed to be unique to us.

Every day at the start of seventh period at U of D Jesuit, we stop for the daily examen that always ends with the prayer for generosity. If you’re like me and most of my students, by now you can probably open your mouth, have the entire prayer pour out in a trained and robotic manner, and you didn’t even have to put forward any actual thought into the prayer at all. In keeping with a retreat and conference theme, I’d like to take a moment to stop and think about a prayer we say every day automatically without stopping to notice what is actually being said.

The words are:

Lord, teach me to be generous.

Teach me to serve you as you deserve;

to give and not to count the cost,

to fight and not to heed the wounds,

to toil and not to seek for rest,

to labor and not to ask for reward,

save that of knowing that I do your will.

“Lord,”

This one word is easy to forget. Sometimes, I feel like this one word comes on over the PA and it might as well be “Ready, Set, Pray!” How many times does only one person say “Lord” while everyone else just continues the rest of the line? The first lines are not “Teach me to be generous”; we first need to address the prayer to our God. Who are we talking to if not our God? The words “teach me to be generous” are not addressed to ourselves or the universe. There is someone else we need first and without him, we can’t do anything that follows.

“Teach me to be generous.”

The word generous to most outside of an educational setting has to do with money. Maybe I should give a dollar to the guy on the corner of 8 Mile and Woodward. Maybe I should donate more as an alum of the school. But for us, we know there is way more that can be given: our time to plan and assess every little activity, our mornings battling copy machines and downing coffee in preparation for the day, our lunch hours scarfing down a salad because you told a student you’d be available for help, our evenings at the coffee table grading essays during Grey’s Anatomy, our Saturday nights to football games and dances, and even more: our dating lives, our hair, our sanity in general. As teachers, we know what it means to give, yet the prayer still asks us to be taught generosity. “Teach me” is the common theme in this prayer. But this is not a grad school class you can get through by just looking at chapter summaries, this is not a unit plan you can download off of teacherspayteachers.com. This is something that you are asking God for help with: am I doing this right? Am I truly being generous?

“Teach me to serve as you deserve”

This is not asking for a resume list of service activities to get into a good college. This is not asking for total commitment in order to be next in line for sainthood. This is asking to serve as God deserves our talents to be used. At our schools, we often hear the word “magis” being used freely. But just doing “more” is not truly what it means. If I already have the fall play, a literary magazine, and the forensics team on my plate, that doesn’t mean I need to add more to be fulfilling the magis. I need to serve and do my best with what I have, dedicate my utmost to those before me, and not just serve the school by half-heartedly attaching my name to a million clubs and committees I will have no time for.

“to give and not to count the cost”

This is a hard one. It’s easy to rack up the cost being at school has on our daily lives: the hours preparing, planning, instructing, assessing, driving. It all adds up. But we do not give our time so we can hand someone a bill at the pearly gates saying, “Look here, this is what I deserve in retribution.” We do not boast about how I spent more time grading than you, we do not complain about how my play practice ran longer than football. If we do we are looking for something in return that we will not be getting. Being truly generous does not mean receiving praise or accolades in return. We give because we know it’s the right thing to do.

“to fight and not to heed the wounds”

It’d be very easy to look at my battle scars and question my very purpose at this school. There always seems to be a battle going on: from students who won’t do homework to students who want to receive points in the gradebook for every activity they perform, from parents who will never respond even if it’s to help their son to the nasty parent emails that scold you for not doing enough to fix their kid, from struggling with Microsoft Word to get your curriculum grids formatted just so to the colleague who sees no value in your department meeting activity and flatly dismisses it, from trying to inspire boys to submit creative writing and art to a literary magazine for publication to teenage girls who text everyone about your horrendous fall play casting decisions or start a coup and go to Salvation Army when the costumes you assign are not form fitting enough for them. We do not stop and lick our wounds on the sidelines. We adjust, we keep moving, and we become stronger along the way for it.

“to toil and not to seek for rest”

We do retreats, we take on clubs, we join committees, we attend professional development, we go straight from two weeks of fall play technical rehearsals and shows to an all-day book signing to a plane that takes us to an intensive leadership seminar. We go to home games; we drive 45 minutes to un-ending cross country meets to see one student’s leg for 30 seconds on his lap. We hit up all levels of athletics because each team is represented by a student sitting in our desks. You want to quit and go home and put on Netflix, but then a young man invites you to his Eagle Scout ceremony and you drop everything to support him. We do not rest because that is not something it is in our nature to do.

“to labor and not to ask for reward”

Sure, it would be nice to get teacher of the year or super awesome presents at Christmas or in June, but these don’t always come and we continue to work anyway. We don’t need printed certificates or stickers or paperweights to keep doing our job because we know there is something better out there, a larger purpose at work.

“save that of knowing that I do your will.”

And that’s what this is really all about: doing God’s will. As educators, we are put here not to claim our own glory but to help our students claim theirs. We don’t sacrifice for ourselves; we live the life that Jesus taught us by giving up of ourselves in service of others. And we do get rewards in some ways that make it all worth it: giving a student confidence from an excellent show production after eight weeks of practice, making a student proud to write poetry and let his classmates know it, providing a student a sense of accomplishment by helping him finally earn that C. We live to serve our students, and by doing so we live out God’s will.

Maybe next time you say this prayer, you will stop and think about the words instead of just spitting out the phrases so you can start your next class. Life gets busy back in the real world, but don’t forget the essence of retreats and conferences to stop and listen and think.

In the famous words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” It’s easy to get caught up in our lives or be too focused on an end goal. By doing so, you miss the magic of the world around you. Here is a video to share what’s been going on at our school for these first two months as a subtle reminder of what it’s really all about.

Video: https://animoto.com/play/1xh6jWzbm4C94kUTtSeZkQ

Song: “Life’s Been Good”, Daniel Portis-Cathers

Have you taken the time to count your blessings?

Life's been good, life's been good.

Have you noticed how many times you've been rewarded?

Life's been good, oh, so good

You look up, look around

Why, there's no reason to be cast down

You work hard, to be sure

So now be happy while you stand secure

Have you taken the time to count your blessings?

Life's been good, oh, life's been good

You look up, look around

Why, there's no reason to be cast down

You work hard, to be sure

So now be happy while you stand secure

Have you taken the time to count your blessings?

Life's been good, oh, life's been good

Life's been good, oh, so good

Fantasy

As we start reading Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, my students are going to be replying to the following questions, so I thought I would respond as well.

• Do you like to read fantasy? Why or why not?
• What fantasy location from a novel (or movie) is your favorite? Would you want to go there yourself? Why or why not?

I love to read fantasy. As a kid, I felt like reading was a great escape from everyday life. I appreciated the opportunity to leave the ordinary behind and experience life in someone else's shoes. It was even better if those shoes were worn by a hobbit trying to reclaim a mountain, a group of children getting lost in a wardrobe, or a neglected girl who discovers telekinetic abilities. If you're going to read and experience something new, why not make it amazing and extraordinary? Now, when I write, most of my ideas do involve some type of fantastical element because it lends more possibilities. Fantasy just has so much to offer!

If I could go anywhere, it would hands down have to be Hogwarts. I love the wizarding school, and I prayed for a letter of acceptance that never came on my eleventh birthday. As described by J.K. Rowling, the world of Hogwarts is an insanely cool building with magical rooms, magical creatures, and tons of mystery, history, and intrigue. Of course, it also helps that if I were to be there, I'd get to learn magic and charms. Who wants to walk across the room for food when you can summon it right over. Accio, Double Stuff!

Hogwarts seems to be an obvious choice, but I would like to share the possibility of a different location as well: Brakebills Academy. This is the setting for Lev Grossman's The Magicians, which is now a trilogy. Brakebills is a magical college that actually have applications and entrance tests. What's nice about this location instead of Hogwarts is the real life possibility. I have a much better chance of going here than Hogwarts. In order to be a magician in this series, one just needs to be super smart and open-minded. All of magic in their world can be learned through study and practice to unlock what the universe has to offer. Memorize some hand gestures, learn some gestures, and study some old books, and there you have it! Brakebills also has it's own fun magical elements from hidden passageways to live-action animal topiaries in the garden. If Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia had a baby and that baby went to college, you would get The Magicians. (Fun fact: It's getting turned into a TV show on SyFy this upcoming year.)

Infographic Debate Project

This is my infographic for the debate project in Contemporary Literature. See a description and reflection below. [For more information on the actual assignment, check out this previous blog post.]

Description
This infographic is a research presentation on the pro-life side of the debate on abortion. It displays reasons against abortion: the fetus is a human being, human beings have rights, pro-life is pro-women, and the changing views of abortion since the Roe v. Wade decision. Biology and science are prove that at the moment of conception, the fetus is a human being and alive. Because it is a human being, it has a right to life, which is believed by more than just religious groups. Abortion should not be the only option available for women to participate in society. There should be other options available instead of resulting to abortion. Finally, pro-lifers gave overgrown pro-choicers since 2009. Many are against the law that states abortion should be legal at all times because there are different stances on when abortion should be made illegal. While many try to use health reasons or rape to legitimize the argument for abortion, 92% are elective, meaning that they are not because of the previously mentioned reasons that get so much attention. These are the reasons to side with the pro-life side of the debate.

Reflection
     Because there is an odd number of students in class, I offered to be Thomas's partner. Since Thomas was matched with the teacher, I let him have first dibs on the topic and side of the debate. He chose abortion as his topic and decided to debate the pro-choice side of the debate. I was a little nervous about this sensitive topic and displaying a side, even if it is one that I believe.
     It was hard to try and research this side of the debate while ignoring the other side of the argument. There are so many resources available for the pro-choice side, while the pro-life side did not have much representation on the Internet. I had to sift through the information to find the few sites available. Even when I did find some resources, I had to sift through even more to find the ones that used logic and research instead of only emotion and religion. I needed to find resources that were convincing to the widest audience possible. I think I did a decent job finding the proper information even if it was difficult to find.
     I decided to use a pleasant color scheme to make it a positive-feeling image. I used images and icons of happy people to help convince the audience that this was the agreeable side of the argument and remind the audience that the debate is about human life. I organized the infographic into sections with headers to help make the reader understand my main argument better while including more explanation and facts below to really prove my side of the debate. Some of the facts were given in percentages so I turned those into charts and stickers in order to call more attention to these numbers instead of just reading more boring text. My hope was to have a clean presentation that calls attention to the main facts while providing more details to the curious reader to continue their exploration of the topic. If not, they can easily jump to the next section.
     I think my infographic is effective at convincing the audience towards this idea. I would have liked to include some more information, but I didn't want to be too wordy or to lose my audience with the shear amount of reading that would be required. I would have liked some type of conclusion section to wrap everything up, but there was no room. Since I am limited for space and time, I think this version of the argument is the best option. It clearly states the main argument and is easily persuasive.

Infographic Debate Project

Since Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain has a unique narrative perspective from the limited point of view of Enzo, the family dog, I thought it would be interesting to present on a specific debatable topic from only one side of the argument.

For this project, pairs of students are picking their own topics to research and deciding who will present each side of the argument. Since this is a class in contemporary reading and writing, their findings and presentations will be in the form of an infographic, a fun new way to present ideas with facts and research in a more visual representation.

To help students create their own infographic, I have made an infographic on how to make an infographic! I created a free account on piktochart.com, and it's super easy to pick a template, manipulate text and images, and save or share. Check out my "how to" infographic below!

Narrators

Today, I am asking my students to reflect on their favorite narration. We have started to read Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain. It's a great family story, but it is unique in the sense that it is told from the point of view of the family dog. Their favorite narrator can be a first person narrator that is a character in the novel, or it can just be a novel whose third person perspective is unique or clever.

1. Who is your favorite narrator? What is your favorite narration?
2. Tell readers about the novel and the narration.
3. Why is this your favorite? Why might others appreciate it as well?

My favorite narrator is definitely Budo from Matthew Dick's Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend. In Dick's novel, imaginary friends are real. Not only are they real, but they can also interact with every other imaginary friend. In a world where imagination is real, Budo is an excellent tour guide. Budo is the imaginary friend of the autistic Max. Since imaginary friends are exactly how their child sees them, Budo is a very smart humanoid who can walk through doors and can exist in a space without Max. Other imaginary friends are not so lucky. Some are two dimensional, while others are freakish creations. While others are restricted to exist with their child, Budo has the luxury of walking around town while Max is asleep. He can visit gas stations and hospitals observing human life and checking out imaginary friend support groups for those whose children are sick and dying in the pediatric ward. Budo is also rare in the fact that he is the oldest imaginary friend. Max has had him for years. Most do not last as long since their children gradually do not need them any more and disappear. Budo has even witnessed imaginary friends come and go in as short as ten minutes.

Budo is my favorite because he offers a unique perspective on life. He mostly spends time with Max, who is unable to communicate for himself due to his autism. Budo is there to help Max cope. While simple things like which flavor popsicle can launch Max into a panic, Budo is there to whisper into his ear that blue is the best option. From coping with bullies to taking spelling tests, Max relies on Budo, which is why Budo is able to exist so much longer than his fellow imaginary friends. However, when Max gets kidnapped, the tables are turned. Budo knows that Max will keep him in existence forever, but is that worth keeping Max away from his family? Or will Budo help Max escape, meaning that Max might learn that he can help himself and therefore not need Budo anymore?

Matthew Dick's narrator is one of my favorites. It's a great viewpoint into a fantasy world while also staying rooted in contemporary life. It's a great read for anyone. This is one of the few books that ever made me cry because it was over.

The Power of Being There

Record audio or upload mp3 >>

I believe in the power of being there.

A teacher has a unique and, I’ll say it, weird relationship with his students. Get close, but not too close. Understand them as individuals, but be careful not to show too much of yourself. Show students you care about them, but hugging a student is inappropriate. Be energetic, approach students on their level and find similar interests, but remain the adult who is not quite their friend. It’s a confusing juggling act. In the jumble of recommendations and restrictions, I have found that the best thing I have to offer is myself. I will be there.

Soccer is not an interesting sport for me. Two groups of people kicking around a ball for hours and ending in a tied score of 0-0? I don’t understand the appeal. However, if one of the young men sitting in my desks invites me to their game, you can bet I will be there. I may need to take cues from the crowd about when to clap or scowl, but I’m there. I will hang around the field gate as the team exits and tweet a picture from the game because I want students to know I’m there for them, and I support their work. I’ve driven to faraway community plays and sat by myself at poorly scheduled hockey games, but I was there. Even outside of the English classroom, I want my students to know that what they are doing is great. Netflix can wait.

A teacher’s life is busy. Today, I had a meeting before school, play practice after, and Mini Class Night in the evening. There was less than an hour to work out the shuttle bus and get myself some dinner, but when a freshman in the cafeteria asked me for help on his Algebra from when he was absent, I stayed. Yes, it meant I had to basically inhale some chicken nuggets before meeting rooms full of parents, but I feel like being there for that freshman was the best choice for that moment. That’s a much bigger impact that being able to breathe between bites of dinner. I care for my students and want to see them succeed.

I have never experienced a tragic breakup. I have never lost a close friend. Yes, I have known loss, but rarely have I felt it as some of my students have. I’ve had a classmate snap his neck while working out and another murdered by his girlfriend’s ex-husband; I’ve known a co-worker to drop dead of a heart attack in a mall and another in a school lobby with an aneurism. But I have not truly felt loss like my students have. I’ve never personally been linked to the kid who found his parents’ murder-suicide when he got home from school. No one I ate lunch with chose to end his life by stepping in front of a train or onto a highway. My arsenal of grammar usage and literature analysis cannot heal this pain. My students know things that I cannot fathom, but I am still choosing to be there.

I am not a parent, but I want to keep them safe, make sure they are making smart choices and resisting temptation. I am not a therapist, but I want to talk them through their problems and be the one to find solutions. I am not a magician, but I want to wave a magic wand and make everything better. I am only one person, but I want to make the world better for my kids.

I am not a parent, therapist or magician, but I have decided to be the person who is there. I will support. I will aid. I will come when called. I may not be anyone’s first choice, but I will be an option. You will see my face in the stands, hear my applause in the theater, watch me use my phone as a calculator since you are not allowed one. I will not force you to express feelings on topics you don’t want to. (But you can.) I will not offer life lesson you didn’t ask for. (But I have them.) I will distract you with a box of donuts. We will talk about movies or music. You will listen to me read a second blog post written at midnight, even though my first is completed and saved and ready, because I feel strongly enough to share. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a person. I’ll be that person.

I don’t know how I can be useful, but I believe there is still a power in being there anyway.

I am here.

I recorded this entry using Vocaroo. You can also hear the recording here.

Choosing Awesome

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My inner thoughts are a rickety see-saw that sometimes make it hard to find my footing and walk through life. Either I am insecure and constantly critical, or I feel that I am too confident and possibly coming off as superior. Without a balance, sometimes it’s hard to see which side I am going to land on.

As a teacher, I am constantly speaking in front of 100+ students a day. Trained in high school theater, I am not afraid of putting myself out there or addressing a crowd. However, being the reflective person that I am, I tend to overanalyze events, making me feel insecure.

When I was in my first year of teaching as a member of the Alumni Volunteer Corps at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, part of my salary was paid in food. We got five dollars a day for lunch, which was usually spent on chicken tenders and fries. Twice a week, the Mothers Club brought us dinner, usually some type of pasta or cheesy dish and always a luxurious dessert. Needless to say, when getting paid in food, one tends to put on a little bit of weight. It was that May of 2011 when I finally noticed mine. Now, it wasn’t some secret, private bathroom scale that opened my eyes to this enlarging circumference. Instead, it was a student named Martin who came up in the cafeteria and rubbed my belly, talking about cookies. I was embarrassed and furious, but he wasn’t wrong.

In college teaching programs, professors tell you that students notice everything. And they are right! If students noticed I had gained a belly, then I’m sure they notice much more. This is a frightening thought to someone who puts themselves out there every day in front of teenagers. Especially to someone like me who over thinks things as I do.

Now, when I teach, questions constantly run through my mind. Am I going too slow? Am I talking too fast? Is this lesson boring? Why does that student sit and look like he is too cool for me? He probably is too cool for me. How’s my weight? Should I suck in my gut while teaching? (I’ve done that.) Do they notice my new pimple? Have I already worn this tie this week? Am I an outfit repeater? What should I do with my hands while I talk? I once made the mistake of looking up myself on ratemyteachers.com to find that one student thinks I am too flamboyant because of my hands. What is he really getting at by calling me flamboyant? And I have to record this blog post. I hate my voice. What if I sound stupid?

When you constantly put yourself out there. There is a tendency to feel raw and exposed. But that is no reason to hide.

I am a pretty confident guy, too. I have accomplished a lot in my 27 years so far: graduated from the University of Michigan, got a teaching job right out of college, completed my Master’s degree and earned a state certification as a reading specialist, wrote and published an award-winning novel. I direct school plays, put out amazing student literary magazines, coach a nationally competitive forensics team, and this summer I became president of the Detroit Catholic Forensic League. I have presented at state and nation-wide teacher conferences multiple times, and I have been selected to participate in plenty of leadership programs in Jesuit education taking me from Chicago to Europe. However, when looking at this list, I feel too cocky for even typing it. Am I bragging too much? Should I not mention some of these things? Even now, I know I left some things out on purpose. I don’t want to come off like I’m full of myself, so sometimes I just keep my successes to myself.

Why is there no balance between either feeling insecure or unjustly superior? I may not be able to find the perfect ratio, but after reflecting on this topic, I do know there is one thing I believe. When deciding to focus on the negative or the positive, I choose the side of being awesome. No matter how down and out things get or how critical of myself I can be, I going to recall that I am an awesome person. We are all awesome, so why waste time focusing on the negative? That’s not how I’m going to choose to spend my time.

I recorded this entry using Vocaroo. You can also hear the recording here.

Reading Reflection

This morning, I am asking my Contemporary Literature juniors and seniors to reflect on these questions, so I thought I would join them as well.

1. What has your English class experience been like so far?
2. What has your reading experience been like so far? (inside and/or outside of school)
3. What are you hoping to gain by taking this class?

English class has always been one of my favorite classes. From Zybard and Currier at St. Hugo of the Hills School to Carapellotti at U of D Jesuit High School and beyond to professors at U of M, these teachers always made their classroom a great place to learn, study, and discuss reading and writing. Now, that's not to say that every class was an out-of-body experience, because they weren't. I remember struggling through some topics in high school and college, eventually leading me to become a master at writing essays without ever opening the book (to the envy of all my stressed and struggling friends). My Masters program at Madonna University? I earned a 4.0 without really using the textbooks. But those teachers who made me love the novels we read, those are the ones who had the most influence over me and my decision to become a teacher.

I've always been a reader. I remember back to the elementary school days with standardized testing; you always needed to have a novel with you for if you finished early. Back in the day, my mom would even take us to the library for books. I distinctly remember sitting on the couch with my two younger sisters as she read Roald Dahl's Matilda to us. And then when Harry Potter arrived on the scene? Look out! I ate those up as fast as J.K. Rowling could publish them. I don't ever remember being as excited for a new book like those ones. Gradually, though, I became busy with required reading for school. Harry Potter was replaced with older "canonical" titles that I couldn't understand or couldn't catch my interest. Or, being an English major, the amount of the required reading for classes was too cumbersome to allow for me to actually enjoy it. It wasn't until my student teaching experience at Orchard Lake Middle School, when I saw all of these sixth graders reading novels of choice, that I was reinvigorated to start reading again. Hunger Games and Percy Jackson were amazing and eventually transitioned to summers making my way through a never-ending "to read" list including novels like Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and The Martian. I enjoy that I've found the time and methods to include my own reading of choice in my life, even if it does mean co-reading it along with reading for my high schoolers. Reading rocks!

I'm super happy to have started this Contemporary Literature elective. I'm looking forward to an intimate class with nine students. It'll be like a fun book club that meets every third period. My hope is that by reading good current novels, some of the high school students who have turned out like me (avoiding reading and finding the easy way out) will see how awesome reading is again and re-dedicate themselves to actually reading books from cover to cover. Well, for my class at least. Got to start somewhere!

First Day of School

Today is the first day of my sixth year of teaching at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. It was a long day, but I am glad to be back doing a job I enjoy at a place I love.

This year, I am teaching English I to freshmen, English II to sophomores, and a new English elective called Contemporary Literature to a small group of juniors and seniors. I will also be keeping busy with my three clubs: fall play, Inscape literary magazine, and forensics.

I think I have some good students this year, and I can't wait to get to know them better and work with them more. I'm especially excited to see how my class of nine juniors and seniors goes. It will be a fun little book club reading novels published in the 2000s. It's going to be paradise for a book-nerd like me. (Hopefully, my enthusiasm rubs off on the students.) Third period first semester is going to rock!

I can't decide if I will also use this blog for updates in English I and English II, or just with my Contemporary Literature students. Only time will tell, I guess. This sounds like a problem for future Mr. Davidson.