I'm back

Still here! I didn't write for a while because 1) my job hunt did not go as well as I had hoped; I found that out the Tuesday before break and didn't feel like doing much of anything in the way of blogging, 2) last week we did have break and I didn't go near the computer because it was so gorgeous out that I spent hours on my screened-in porch reading and playing with the puppy. I came back to 80 messages in my inbox (most from the NY Times and Ann Taylor Loft).

Fortunately, I did get a silver lining: The woman who I hoped would take another year of maternity leave is indeed doing so, so I get to stay. This helps a lot, although things are still up in the air for the year after that. We'll see what happens, but it makes me feel a lot more secure to know I have a job next year. Clutch heart, laugh with relief.

I have so many terrific Penny pics I need to post and fun stories to tell--it's all on its way, promise!

I will say one cool thing: For the past two days I've slowly prepared the students for reading Macbeth by teaching them about Elizabethan language. I have them write their own conversations, teach them some "thee" and "thy" pronouns and a few fun Shakespearean words, and then have them rewrite the sentences. So, I'm getting a lot of "How wast thy break?" "Cool. How about thou?", but what do I care? They're getting it. The best happened yesterday when they broke up into groups and I handed each of them a weirdly worded Shakespeare sentence with each word on a different index card. They then had to put the sentence together. They all came up with something slightly different but still Shakespearean, and they friggin' loved it. I loved seeing them so excited about making a sentence. They even asked for more! How much better does it get? Who knows if they'll have the same thrill once we get into the real play, but I'll just keep looking back on this as a good day.

Question: Who was your favorite teacher and why?