Two Weeks and Counting

There are two weeks of school left.  Surprisingly enough, this past week actually went by kind of fast. Of course, at this time of year, I try to keep the schedule jam-packed in order to keep up the momentum.  Here's how my students and I spent the week:

• All of my classes are reading folktales.  This is always a fun end of year activity as this is an amusing, yet thought provoking genre.  In order to keep things equitable, I generally choose folktales from around the globe.
• The eighth grade students visited State University today.  This is an annual trip sponsored by the county ESOL office and as usual was a big hit.  My school is located only about ten minutes from State University, yet is a world away.  The students returned to school excited about going to college after high school.  The university's shuttle bus picked us up this year and brought us to campus, which was a new, yet pleasant addition to this year's trip.
• It turned out that some of the county's high school graduations were taking place on the campus of State University today.  Since the superintendent had time in between graduations, he stopped by and paid us a visit during our tour.  The students (and I) were impressed that such an important person would take the time to seek us out.  The superintendent encouraged the students to continue to embrace being bi-lingual and then consider working for the school district after they finish their education.  Hopefully, the students will remember and take heed to his message.
• My students will continue to read folktales next week. To wrap up, they will create and present their own folktales.  Since it was recently decreed that the laptop cart will be housed in my classroom for the remainder of the school year, the students will be creating their folktales using Google Drive.  This will give them one last time to practice using this program before they depart for the summer.