HOLY COW…I happily typed up some adventures and saved them as drafts because I couldn’t upload pictures.  Today I go to add those pictures and nada.  Sometimes writing is an adventure but that is not what this blog is about.

This is the blog…………………

image retrieved from http://www.idahokidsread.org

I am teaching summer school (yeah Trish we know that) and have this group of kids that won’t smile or laugh at my jokes. I know you have been reading my blogs and remember that too. Well this class of kids has driven me to prayer. The kids from the two different schools won’t talk to each other. I intentionally have them play learning games where the kids from the different schools have to talk and it is the quietest time of the class. They just stand around and look at each other awkwardly.

Add to that the kids from my regular year class are being  bad.  In the back of my mind I’m kind  of thinking I wouldn’t want to talk to you either. I’m not a giver upper but I have contemplated never teaching summer school ever again.

Then today happened. Every day we have to read a passage for one minute and the kids count how many words they read in a minute.  They love it! Usually they increase by one or two words a day. Or if there is a decrease it is because they are reading clearer.  Sometimes ELL kids don’t get that enunciation thing right away.  So one of the kids reads and he gets 16o words or something like that today.  7 class days ago he was at 90.  So I ask him if he read slower because he felt shy.  He said no that was a sincere reading the first time he was doing his best. No lying I started crying! I tried to keep my cool but my mind kept saying “this is why you do this.”  This kid almost doubled his reading ability in 7 (3 hour session) classes.  For the second time in one day the entire class went silent. What was really cool was after that the rest of the class started reading and doing their work and showing me they were learning too.

This has to be what those people feel like when they reach the top of  Mount Kilamannjaro.  So I’m counting it as an adventure.