Truthfully, I went searching for information on classroom ideas, and I realized that while there were many blogs about Elementary and even High School, but Middle School seemed to be left out of the loop. Especially when it came to ELA teachers.

You’ll also find that I do try to cover different trends with teaching reading and writing to middle school. Middle school is its own animal, so to speak. Elementary is cute and high school is more elevated, but middle school requires a special type of teacher. Plus, these days, finding ways to engage middle school students in the middle of the “Skibbidi Ohio Toilet Rizz Tuesday Tuesday So Sigma” era of slang can be challenging as well.

For that, I offer my blog.

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Is it really December already? Where did November go?

This has been such a fast paced school year. Much of it has been due to the fact that I’ve dealt with a medical issue and have had medical tests and procedures each month.

But December? 2021 is almost over?

I was so ready for Thanksgiving break. I needed Thanksgiving break. The students needed it. Now we only have 2 weeks before we have another break.

I don’t know about your school or your district, but our school district has decided that students will take their Winter MAP tests today and Monday. I’m not ready for the students to test, but I also know that we have Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) that are due in the middle of December.

Before long, we will hit the downhill slide toward the end of the school year. I’m ready for that. I’m ready for the fast pace between January and June. I’m ready to push past this school year due to the medical issues that have overshadowed this school year. June means that I have a chance to focus on my self care and not just being in survival mode.

I don’t think I have mentioned before about my illness, but it has been something that has consumed most of my time since January. I started getting sick and having a lot of abdominal pain. Over the course of months, I went from starting my day with nausea and vomiting to fighting back those same feelings all day. I’ve seen 5 doctors and no one has found the cause. The only thing that they did find was a lesion on my liver that has to be monitored for growth from here on out. Lucky me. Because of this, I’m ready for June. June means another test (of liver), and then I can rest for the summer.

So how about instead of dreaming of Winter break, we dream of summer. It’s coming. You know it is.

The post December, already? appeared first on Teaching ELA in the Middle.