Assigning vocab would have been so much easier!

What happened to the days when I could pass out a vocabulary list and assign a short story and the questions following it, and then sit at my desk to grade the quizzes from the previous story while my students completed their assigned tasks in relative peace and quiet? That scene has been replaced by lessons so much more valuable. This past week really brought that home to me.

Our students finished their projects, practiced them one last time, and made their first presentations to "outsiders" on Wednesday. While I know the students were anxious about standing up and talking in front of strangers, I found myself experiencing anxiety as well! I must say that I was proud of them for their performances. Even though no one pulled off an AMAZING presentation, they conquered their fear of speaking in front of a group and worked as teams to present their ideas.

On Thursday, we stressed over completing the first writing benchmark and moving on to answering some questions concerning their project experience. We asked the students some pretty tough questions such as:

• "What did you learn about yourself during this project and presentation?"


• "What would you have to change to make yourself more successful next time?"


• "What could your group have done differently to be more successful?"

Then, on a Friday nonetheless, we tackled the job of sharing their responses as a means of "debriefing" about their experience. Let me just say that after today, I definitely need a week off! The students were very honest which led on more than one occasion to the mood in the room becoming very emotional. Mrs. Gouzd even had to take one group to another room to allow them to continue their discussion of how they felt they worked together. She said that when they sat down, one of the young men said that they should begin by each sharing their feelings about what had happened. He continued to "run the session" much like a counselor or mediator would have. In the end, they decided that they'd like another chance to work together on a project. We had a team member publicly apologize to his teammate for monopolizing the presentation. Over and over we saw freshmen behaving in a manner mature way beyond their years.

This maturity was evident again when each team was given their scores and asked to determine how to divide the points among the members according to how much each contributed. Some teams agreed that everyone contributed equally, and therefore, the points should be divided equally among them. However, more than once I heard teenagers say, "You really did more work than I did, so I think you should get more points than I do."

While passing out vocab assignments would be less stressful (and easier to put in Edline!), I am so glad that I have been part of seeing how much our students have grown in just a little over 12 weeks, and I'm so looking forward to the messy business of watching them grow and mature through the remainder of the year.