The Usual Chaos

Dear English III, Thank you for your recent letters.  I cannot express how much I enjoy reading your honesty, your kindness, and your requests.  I sincerely appreciate that you were willing to share your thoughts and ideas with me.  Thank you. To begin, I am thrilled by the number of you who are ready to read!  Some of you are regular readers, some relieved to return to reading, others highly reluctant.  Either way, you seem happy to have the daily moment to indulge and pick up some of that "free homework" stuff I've been telling you about.  Not only does this make my teacher heart happy, but it makes me excited about all the stories we can share and styles we can learn from this semester!  It also reminds me to read faster so I can get to your suggestions! Additionally, I am impressed by your revisions.  You used some strong, interesting words to begin with.  Then, when it seemed it couldn't improve, you crossed your first thought out ...

A few days ago, I walked into a conversation between my 9 year old, Ian, and my 6 year old, Emily.   "School is EPIC, Ian!" "Emily, I know that.  That's not what I'm talking about!" I also do not know what they were talking about, but I was astounded by how it was not even questioned that school is an incredible place to be!  They were so casual, and it was obvious that school could be nothing other than cool. They do go to a remarkable school, Degan Elementary.  They can't wait for Eagle Shuffle and Club Fridays, and they adore their teachers.  Adore them. So what happens when they advance to high school?  Will my babies lose that love?  Will school decline in epicness?  The thought makes me sad.  But I see it.  I see it in my juniors who are distracted by the drama of life - the real kind like working to help the family survive or caring for an ill parent or worrying about their own health.  I see my tutoring kids who fe...