I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March.  You should do it too!  Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!

You haven’t been to school for a week, so you know you have to go to your mailbox. You tear yourself away from grading late work and walk down to the main office.

Some days your mailbox is empty, but not today! The book order catalogs are spilling out! There are two packs of papers from the print shop, and an interoffice envelope. You carefully balance the heap in your arms and walk back to your classroom on the other side of the building.

Once in your room, you put the book order magazines away for April, and open one of the envelopes. What you find makes you smile.

What a gift to get this right after your inspirational weekend at Teacher’s College. You can’t wait to dig into this resource. Of course,  your first job will be to put your post-it note tabs in. You wonder what strategies in this book might help your students with their current literary essay work. Excited, you put the book in your schoolbag to take home.

Turning your sights on the packages from the print shop, you wonder what you might have ordered. As soon as you start to tear the plastic open you know. What a let down. Going from Teachers College inspiration to Jennifer Serravallo is natural and exciting. The voyage to PSSA test prep leaves more to be desired.

Piling the practice Text Dependent Analysis  on the corner of your desk, you sigh. You know you want your students to be successful and not stressed out during the upcoming PSSAs. You know that testing is a genre you need to review.

But, blah blah blah to that!  You definitely know you wish you didn’t need to do this. It’s just not very inspirational!