Another weekend has come and gone, and sadly it was nowhere near long enough. I spent at least half of it sick with a stomach virus that's been going through my students. Thankfully, though, I seem to have avoided the worst of it.

Last week was a pretty frustrating week, and it was really easy to get fixated on those frustrations, but when I forced myself to decompress, I was able to focus on the bright spots from the week. We started our first essay topic, and my kids actually like the topic I picked. In fact, a few other ELA teachers have asked me to share it with them, as well. For the classes that made it past the initial task of choosing a setting, I got to really see their creativity for the first time this school year. It was truly the best part of my week.

We're going to finish up our novel this week, which I'm excited for. It's been a mixed bag with all of my classes, with one class really getting into it and giving me the discussions I was aiming for and one not being invested at all. But I'm not that worried about if they didn't enjoy it, because it would be literally impossible for me to choose one book that fit every students' interests. We're also wrapping up our folktales unit, which I've enjoyed immensely) and moving on to a unit that will focus pretty heavily on conflict and motivation. I'm not super excited about the particular short story that's included with this one (I feel like it's overrated), but at this point I don't have another that I'd rather do instead.

In other news, Chris and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. It was very low-key, just dinner out at our favorite steakhouse. I'm planning on doing a few 10 year anniversary posts this month, so stay tuned for those!

That's going to wrap it up for me. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!