Gradebook is Empty

Yes. I have two different piles of homework to grade. One test. One essay from Writing assessments. But I had a great day! My lesson today consisted of a powerpoint (informational) and a class discussion (knowledge-building). My class discussed the fact that the United States is 5% of the World's population, yet we use 25% of the oil consumed. The kids were shocked to find that nothing in the room around them was made without oil. Even their very bodies - fed from food shipped and produced with oil energy. I didn't mean to scare any of them, but we all had some serious criticism of the American lifestyle. Their suggested solutions to major world problems were admirable, but inconsequential. I got them thinking, and I loved the sight of it.

Tomorrow, however, I'm not sure what we'll work on. We burned through two days' worth of assignments in one class period. Tomorrow I need to either give them a new article to read, or do vocab practice and summary skills.

I am not sure why they asked us to give a writing assessment and then not provide time to grade it. I am struggling right now with communication between my coteacher and I. Without blaming her, the truth is that I am taking on all the work myself. Even my vice principal has ordered me to put her to work. In her words, "you have two highly-paid professionals in your room: get them working with the kids."

Today we did parallel teaching. I liked that I got to hear from every student in my small group. I disliked that we ended up in different spots when we got back together. Instead of giving the rest of the worksheet as homework to the group that was behind, I just said "we'll go over it tomorrow." So, I intend to have the kids teach each other what they learned in small group. Haha! Less work for me.

Now I gotta go grade these papers *grumble*