Hi again. It’s been awhile, I know. The reason why is because I did indeed have to stay in the class mentioned in the last post. So, we are now in Week 4 and I am reading Book 6. They’re not that hard, and some have been extremely good. I am learning a lot about a genre I really knew little about before. Today we got a break, of sorts; we didn’t discuss the current book(s) (for some selections, we get a choice of 2 or 3 titles) and watched the film Princess Mononoke instead. So now I have time to finish the book that I was trying to finish today!

My cooperating teacher (the one whose classroom I’m taking over for student teaching) called this morning and asked me for a 2-3 line “bio.” Apparently, the principal likes to share these things in the school newsletter. I just thought, how sweet… I’m being introduced.

Back to the class… we have to keep a notebook in there, in which we write responses to each of the books, focusing on some literary element like plot, character, theme, etc. We also have to find articles and reviews about the books and interviews with the authors, and comment on them. Nothing difficult, just a little time-consuming. Well, we just had our first notebook check, over the first three books. We got our notebooks back today, and this is how the professor began her comments to me:

“You write beautifully, Jason, with a clear, concise, to-the-point style that is full of well-turned phrases. Thank you for that. It made your notebook a joy to read.”

Altogether now… Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

The professor in my methods of teaching English classes told me my journal responses were in their own league, “so far ahead” of the rest of the class– and these are all future English teachers in there.

Well, even great writers have to catch trains, so I will leave this for now… discuss among yourselves…