Welcome back

What a great start to the year. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the class of 2013 today and meeting those of you who were able to come into the classroom today.  It feels good to be back. Things that made me go 'aah' were: seeing the students sitting at their desks chatting 15 minutes before the bell was due to ring for class; noting that most students were attempting to share their ideas, opinions and answers during discussions (we discussed the concept of people not contributing being  'baggage' that the rest of the class had to carry); appreciating the efforts and creative results of their work; enjoying our 'snowball' fight (yes, in summer!) and learning about the students' likes and dislikes as we tried to guess who had written on each snowball; seeing 6 students voluntarily come into class to complete unfinished work at lunchtime!

We are in the process of setting up our class economy at present.  The students will be asking advice as to what to put on their job description and asking you to write a short referee's report for them. Once their applications are completed, I will go through and appoint students to jobs appropriate to their interests and abilities to carry them out.  They are very excited about the prospect of earning money and being able to take part in the two auctions (mid and end of year).
Once the job vacancies have been filled this blog will be updated by a journalist and photographer. I am sure their posts will be much more interesting than this one!
Ka kite ano
Teressa