Greetings and Readings

We are off to a great start in room 212 at J.M. We spent the first week getting to know each other and the class expectations. Students wrote letters to themselves and even wrote biopoems describing who they were. I'm so excited to have such wonderful students this year! I feel a great sense of enthusiasm, natural ability, and great potential. Thanks to everyone who shared a little bit of who they were with me so far.

We jumped right into the genre of short stories and read 3 from around the world. They included "Before the Law" by Franz Kafka (Czech Republic), "The Princess and All the Kingdom" by Par Lagerkvist (Sweden), and "The Censors" by Luisa Valenzuela (Argentina). We explored the concepts of theme, plot, and characterization.

Already we are diving into our first novel called The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, and we are eager to see what Ponyboy gets into next...

Until the next chapter, keep up the good work!