First Socratic Seminar of the Year (9th grade)

The week has gotten better. I attempted my first Socratic Seminar of the year with my 9th graders. I started small - 10 kids on the inside, using the passage when Scout comes home from school all upset and Atticus makes the compromise with her and tells her to walk around in other people's skin.

It went really well. Even my squirrelly 6/7th period did alright. My 2nd period was dynamic; that class might be one for the ages. Unfortunately, one of the stars of the class, and one of the stars of the seminar, got in a big old fight right after class in the cafeteria. Sigh... She's suspended until the new year. She's definitely one of my projects this year, a girl with a blazing intelligence and desire to do well in the classroom, but you can see a pull tugging on her, you can see it tattooed on her forearm with a tattoo that her mother just let her get (yes, I'm judging - that's not something a 14-year old should have), and you can see it in actions like this.

Cheering me up from that was a message sitting in my inbox tonight: Mr.______, i LOVE open discussion. I like taking my thoughts of the paper and putting them into a educated statement. It's so fun, and i think you can see that my classmates and I understand more! I'm so enthralled by it. Can we do that more often?:)

Awwww. And this girl is no teacher's pet, either - failed first quarter, currently failing 2nd quarter. Yup, I'm going to bed happy.