"Neither rain, nor snow, nor EARTHQUAKE..."

I've seen my share of dedicated students, but Friday's events displayed a dedication I did not think I would ever witness.

We had our mandatory routine earthquake drill Friday. I knew it was coming and expected the announcement at precisely 10:00. Then I would give the students their vocabulary quizzes and we could get on with all our important learning for the day. As the minutes ticked by, I was helping them review--I could not stand that students were being cheated out of their educational time. After about six minutes, I could no longer stand it, and I passed out the tests. A few minutes later, the announcement came, and the students dutifully climbed under their desks to await fake destruction. After the initial excitement of the new seating arrangement wore off, students became bored, and I noticed a few of them reaching above them to their desk tops and pulling their tests to the floor. They were so motivated to learn that they could wait no longer! I commented on their dedication, and upon hearing my amazement, all the students followed suit and were taking their quizzes on the floor.

Some more cynical readers may comment that students were in a hurry to finish their quizzes before they forgot the information; however, I choose to believe they were prepared to work, even through a natural disaster, because they know how important their education is :).

Wow! This is going to be an INCREDIBLE semester!

The beginning of a new semester is generally an exciting time--at least for me. I am the type of person who LOVES the first day of school. Shopping for supplies makes me happy :)  I also like meeting new groups of students and outlining all the books we're going to read, the projects we're going to do, and the writing we're going to tackle. The best part is the sigh of relief I hear from the students when I tell them that is all doable and that we are going to get through this semester together.

On the first day of school I told the students about our blogging project. I provided very general information about the purpose--composing a thematic, purposeful, and creative set of postings that would interest readers and last throughout the semester. I asked them to begin thinking about what their themes might be and intended to provide specific directions next week so they could begin.

But guess what happened.

On the next day, I had one student show me her blog. She had already decided on her topic and could not wait to begin. I found that another student had already begun posting to the blog on our Ning site--without threats (ha ha). Could any gift be any better than that one for an English teacher? Students who could not wait to begin writing! I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

So, with this much enthusiasm, I am anticipating some great blogs and hope you enjoy experiencing this group's writing exploits.