So the 2008 - 2009 school year is officially under way. I have been thoroughly impressed with my students so far this year- and I can't believe how nice it is to teach the same grade for a second year in a row. I actually have a vision of where we are going and what I can expect from these kiddos! This year's class has 23 students: 13 guys and 10 gals. So far we seem to work well together and they know who is boss :)

The Recess Bell...obviously.

Today we were prepping for a test on our weather unit. For 2 weeks we have been conducting experiments that prove that 1) Air is a Substance and 2) Air is related to many weather phenomena. My favorite discussion is the one concerning clouds. Something that I did not recall from the material I learned in elementary school or for that matter high school. How about you? Can you name each cloud? Possible answers: cumulus cloud, cirrus cloud, fog, and stratus cloud. Bonus Question- which is the only cloud to touch the surface of the earth?

Anyway- to review the weather material, we played a version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" The kids thought it was 'so cool' and 'really cool' that we could listen to the 10 seconds of music every time we chose the correct answer. To be fair we had already written the homework down and packed our backpacks before we congregated on the carpet around my computer screen. So when my lil' Atokad* was sitting down, standing up, kneeling, leaning over to poke his neighbor to of course tell him something vital, standing back up and pacing to the other end of the room and back- was still partially listening to the questions (or music, to which one I am not sure...) and participating I was feeling somewhat effective by using the time to prep for the weather test. The majority of my students were riveted to what would happen after the next mouse click. We were nearly to the end of the game, when a semi-hush fell over the crowd...just in time for everyone to hear when Atokad pronounced with such enthusiasm-

"Holy Crap! We're almost to a million!"

...which of course is the whole point of the activity.