back at migrant school

went this morning i went back to work with students at west ottawa's migrant summer school. it's the final time this summer, as school's over wednesday.

i worked with second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. and some middle school kids. it was a lot of shifting gears, from one class to another.

with the younger students, i interviewed the teacher and pretended i was writing a story. i let the kids ask questions and many asked interesting questions. it was enjoyable. sometimes it's hard for me to teach at that level to little kids, but they were cool.

next, i went to the middle school classroom and worked with sixth and seventh graders. i had some of the students read their articles to me. i was surprised at how good they were as writers. each had his or her individual voice in there. it was awesome. what made it more interesting was how all were working from the same story. each took his or her own take on it.

finally i went to stph's class. also included were fourth graders. it was a short lesson, but i talked about being a reporter, revising, drafts and we even pulled up a story i wrote for today's paper. some of the kids had heard about it (a shooting ina mobile home park).

it was a great day for teaching. and learning.