The First Day of School

So, today was the first day of school, and I survived. My feet hurt, but that is about the only injury I suffered. In all honesty, I had a great time at school today. I met all 8 classes of students (4 reading, 1 Global Perspectives, and 3 AICE English Language A). Highlights of the Day: 1. I got some students to check out books for independent reading. It may not seem like a lot, but the first day is where--especially in the reading classes--kids are feeling each other out. Once the first student got up and asked for a book others soon followed. Some titles that got checked out: Divergent, Insurgent, Smoke, Matched, Crossed, Ashfall, Unwind, and Crank. 2. We got right to work in the Language class, and I must say I think it was a cool way to start them thinking about language, language choices, context, purpose, and how language changes. About a week ago, I came across an article in the Huffington Post about what people were calling a "terrible" Toyota minivan ad. I watched it, and it was perfect to think about how pop culture makes its way into our lexicon. So, I showed three versions of minivan ads by Toyota: 2006, 2013, and 2015. Then we had a brief discussion (time was running out) about what words made their way into the ads and why. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xkGJx16kqs (2006) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKXPBnMzT1s (2013) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/03/busta-rhymes-swagger-wago_n_5645838.html (2015)