Today in my ESOL placement, I thought about blogging just about all day. I had an urge to blog while I was there, and I kept looking for topics in which I could write about as soon as I made it home. Needless to say, I did not write them down…but I think if I just begin to write about my day, the thoughts may come back. Today was a bit more productive. I was able to watch more ESOL students and even help out in the classroom. We observed two 7th grade math classes, including the one with the student who currently speaks very little English. It was interesting to see the bilingual student she had been paired with go over every step with her. They got along well, and the Spanish speaking student seems very able to do the work.

I hope I am not stepping over the line with blogging about the students in my placements. I only plan to mention positive behaviors and other things that interest me. I will not be spreading rumors, badmouthing teachers or students, giving out names, etc…so I’m pretty sure this is okay. I don’t think anyone in my town reads my blog anyway, as there’s not a direct way to link me to anything offline/personal from this site. Which reminds me, when I become a teacher, I plan to make my MySpace, Twitter, and other social networking sites private. Not because I have anything to hide, but I don’t want just anyone to have access to it at that point. Think I’m being paranoid?

Back to the issue of blogging, I really want to get a new theme up for the site. I want something sophisticated and teacher-y (new word ) I have put the idea of getting a .nu domain, and I am just going to concentrate on making this a better blog instead. First, I have to get a theme I enjoy viewing, then I’ll worry about writing frequent blog posts with some read-worthy content. I’m also going to start back with replying to comments. I think it’s nice to acknowledge when someone has taken the time to read a post and get their opinion/advice. I had previously been doing this, but have slacked lately. Sarah’s tweet a few days ago reminded me I should be a better blogger!

Wednesday was my first day of field placement. I am doing 2 weeks of a middle school ESOL class and 2 weeks of a high school ESOL class, which will help me earn my ESOL endorsement. After that, I’ll be doing my Kindergarten placement (which I cannot wait for!). The middle school ESOL observations are going okay, given the fact that the school I was assigned to has no ESOL teacher at the moment. I’ve been observing the lead special education teacher, which is where the ESOL students have been lumped into for the time being. There are very few children there that cannot speak a word of English, and those kids are usually paired up with a bilingual student.

Last night, James and I went to the football game of the new high school here in town. It’s the school my brother is going to. They haven’t finished the construction on the school yet, so right now, it’s just a 9th and 10th grade school housed in the old middle school (which has a new building in a different part of town). Because there are only 2 grades, they only have a Junior Varsity team. It was a nice change to see them win last night. The other high school (the one I went to) hasn’t had many wins since I graduated.

Since I haven’t blogged in a few days, I have forgotten yet again all the things that I was going to say. I hate that, especially when I have a lack of writing topics to blog about in the first place! I am going to utilize my Blackberry’s notepad feature, and put in any blog-worthy topics throughout the day. I also have the WordPress for Blackberry app up and running, so if I really cannot wait to blog, I can do so on the run.