We have been back at work for four days now, and I have started using the ENY lesson plans. It has been interesting, and by that I do not mean "interesting." Here are my thoughts in no particular order.

1. It took a while to get into things. I didn't have the actual books until Friday, so I was tapdancing a little for the first few days. That was OK because there was plenty to do with getting to know the kids etc. It was very exciting to have the books show up and get them all labeled and numbered etc. because I was sure these were books that the kids would enjoy. Percy Jackson is bound to be a hit, and "A Long Walk to Water" is going to be a mind-blower for my 7th graders. I was grateful for 8th graders needing community service hours who did all the labeling and numbering.

2. The idea that I get to teach a Percy Jackson book is a little surprising to me. I consider them to be 4th grade reading level, and I have 6th graders. So much for rigor.

3. I made a lot of copies, as predicted. I spent much of Thursday trying to figure out exactly what I needed to copy, printing out originals and then using the trusty Duplo machine.

4. It is much more difficult to teach from someone else's lesson plans than to teach from your own. It was tough to figure out what exactly I was supposed to do for the lessons. They are written with optimistic times for each element of the lesson. I skipped over some bits, and added more time to others.

5. It is nice to have someone else do the thinking for the lessons, even though they are difficult to figure out.

6. This is not that different from the old core literature teaching that I did waay back when in 1988. The big difference is the addition of non-fiction pieces to add to the literature, and the level of questions that the kids have to answer.

7. I assume that the idea behind starting with an easier book is to ease the kids into the concepts and skills involved with material that is more easily comprehensible. I do know that the 6th graders are about to be hit with a more difficult non-fiction article.

8. I am fortunate not to have an adminstration that is looking over my shoulder at every turn and questioning my decisions. If I did this would be much more stressful. That is not a CCSS issue though, that is a district policy and leadership issue.