Great! I covered that well in response to the preceding question.

Yesterday, Stephen Hogg observed my class. He was as unobtrusive as both Grasshopper Kids and he had promised. Afterward, Stephen was quite complimentary. I gave the students a series of prompts and readaloud opportunities. The reliables I'd recognized in preceding weeks did very well, showing even more proficiency than before. A couple others vastly improved their engagement and writing output.

Really enjoyed it!

Today, we played American football the whole time. Because the class is called Wide World of Sports, we want to try a variety. One boy, Bao, did not know how to play, but we all brought him along together, which was a good life lesson for the students, and Bao played well once he understood the rules and strategy.

Just fine!

Today, the students jogged a couple laps around the small turf field, then we sat in a circle and stretched. We played sharks and minnows and ran relay races. Then we played soccer on the small turf field until the bigger kids vacated the larger field that has the real soccer goals. A few students also wanted to play American football, so we did that as well.

The class went fine for me. More students were more engaged and cooperative today than in last week's class.

Today I gave the students prompts to write paragraphs about what they did last week that was fun (in any part of their lives) and to write a paragraph about something they learned in the last week (also in any part of their lives). After each of those exercises, the students who wanted to read their paragraphs aloud. I called out the strengths of their work, praising them for good grammatical structure, depth of explanation, original voice, and humor. The last exercise referred to material I had written on the whiteboard to help guide them in developing a character that they will be able to use and develop in stories in our future classes together.

Class was great. These older students showed a ton of personality and were highly active and interactive.

Sat in a circle for introductions, stretched, played soccer

Class went great. Students were cooperative. We had a blast.

Sat in a circle for introductions, jogged a few laps for warmups, stretched, ran relay races, played soccer

Class went very well. Staff were prompt and accommodating. It was a big help to be able to talk to staff by phone the day before the class to make sure logistics were in order and to gain insight into student capabilities, such as their predominantly reading below grade-level standards

I gave the students prompts and asked for their replies in writing. The prompts were a long the lines of "Tell us about your family." And, "What do you want to do when you grow up and why." Students then read their answers aloud unless they preferred not to. If something in their read-alouds struck me, I praised them. Sometimes that praise was for grammar, vocabulary, uniqueness of voice, including emotion, including detail beyond what I asked.

I struggled a bit with the disorganization at the beginning of my time at the school. For example, attendance-taking was inefficient. It was totally understandable, as they were having their back to school night. Jessica, the Grasshopper Kids coordinator, was very helpful, and once the actual class activities started, things went smoothly.

I led the K-3 students in a series of stretches and some bodyweight exercises. Then we went outside for various activities, such as basketball, playing catch with a football, and jumping rope. Most of the students were more knowledgeable and skilled at the activities than I expected. Some showed great enthusiasm, too.