Middle Schoolers like Batman and Bacon

Courtesy of Death to Stock Photo

"Once upon a time, Batman ate a lizard and a [noun I can't remember]. He got sick and he went to the mall and had a ginger-ale. The bacon consumed Batman. A man pounded the bacon... To be continued" 

Apparently, 7th graders love Batman and Bacon, as they composed the above short story in class. Today, I got to meet all my students in 7th and 8th grade and talk about what we'll be learning in writing class this year! I'm not gonna lie; I was more nervous than the adolescent bird we found in our carport, but the day went pretty smoothly and I'm feeling better now that I've met the students.

The first class was difficult because 5/6 students were ten minutes late, so I had that awkward moment making small chit-chat with the one student in my class. Then, I made a spur-of-the moment executive decision to deviate from my notes and not talk extensively about the class rules (a mistake I will not make in the future), so I ran through my content for today's lesson so quickly, I had 8 minutes left to spare! To be truthful, I would've panicked if I hadn't thought of a game to play while sitting in on the math class just prior to mine. So, to fill time, we wrote the above story about Batman and Bacon together, one word at a time. I am most proud of the words "ginger-ale," "consumed," and "pounded" because those were the moments where I encouraged the kids to give me a quality noun and strong verbs. They are already off to a great start!

The bacon theme continued in my second class when I asked my students to tell me their name, favorite food, and highlight of the summer. Both the boys listed bacon as their favorite foods! This second class was much easier because I learned from my first mistake! "I have one rule in my classroom," I told them, "and that is respect.
"Scripture calls us to respect God, respect authority, and respect one another. What are some ways that we do this in the classroom?"

Bam. Hands raised, and my 8th graders knew all the right answers and that was that. We talked about what we would be learning over the year, reviewed MLA format for all of our assignments, and even discussed some of the "extra credit" projects that would be available. I gave them their first assignment to turn in on the first day of school--just 2-3 paragraphs about themselves so I can get to know them better. I'm looking forward to reading what they write!

After my classes were finished, I lingered around the school a little to observe classes and collaborate with the other literature/writing teacher on assignment topics. The more I get into this, the more my nerves dissipate and I start to think, "This is going to be a great year!"