End of Year Redux (Part 2)

As part of my end of year survey I wanted to know what things went well, and what didn't. I asked for two things that the kids liked, and one thing they might change. Here are some of the results, and some quick thoughts.

What Went Well?
--Using the netbooks/technology was universally liked. We used them on a near daily basis for research, typing, project creation.
--Lots of reading. Most mentioned enjoying our novel study, book clubs, or 20 Book Challenge.
--Projects. Loyalist/Patriot Speeches, Designing a County, Evaluating Explorers.
--Our issue research (CBA). Kids enjoyed researching a topic and then making a presentation that advocated for people to do something.
--Having choices. I let kids sit where they wanted (unless they made poor choices/negative learning choices), choose their presentation format, and read books of their choice. Big hit.
--Memoir/Memory Writing. Kids liked being able to reflect on their time, and write with feeling about it.

Quick thought 1: None of this information is groundbreaking. I expected these to be common themes. We stuck with them because of the enthusiasm kids had for the various projects, and typically worked hard to wrap up in a reasonable timeframe so that we didn't burn out (see the next session for more on this).

Quick thought 2: I need to find a way to leverage my technology time so that it isn't necessarily about using new toys or tools. If I can integrate them earlier on in short projects (not necessarily integrated), then it will shorten some of the time needed for the projects. Part of the project time was spent teaching the tool since many of the kids hadn't used Audacity or Photostory at all (or much) previously.

What Could Be Done Differently?
--Extended deadlines. Deadlines approached and toppled some of my kiddos that work slower.
--More writing. Yep, more writing.
--More projects/technology/presentations.
--More than 20 book challenge/different novel study books

Quick thought 1: The extended deadlines was an expected piece of feedback. I have wrestled with this issue before- how long to go since you have the vast majority of kids that are done and others are not even close? I know I need to do a better job of making modifications to help those kids ensure that projects are done in a timely fashion (and well, with the content understanding).

Quick thought 2: Writing sometimes ends up being the odd item out. I embed writing into everything, but the large scale writing projects are often lost. I need to find a way to tie those in around the same time I do novel study- read and then do some writing projects.

More reflections on the school year later.

Missing Assignments

I've always wondered how others approach missing assignments in intermediate grades. Do you follow up the day they return from vacation/sickness? Do you give them time? Do you sometimes let it go?

In our electronic grade book I have some items where students have missed assignments. You have the option to mark it so it doesn't count, a common occurrence for me. Typically I'll follow up with students when they return. Sometimes, often on longer assignments, these get lost in the shuffle. Why? The missing 1-3+ days makes getting the writing or research done difficult, particularly if we moved on. What is then more important, the assignment or the instruction?

Sometimes people use recess time. I get that. I often choose not to go that route. They weren't sick because they wanted to be, and they are kids. They need fresh air and time to socialize with friends. If it is a multiday assignment and they are dragging, do we want to do the dance of getting it done because it should? Could we instead bag it because it is benefitting no one?! I lean towards the latter.

Memoirs

As we start to wrap up the year, we have begun our end of 5th grade memoirs. In many ways these are a series of vignettes that encompass moments in their elementary lives. We started them on our last field trip- an all day outdoor experience in Carnation. It was a rather auspicious start.

I'm trying to get them away from listing events from all grades. In the past I've seen this done where kids write about most grade levels, including who they had and what they remember. Often it seems like very little, and lacks feeling. Instead I want them to write about 3 (or more) events in detail, starting with a zoomed out lead in and zooming into that moment that was important. This will yoyo between out and in as they transition between moments. The effect should provide a glimpse into the moments that were meaningful, including how kids felt and what they were thinking.

In the little bit that we have worked on this I've seen kids gradually get moving. After listing events they pick one, often remembering far more than you would imagine. They pick out who they were with, how they felt, and the atmosphere before/during/and after. The smiles as kids talk through moments are heartwarming.

For me this is the payoff. It brings the kids back I center as they get set to leave the comfortable confines of their soon-to-be-former academic home. It gives them a chance to think about where they came from before they find out who they will become. I hope the writing itself will be something they will remember.

Being Inspired to Write

Writing was never my greatest interest. In fact, literacy as a whole was never really something I enjoyed. Throughout my career as a student, literacy was my weakest area. I preferred math (and PE!). Somewhere along the line the switch was flipped though- I'd venture it was when I began working at a bookstore (the now defunct Borders). You mean I can take any book I want from the store, using it like my library?! Brilliant!

Quite obviously being a reader can translate into inspiration to write. Many of my students that love reading also enjoy writing, and are often quite skilled. Why? My guess would be that they've been exposed to writing that they enjoy, and are willing to attempt something similar. They've been provided with inspiration to write.

I've struggled to find the time to read over the last two months. Having a two month old has led to a significant decrease in available time. Reading? Perhaps some student work. Books? Not so much. Coincidentally, or not, my own writing has tapered off. Some of that is connected to my decrease in time. But I'd also posit that it can be connected to reading far less. I'm not reading blogs as much as I was. Not reading kid lit as much as I was. That has left me without the inspiration to really get going and blogging.

Going forward what do I do? I need to read more. That starts this weekend with kid writing. 75 student writing prompts should provide significant cause to write. At least that is what I hope.

Writer's/Reader's/Social Scientist's notebook

Currently I use one notebook for writing, reading, and social studies. In many ways it is far from ideal. Why do I do it? Largely because of the structure of our rotations where my responsibility is literacy. One hour of literacy as fast as you can! Again, it isn't really enough but it is what we have (we also do an hour of mag and an hour of science). I will add that it has worked for us.

This year my journals have been divided into two parts. The front is for social studies content (and writing about social studies since it is embedded). The back is for reading of fiction, the stuff that really isn't US History- novel study etc. Next year I think I am going to do it differently. I will divide it into three parts: 1) social studies 2) word study and/or warmup work and 3) novel study. We'll use tabs or sticky notes to delineate sections to help keep track of what goes where.

The middle section is still a little fishy. I use Words Their Way to teach Greek and Latin roots. I typically provide 4 roots or prefixes a week, and they will look for words with the root, define them, and look for common patterns. I will continue that. But I also want a section for other vocabulary work, particularly things like misspelled words or adjectives (a big focus of ours). If I make it a section I want to use it... Can I get more out of that space? That is part of what I am thinking about as we start to wind toward the finish.

PhotoStory in Year 2

In my first year I didn't teach kids PhotoStory. I was trying to keep my head above water, and opted for other methods that students could present their work. In year two, particularly once we went 3 to 1 with netbooks, I broke out PhotoStory with the kids. It was mildly successful, although there were some things I needed to do differently. This year I have busted out PhotoStory fairly early on with big dreams of righting some of my previous mistakes.

The Set-Up
We have been reading about a myriad of American Indian Cultural Regions. To me, this presented an opportunity for us to do the following:
1. categorize information (Geography, Natural Resources, Culture, etc)
2. analyze the information for strengths and weaknesses
3. compare and contrast information from different regions

The big question one always have with this sort of thing is: Now what?! I opted to have kids create a PhotoStory persuading others to settle in that region. In doing that, they would need to synthesize all of that information into a persuasive piece.

Differences in Year Two
One of the things I have done differently is providing enough scaffolding leading up to the PhotoStory. Kids need to practice analyzing information in different ways. They need to look for strengths and explain why they are strengths. These can then be used in their PhotoStory. Another change was printing out the storyboard they used. Instead of having kids type into a form I created, I wanted them to be computer-free. This would keep the focus on the narration and content.

The result has been dramatically different (I think...). We aren't finished, but kids are making great strides. They are writing really persuasive pieces that use specific details to describe their assigned region. They are making comparisons that accurately reflect why their region would be more desireable ("Come to the Southwest region where the climate is always warm and dry unlike the Northwest where it rains all the time."). While it is a different cohort, and we aren't done, I'd like to think the scaffolding has helped them be far more successful.

Tomorrow is the day. Yep. We're going to start to examine our writing a little more closely, and start to put it together into a coherent, multi-sentence, sophisticated piece. I will restate the following from yesterday: My kids can write. Where I am taking issue is with the overall sophistication in their work. At times it is more formula than substance, almost checking off the box on the writing checklist instead of really putting feeling into it. That isn't always, nor with all students, but it is certainly an affliction.

Where we'll start tomorrow is with two examples of tackling the same writing prompt they had yesterday. The first will look a little something like the image to the left after it is been put through Wordle. While it looks like quite a few words, phrases and expressions... it really isn't. It follows the formulaic process of "first, then, next." The writing is also riddled with sentences that are a little empty. For example: "I like running because it is outside. Running outside is fun." Does it accomplish the task of writing and explaining your favorite activity? Kinda. Does it tell you much about this favorite activity? Not really. My example mimics some of the prompts I have read (or parts of them).

Now we'll also look at the example to the right, also from Wordle. The first thing that kids will notice is the volume of words by comparison to the first piece. Hmm, why is that? Word choice and sentence variance. If you change up your sentences, and vary your wording you end up with a larger word cloud. Is a larger word cloud better? It certainly can signal more sophisticated writing, even if "really" and "like" are two of my most used words. The beauty of that is conversation is how it naturally brings us to: How did you get there? At that point there real work begins.

We are going to start from their basic structure. We'll use the topic sentence and details. The difference is that we are going to work on explaining those details or making connections to those details... "Awesome, you like running. What is it about it? Being outside? Tell me what that is like...". We're also not going to beat a dead horse. We're going to do this in response to a news article from Time for Kids about transitioning to the dollar coin. Kids will need to say if it is a good thing or bad thing, and why. It seems like a lot, and is... but should be relevant, challenging, and engaging. We'll use Wordle to check our word choice and volume. Finally, we'll post on Communicator and respond to each other. Big undertaking that should be interesting.

Angling Towards the Finish

We're 2.5 weeks out from the finish of the school year. There is quite a bit to accomplish in the coming weeks: 2 sets of assessments, pushed back this late because of state testing; a field trip; a grade level party; grades and comments! This week is going to be tough!

The first order of business is going to be scoring the CBAs. I have scored 11 of the 13 I've received, and plan to finish the other 2 shortly. I'll get the other 52 tomorrow, which means I'll need to budget my time wisely. The upside is that I need to administer the Spring Writing Assessment, which will take 2 days (why two days- I need to have all the kids participate, and I see them for an hour per day... so 2 days!). During those times I'll score CBAs, hopefully getting through all of them by Thursday (13 per day, although likely 5-6 on Monday and 15 per day the other three days).

After the CBA commenting and scoring comes the writing assessment grading. That will take place Friday and over the weekend. The major difficultly in that is the amount of time it takes to read and thoughtfully comment. Checking the writing against the rubric is fairly easy after you've gotten into a groove of 3 or 4. But writing comments is a bear, largely because commenting needs to be specific and useful to the writer. Good job and needs work are too vague to really make an impression. I'll admit that part of me is conflicted because the kids often look at the score and disregard the comments, but that is for an entirely different post.

The last thing I "need" to do is get back to reading kids books. Kid lit is fantastic, and was a huge focus for 3/4 of the year. But I'm more than a little tired. Reading kids books, while enjoyable, reminds me of what I need to do for my kids. That is great... but a little exhausting in June.

Two and a half weeks. Lots of to do. I definitely need to make time count.

To Do List

It is Memorial Day and I'm working. What is on my to do list? Good question.

• Processing receipts for reimbursement- I have an Excel spreadsheet to track all my school expenditures, but I like to double check.


• Reading 65 current event summaries- We had an in class reading/summary current event on the coming end of NASA's shuttle program. Now I need to read, comment, score, and enter into the online gradebook.


• Find a few more resources for some of the CBA topics- some kiddos are coming up empty on the research front, and not because they aren't trying.


• Re-map out this week- I typically map out my weeks a week or more in advance. In this case I need to re-evaluate where we are in our CBA, and what needs to happen in order to be sure we are successful.


• Re-map out next week- Stuff gets pushed around, so I need to see where some of the assessment work needs to be placed in order to make sure it ends up in the gradebook (and on the report card). Assessments include the district writing prompt for Spring, and our Spring Reading Assessment.


• Make a first pass at report card comments- I've got 16 days until report card comments and grades are due... knowing I have writing and reading assessments to score/comment, and CBAs to read/score/comment, I better get cracking.

Not too much. Just enough to keep me busy, right?

Persuade Me

I am in the midst of finishing my pre-American Revolution unit. Kids get a feel for the colonies, what types of jobs are available, and how they were different. Then they get a feel for why the colonists want to split from Great Britain- things like the Stamp Act, the Boston Massacre, and the Boston Tea Party. The last section, before diving into the American Revolution, are some speeches for and against independence.

The oddity of this unit is that the kids know the ending: the colonies split (hooray) and win independence (double hooray). The nitty gritty they don't know, nor do they necessarily need to know in 5th grade (bits for sure). But the broader aspects are where they often hold complete fallacies. For example, most of my kids thought that everyone thought slavery was bad (not true- although I am glad they hold that sentiment now, good starting point). Most thought that a majority of people were patriots wanting independence ("Come'n, who wants to pay taxes on paper items?!").

One of the pieces we are doing is a dual reading/writing one. I had kids pick 1's and 2's, then had one student pick a piece of paper out of a bucket. There were two papers in the bucket, and the one she drew was the side (and other's with her number) needed to represent in a bit of speech writing. Why assigned a side? Well we know how it ends, right? Wouldn't you want to be on the winning side too? The excitement in the room when people were drafted into the loyalist and patriot camp was fantastic. It really set the tone for their research since all of them want to have really persuasive speeches. Hopefully that will carry into this week, and some great work and speeches.

Managing Units of Study

I am a proponent of the Units of Study, and the workshop model. The idea is to give short mini-lessons on strategies and skills that kids can use in authentic settings. During the independent work time you confer with kids, and monitor how successful they are with what you are teaching. You then wrap up with a sharing session that highlights student work, and gives students the opportunity to see student work that is (or approximates) what the lesson intended. Where I have struggled is meshing that together. In a broad sense "Units of Study" is composed of 4-6 books with 16 lessons in each. I can't necessarily teach with "Units..." wholesale. We have other reading materials, and I am also responsible for Social Studies (a literacy rich content area for sure). How do you take a really good resource, and use it while still using the other materials you have? That is where I am trying to spend some energy during this break. A great example is in reading the Units of Study for Writing book entitled "Literary Essays". The idea is to get kids writing about books by analyzing characters, and the author's word choice, therefore living in the shoes of the characters being studied. As I have been reading through it I have seen glimpses of what I already do on a much smaller scale. In my novel study packet I have had kids comparing/contrasting themselves to a character. I've had them analyzing character traits, and explaining why. But what I see in "Units..." that I haven't done is having kids add more of their feeling into their writing. That is one thing "Units.." does exceptionally well. It gets kids to empathize with characters, and pour that onto the page. I haven't stressed that, but have simultaneously hoped for it. I feel silly now, but see it as an opportunity to grow. My wavering on whether to do a third novel study has grown into a resolve to give this a try. I'll likely simplify the process for responding so that they can focus on work on employing some of the new instruction. Definitely excited.

Being Thankful

Monday (and possible Tuesday) I'll be focused on writing instruction. Since we just did our fall writing assessment, I have a few areas that I want to provide some explicit instruction. In particular, we're going to work on expanding the examples we give to support a main idea. Having details isn't really the problem for us as much as going deeper with each.

Part of me feels like it goes back to formulaic writing. You have a main idea, then add a supporting detail meshed in with a transition, maybe a transitional phrase/sentence, then add another detail. Eventually you've layered it so that it appears to be really detailed. Unfortunately the result is that you get a list, and not deep thinking about a particular detail (why it is meaningful to you, why you are writing about it, etc).

Monday we'll be talking about what we are thankful for. But instead of listing 50 different things we are thankful for, we will really look deeply at 1-2. I'm also shifting from the bubble map pre-write to an outline of sorts. Visually this will give kids a better feel for how their writing will flow, and whether each example has enough detail. We'll also focus on making personal connections to these examples, which should add more voice/style. It is tough to have style if you don't make a connection to it (i.e. vivid description, meaningful phrasing, etc). Good way to get us moving into the break.

Integration of Writing

I'm 2/3 the way through our fall writing assessment. As I read, I think about how I need to do more teaching of writing. I need to find ways to integrate it into my social studies/reading block on a more regular basis. While we do quite a bit of writing, I still feel like I need to be more intentional. I need to focus on particular areas: creative topic sentences, conclusions that connect to the topic sentence, transitions (particularly those that don't feel forced), and adding meaningful detail.

The push stems from the formulaic writing that I see. Don't get me wrong, formulaic writing is organized and has its uses. But I want to push my writers to add their collective voices to their writing. It makes me wonder if rubrics push kids towards trying to check another box off instead of creating meaningful and impactful writing.

This has made me rethink the end of my week. After starting into fiction this week, I think we'll do a short piece of writing. What piece? Not sure. That is what the weekend's for.

Helping Roamers

Yesterday I mentioned my issue with off-task behavior in the Writing Workshop. In particular is how I have some kiddos that like to roam. They need to get up and walk around, which is fine and good if used appropriately. Appropriate walking around you say? The type where they don't bother others, and start up conversations about the upcoming recess.

Today brought about more intentional responses to those behaviors. First, I noticed that some of the behaviors came because the structure from previous days was gone (at least in social studies). We transitioned from reading/response to reading and narrative writing. The structure of reading and then trying to comprehend text with focused questions kept kids focused, and resulted in some good work being done. Without that structure, some kids felt unencumbered and too loose. Today we got back to our reading/response, and there was a definite change.

The next change was keeping some of my roamers with me. I have a small group table at the back of the room. I use it at times, while letting kids spread out to the table if they feel the need to get away from their table group. In this instance it was helpful to be able to question them, and talk with them about the reading skills we were using (inferring- a pre-assessment for me actually). While I would leave to circulate, I would head back to the table to check-in. The change in routine and their physical space resulted in a near absence of roaming. We'll see what comes tomorrow.

Changing the Way I Plan

I genuinely enjoy planning. It is a chance to decide how you'll get from A to Z, and what you'll see along the way. For me, planning has been about yellow legal pads where I can just write down whatever comes to my mind. The biggest problem with that is I often don't refer back to it, letting it sit and fade into the page.

Instead I am using OneNote to do my planning. I wasn't completely sold on the program at first, not really seeing how an electronic binder would help my instruction. But after a conversation with a colleague at my writing training last week, I decided to try planning using it. Why? I can refer back to my work (and not worry about which notebook it is in). I can make lists of what needs to be checked off and done, and I can embed my assessments directly into the document. So much easier! Below are two of the screenshots from my work thus far...

Towards the bottom I have the Writing GLE's so that I can open the document without having to search for them. Additionally I have placed images of the Writing Power Standards for our district, making it easier to view as I am planning (what standard does this relate to again?)

Above is an image from one of the units, particularly my launching the writing workshop section. I've taken the information from my Units of Study book and made it my own. Highlighted information is stuff I need to go back and fix as I go forward (what I am going to write about as I demo, etc).

The More You Write, the More It Grows

Over the next few days I have a ton of stuff to do. Essentially I have two weeks of freedom before professional development starts in my building. Having just been in two days of instructional materials (writing) training, I am a bit worn out. That being said, I am also excited about the possibility of further integration of writing into my Social Studies/Literacy block.

Kids do a ton of writing when they come through my room. They write down notes, and responses, to what we are reading in Social Studies. They also write down responses to literature we are reading. We do weekly current events summaries as homework. Our wiki gets used on a regular basis, and is a great chance for kids to communicate their understanding of the concepts we are learning.

All of that being said, my actual writing instruction during this block was far from optimal. Part of this lies in my mental concept of writing instruction: a writing block (writer's workshop) where kids are actively working on pieces of writing that may of may not be related to other curricular areas. I utilized the Units of Study materials, and enjoyed them (as a sidenote, I'm hoping to go to the Teacher's College next summer to do some of their PD). What I need to eliminate are the walls between writing and my social studies block. I plan to use the materials I was just trained to use to improve my kids' writing, seeing the materials as a concrete bridge to improved paragraphs, summaries, sentences, etc. Will I do away with my writer's workshop? No. I see room for both to fit in my instruction.

There is quite a bit to be done.

Inspire Me!

The big picture, pie in the sky, head in the clouds stuff is where I often live. The mechanics, or nuts and bolts, are not my specialty. As a teacher I think we swing on the pendulum between both of these. Often you swing between questions like "what is your vision for your kids?" and "how will you teach this lesson in writing?"

Today I sat through a writing training. I was immersed in the nuts and bolts of a particular set of writing materials. I was incredibly happy to hear the presenter say that the materials were another set of tools for our respective writing toolkits, as the standards are the curriculum we teach. To me, it couldn't be put any better. You need to use a variety of resources to reach your kids, and ensure that they are able to meet and exceed the state standards in different content areas.

As I said earlier, I'm a big picture person. I like inspiration, and need to consume it (see it, read it, hear it, etc) on a regular basis. Below are a few videos that I've been replaying in my head (or on screen) the past few days. When working in the classroom I put them up on the projector and had them in the background. I've returned to them quite a few times. Enjoy!

First is a big picture, where is education now video from TedxDenverEd by Keith Kruger called Mastering the Moment.


Next is a video I've posted before, featuring Brian Crosby speaking about his classroom and his integration of technology to meet the needs of his kids (again, TedxDenverEd)



Finally, I think watching Dan Meyer from the blog dy/dan is another source of inspiration. I believe the ways that he rethinks math instruction, and embeds multimedia, can be applied across content areas. (TedxNYEd)

From Skeletons to Paragraphs

Comparing like items is important. Whether it is two books, two boxes of cereal, or two colonies, you need to be able to sort characteristics of those items. That has been the task of my kids this week. Previously we mined information about colonies in different regions. From there we turned the information into a radio advertisement, and then into a Venn diagram (rather, filling the venn diagram). The next step is synthesizing that information, and putting it together as a coherent piece of writing.

I've been fascinated by the evolution of their writing. Over a month ago they wrote about explorers, and I'll be the first to admit that I needed to improve my writing instruction. Their writing was laden with strings of facts in lengthy sentences. Since then we have worked on having topic sentences, and using transition words that move us from general information to specific information. The work has really started to pay off, and conferencing has been taken to heart.

I believe that part of this evolution has been tied to our use of evaluation. I don't evaluate everything, but for larger pieces of work I want my kids to self evaluate the quality of their work. Not only is it complete, but do I have sentences that make sense? Do I a variety of sentence lengths? Do I have accurate information? Do I include general statements as well as specific information? The writing sessions today were highly successful, and the quality of work was really good.

New Routines

I have yet to find the sweet spot in my schedule. If it isn't a lack of continuity with my reading/writing workshops, it is a lack of focus on strategy instruction in reading. If it isn't one thing, it's another. I feel like I have solved part of my reading/writing workshop issue with my larger blocks of study. Going to 3+ weeks of consistent writing focus have given us more continuity, and led to some better results. Our writing stamina could use some work, but alas I digress.

The issue I have currently is with the reading section of my social studies block. It is a combined literacy block focused on social studies. But the issues we (I) run into are a lack of reading strategy focus as we continue through units. Additionally, we end up missing much of the fiction component that goes into reading. We end up doing more writing about social studies, and re-reading for specificity as opposed to simply reading.

The solution I've started to employ is breaking my social studies block into 2 parts: reading strategy and a social studies content focus. We start with 10-20 minutes (15 as a ballpark est) of silent reading in our 5th grade reading anthology. The reading is half, or a quarter, of a selection (which they already break into sections). Then we transition into our content focus area for the next 35-45 minutes. I need to front load the content and strategy info on Monday but the carry over should be successful.

My objectives in doing this are that 1) we'll engage in some thoughtful fiction/nonfiction study unrelated to social studies, 2) we'll practice reading comprehension strategies in a variety of formats, and 3) we'll have a period of time to acclimate, similar to having a read aloud or silent reading.

From Good to Tremendous

There are a variety of good things happening in the classroom right now. I've got my assessments laid out for the remainder of my unit, some small and some big. I didn't quite have this laid out earlier, and it is a bit of a relief (I knew where I was going, but there are few assessments with the curricular materials... and they're spotty). So assessment is going on the right track.

One of the lead up projects is creating an audio advertisement for one of the early colonies. This requires finding main ideas in our social studies text, deciding which they'd most like to live in, and then spinning the information into a written script. To put it all together, I'm teaching a few kids how to use Audacity, and then having them teach others how to use it (they essentially become engineers leading their peers). Thus far it has been really successful. Hearing their ad, and then knowing they'll be voting for where they'd most like to live based on the ads, has generated some buzz.

I'm also pulling small groups during each rotation. I have 3-4 students per rotation, per day, that I am focusing on monitoring their comprehension. Right now we are doing less strategy instruction, but that will come back post-Thanksgiving. I'm working more on nonfiction structures, and text structures as a whole, which has also been successful.

Lastly, some good things are coming in our writing block. Devoting a number of days to writing (3 weeks now?!) has given us a chance to really develop some ideas. We're writing essays, and now that everyone is back from sickness we're moving towards putting things together. Very excited.