The First Day of School

On September sixth, I, like many teachers and students around the country, started the school year.  This is my fourth year teaching at Robert Frost Middle School in Deer Park.  I jumped up out of bed around 5:30 am, which I had not done since June.  I jumped into the shower and got dressed.  I ate my breakfast, prepared my coffee with french vanilla creamer and I was out the door.  Even though I was dragging my feet when I first woke up, as I started my commute, I felt lucky.  I felt lucky to have a job and especially one that I was just as happy to go to in the morning as I am leaving in the afternoon.  As I walked into my building, I saw many familiar faces that I had not seen all summer.  After many hellos and last minute decorating, the bell rang and I was ready to welcome this year's students.  I hope I can inspire them to learn and to care about their education like so many great teachers have inspired me.

Vocabulary:

1) prepared: got ready
2) dragging my feet: moving slowly
3) commute: car ride to work
4) lucky: better off
5) familiar: people I know
6) inspire: to make someone want to do something


Cloze Activity: Fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary word from above.


1) I hope to ______________ the next generation of children to become caring adults.
2) I was ___________________ to science class because I knew it was going to be boring.
3) I feel ______________ because I have lunch with all of my friends.
4) I am ________________ for today's test because I studied all night.
5) I live very close to my job so I do not have a long ____________.
6) My teacher looked so ______________.  I think I met her last year.


Grammar Point:
Adding the suffix -ed to a verb makes the verb in the past tense.  This is called the regular past tense.  For example, the phrase "I prepare," indicates the present tense or something that is happening right now.  When -ed is added to "I prepare" it becomes "I prepared". "I prepared" means that I got ready in the past.

Grammar Assignment:
Can you change "learn" into the past tense?  Write the verb ______________________.  Now, write a sentence using the verb in the past tense. __________________________________________________