Today we discussed yesterday's wellness fair. We talked about resources available to students, chatted about what wellness "looks" like and how it is different from person to person. Each student had to write a paragraph for me to explain: a)whether they would consider their lives to be full of wellness; b)what types of activities they do to maintain wellness in their lives; and c)what could they be doing in a better way.

Next we turned our focus to a topic that excited most students...children's picture books! You may wonder how this is age-appropriate for a grade 9 class, but rest assured it led to a wonderful discussion about how we choose books, which books become meaningful to us and why, and we talked about the greatest books of all time. Students were also given some time to read and share some of their favorite children's books with classmates.​ This is all leading toward our next mini unit, which will have students reading either independently or in small book groups. Students must choose their own book, so I am giving them March break to think about what they'd like to read. I do have a section of book groups in my room that some students are already starting to ask for, and this is fine.