Working with these kids is so much fun - so many questions, answers, ideas. It can all get to feeling chaotic - but then learning can be messy. I find myself, though, thinking of the children's story where the main characters were a dot and a line, and how near the end the line (who was in love with the dot) realized it could replicate itself and form dramatic, fantastic shapes, while meanwhile the line's rival in romance, a squiggle could, well, just squiggle. I want my students to be creative and allow for unexpected directions in their learning. But I don't want them to be just squiggles. I am sensing that some of them are starting to realize that all of this work must be going someplace and they want to know more about the where, and for that matter the how. This is where I can heave a sigh of relief that I put so much time into planning this course this summer, reading Nancie Atwell's books and Juli Kendall's diaries and every single posting on MiddleWeb connected even faintly to Readers' Workshop, Writers' Workshop and Social Studies. Before the kids even arrived, I had folders full of handouts and forms and procedure sheets. I knew that you just can't try to introduce all of this at the same time, and all along have been planning to phase in bits and pieces of the course until everything is in place. It looks like it's getting to be time to step up the pace. I know all about the how, and I'm ready to teach it. As for the destination - well, that's in large part up to the kids. We'll be working that out all year.