I am currently working in my new Student Teaching assignment: Language arts Teacher for four classes of Juniors at Central Catholic High School in Portland. I will also learn about the school newspaper as I join my Cooperating Teacher in her Journalism class. So far I have primarily observed, but recently I assigned a paper to two of my classes: a four page mini-thesis paper. I am delighted that my students are doing very well with this assignment so far. Next month these same students will be writing a thesis paper that will be two or three times as long as the one I assigned. I am hoping that this shorter paper will prepare them for their next assignment. We’ll see.