As my class was watching the first half of Johnny Tremain this afternoon I was subconsciously rewriting the "song that never ends."  My version went something like "This is the week that will not end, seems to go on and on my friend.  It started with a surprise staff meeting and ended with  a test, no matter how many times I remind them, these students will not clean up their mess....This is the week that will not end..."  You get the idea, it's been one of those weeks.  I'm sure many of us are experiencing this, especially with how warm last week was (80s here in MA, in MARCH!!), they definitely had a dose of summer weather, and now seem to think summer is right around the corner. Sorry kiddos!  We still have a LOT to do! We've been working on writing back to our pen pals this week, and each time we write I am so surprised by how many students have actually been complaining about having to write these letters.  I'm starting to feel down about it.  I thought that writing to a new friend in a state that no one in our class has been to would be very interesting to them.  I can't figure out if it's because they aren't all that familiar with friendly letter writing, or writing for a real purpose, I can't figure them out.  Any ideas on how to get these reluctant writers more interesting in writing to their pen pals?