are we so close to being done?!

ahhhhhhh, it's frightening...sort of. lots of mixed feelings, i'm on overload right now!
anyway, have some thoughts about grammar that i wanted to post before moving on to semester (aka 6 weeks) summary....
I personally, weird being that I am, LOVE grammar. I took a very intense senior grammar class when I was in 8th grade--it was taught by a retired college professor. Something about the way that she taught it, along with her creative writing course, helped me to understand grammar and actually like the fact that I understood it. I am going to be real, though, going into my 9th grade basic English classes; and I'm not gonna assume that my students will be able to love grammar just because their teacher (me) does. It does make a big difference if the teacher enjoys the subject, but I'm gonna have to find a way to help them enjoy it, too! I think the last couple of weeks talking about grammar in middle school classrooms, talking about how it shouldn't be taught in isolation....those discussions really helped me get an idea of how I can teach grammar to my students. I think that a combination of 1) excitement on my part, and 2) demonstration of how the grammar is applicable to other areas--will help the students "get it." But more importantly, I want them to see why it's important to get it.