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No Soup for You

April 24, 2013
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No Soup for You

Most classes finished MAUS I today. Most all of them are riveted. I’ve had three tell me they went out and bought both books for themselves. (We’re making do with class sets of each chapter that my aide and I have xeroxed from my old books.) Half of them aren’t listening to the instructions for the warm up because they’ve pulled a chapter from under their desks and are reading away. Hard to get mad at that… but I somehow manage. We’ve been reading out loud and taking parts, drama stylie, and reading the talk balloons. I play Vladek, so I get to talk funny (“…in this way he survived me my life…”), and have to do most of the attempts at pronouncing all the places and names. Sosnowiec is one of the easier ones. It’s all uphill from there. Or at least I thought so until today. I pick the best reader in each class to play Artie, and for the rest it’s a free-for-all of volunteers. Some like to try their hands at accents, especially the ones who play Nazi soldiers–you can imagine how that must sound–and the boys called on to play women are especially distracting, even

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MAUS is back. (Rerun)

April 22, 2013
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In my 20 years at this school, I have been stuck with 8th graders exactly three times. This is not one of those years, and since I am now the de facto “Introduction to Video Production” teacher, chances are that I won’t be again any time soon. Whew. Although I did consider asking for a section this year just so I could have my boy for one more year. (Cue the awwwws.) Since The Diary of Anne Frank is still in the 8th grade curriculum, I was in those years confronted with a problem. I do not like that book, nor do I see the literary significance beyond some excerpts. Notice I did not say the historical significance or the personal. I just can’t read it. So long ago, I started substituting MAUS by Art Speigelman. This year, I decided to read it with my seventh graders. Next year...

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Speaking of…

April 19, 2013
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Eighth grader designs standardized test that slams standardized tests. From the Washington Post. I’ll be back later.

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Even “Disneyland” is in Danger (Part 1)

April 17, 2013
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First off, I am liking the idea of the “crosstalk” in the comments.  This back and forth without me is looking pretty groovy. (Also I am interested in the role that weather plays in the school year in places where they actually have weather.) It got me thinking  I could install some discussion board software and get a little “sharing” going on. Then I wouldn’t have to carry the load  around here so much.  There could be sections for questions, tips, stories, etc. You know what I mean. Then there would always be new material even when I’m too busy fixing a pinball machine or watching Modern Family to post about the latest person to tell it like it is about where teaching is heading. What do you three or four think? Mrs. M posted a link to a post by a teacher warning the youth of today to stay out of the...

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The Pitch

April 11, 2013
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I was going to blog some responding to Mrs. M’s links about corporate dollars driving people to bail from the profession on us. I had read her first link, and was already formulating some thoughts, but I had not seen the latest one. Gawd, what are people thinking? I will be back soon to talk more of  these atrocities, but tonight I had to attend the orientation meeting for parents whose kids will be frosh (I like that; non-sexist) at the high school in the fall. And I just have to comment. (Aside: Really Mrs. M? FIVE SNOW DAYS? This time of year? OMG. Our “rainy” season has been basically over for weeks, and it was 78 yesterday. Don’t you love it when people from California do that? Is there ice nearby? I guess I could skate, but sheesh. You must be made of stronger stuff than I. I...

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Retirement is for Wimps

April 1, 2013
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Our spring break was way early this year. I am already back to getting up at five and grousing about the latest IST blunder (a total update from Windows XP to Win7 while we are on break, and no testing to see if everything still works?)  and you guys are all probably on vacation. That’s OK because, as much as I love them, need them, and count down to them–47 school days until summer– long vacations make me lazy. Although I do like the naps. Mrs. M, one of my longest-suffering readers, rhetorically asked how long it might take for me to get to another 400 posts. 1) The first 400 have taken 4 3/4 years. I started this here blog in the fall of 2008. Whoa. You say 2008, and it seems like just a year or two ago, and then you do the math. Whoa. That was almost 5 years...

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OK, I have been lagging, but this is my 400th post! (Also: Husker Du?)

March 21, 2013
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OK, I have been lagging, but this is my 400th post! (Also: Husker Du?)

Sort of. That counts reruns. I know it’s been awhile, but I have some fresh material, I promise. We are hard upon spring break. Way too early this year for me, but as always, we’ll take ‘em where we get ‘em. Currently reading the Ray Bradbury story “The Earth Men” from The Martian Chronicles. Love blowing minds with this one, what with telepathy and insanity and not being able to make yourself believed or taken seriously no matter how hard you try. Perfect for insecure 7th graders. They love it when Mr. Xxx, after inspecting the rocket, says, “You are a psychotic genius.” Personally I relate most to the captain when he is dealing with Mrs. Ttt. She keeps forgetting what he thinks is so important. “What did you say your business was?” “…whatever it is you what to know…” “What hasn’t (been done before)?” When Captain Williams curses...

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No Imagination: Off Topic Questions Part 2

March 7, 2013
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One of my standard lines I use when I get frustrated with the “I’m confused’s” and the I’ve-only-said-this-10-times-already’s is, “I thought mankind was supposed to be evolving, where each generation gets smarter than the previous one. We seem to be DE-volving around here.” A gold star if you recognize the Devo reference. Of course, the standard response is, “What?” Where was I headed with this again? Oh yes… If I were to play crabby old guy (one of my favorite roles) for awhile and complain about the youth of today, my biggest complaint would be the lack of imagination. It’s a generation of imitators. I hesitate sometimes to show too many good examples–as opposed to the bad ones I publicly rip apart–because I end up with so many knock-offs of the examples. And this relates to the topic at hand how, might you ask? Well, when I actually had...

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Off Topic Questions Part I

February 28, 2013
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Way back in the day, I did my last round of student teaching at one of the two high schools in our district. This was when I still thought I wanted to teach high school (silly me), and my cooperating teacher (actually they were called master teachers back then) and I didn’t really see eye to eye. Actually we did. I just didn’t know it then. I was looking for specific tips and lessons and what to teach. What info was I supposed to be shoveling into them? What was the curriculum? I was a noob and I wanted specific things to teach.  He would never give me anything specific. He would talk in generalities like, “Make the kids do the work. You’re working too hard.” Sound familiar? To a noob, in the short term, this was not much help. But slowly, as I gained experience, I started to understand...

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The Cupcakes of Spurned Love Are For Sale

February 20, 2013
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(Morning Update: I just remembered that after the boy was down to the last couple, he put them out for bid. He got 5 dollah for the last one.) Looks like I am going to have to pad this one out a bit, since the title pretty much sums up the post. The cupcakes were home-made. There was a rose too. Now picture possible scenarios… First before I get started, I have to say something about my (limited) Twitter experience so far. How the H – E- double toothpicks do you Twitter people (Tweeters?) keep up? I have like 4 followers and I think I follow maybe 6 or 7 people. I installed that Tweetdeck app on my tablet, and now I swear that it’s a torrent of tweeting. Every 15 minutes the notifier pops up and says there are 68 new tweets. And most of them have links...

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Time to Confess

February 18, 2013
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Time to Confess

I know it’s been a while since I posted. I even have a little backlog of material. I just haven’t had a lot of time for blogging lately because I … well… I… It’s time to confess what I’ve been doing. In the past year or so, I have developed a new hobby that I have gotten a little obsessed with. I think the wife would say that I am a step or two or three past the obsession stage actually, and she says she regrets being the one that started me down this road. Speaking of road, I even drove (well, rode in my friend/enabler’s truck) all the way to Oxnard to feed the obsession. That’s a 4 hour round trip, not counting the In-n-Out stop. That’s more driving than I do in a year unless I go to Vegas or something. (Aside: Those of you who live...

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“You’re Doing So Well Now!”

February 5, 2013
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I don’t remember whether I mentioned it here or not, but I was told at the beginning of the year that my STICK had generated a parent call of concern, and that I was advised not to wield said stick in front of the kids any more. “Some kids say they’re intimidated,” was the line I got. That’s sort of the point, ain’t it? Oh well. Anyway, no stick this year. I have a foam Lego sword in the interim, until certain easily intimidated students have passed on to the high school. It doesn’t make nearly as much noise, but it looks pretty cool. One of the kids even gave me a shield that matches. That’s the short version of the backstory for today’s post. Onward. Today, I was heading in the back door of the cafeteria kitchen to hunt for breakfast (scone and oj), when one of the...

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BoT #2

February 4, 2013
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We started reading Tom Sawyer today. This time, I’m going to try to read A LOT more of it in class. They need to hear the cadence and the twang, and the fun Mark Twain has with language. And I get to “talk southern.” (Aside: My dad grew up in Illinois, and when he got mad at me and my brothers back in the day, his midwest twang would come out. To us California kids, it sounded like “talkin’ southern.” When the family went to Virginia during the summer between 6th and 7th grade, I found out what talking southern REALLY sounded like. I couldn’t understand a word anybody was saying.) Not to mention the explanations and translations and such that are needed in the early going of Tom Sawyer. Have you noticed that the book gets much easier to read and follow as it goes along?  It’s like MT gets more into...

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Random Featured Post

Open Mouth Democracy?

First off:  Ok, Ok. I’m starting to find my happy place with research. Thank you for the comments and suggestions; I think next year will be better. You guys gave me some good ideas. We’re working on outlines this week, prepping for research.  Among other activities, I  give them partially completed outlines and word banks to fill them in with. I strategically place a few clues in the outline, and they have to determine the hierarchy of the various entries I provide, and fill in the blanks. Like this (the stats are kinda dated, but it’s a topic near to my heart): Topic: The automobile has become the American Nightmare kills 265,000 and injures millions annually, road rage and reckless driving have increased, better city design to decrease auto dependence, leading source of air pollution,  alternatives to the automobile, main means of transportation, too many people dependent on the car, large SUV’s: rollovers and danger to smaller cars, more cars and more roads mean more traffic congestion, average car: 5 tons of carbon dioxide each year, contributes to acid rain and smog, leading cause of death and injury, new dangers with 2 recent developments, public transportation I. Main means of [...]

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Mr. Coward has been teaching on the beautiful central coast of California since 1989. He sometimes tweets when he's in the right mood: @mrCinSLO.

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Recent Comments

  • Mrs. M~ commented on Speaking of…Here is another good one for you. What is going on in our country??? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/22/school-warns-students-no-test-no-sports/
  • Mrs K commented on TweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetDude... you haven't tweeted since January. Come back! ;)
  • Meg commented on No Soup for YouWell, cold soup CAN be rather scary... ;) Thanks for the laugh!
  • Heather commented on No Soup for YouGazpacho beats Jhonny any day of the week.
  • Heather commented on MAUS is back. (Rerun)I like the idea of a fairly steep age requirement for an interview project. Interviewing is one of our standards for eighth graders, and I usually have them interview someone about what middle school/junior high was like "back in the day" after reading The Outsiders and Garrison Keillor's anecdote "Something from the Sixties" from
  • Carly Sween commented on Even “Disneyland” is in Danger (Part 1)Sure. I'm all for the sharing idea. :)
  • Carly Sween commented on The PitchI'm in Fairbanks and we rarely have snow days. We don't usually get dumped on. It just starts snowing in October, a little bit at a time, and doesn't melt until April. Temps stay so cold that roads aren't slick. However, the last few years we have had issues with ice. It gets too
  • Mrs. M~ commented on Even “Disneyland” is in Danger (Part 1)I like the discussion board idea--as long as you put your two cents in too! :-) I shudder to think where our country is headed with all of this testing and corporate involvement. OMG, Survivor. As one of my other favorite bloggers put it, "Survivor’s fun sponge was finally squeezed, drenching
  • Meg commented on Even “Disneyland” is in Danger (Part 1)I find it funny how much the US is trying to change the system to "up the test scores" when China is trying to figure out how we produces such creative and innovative thinkers. Seriously, China, Japan, all of those 'high test score' countries are sending people over to the states to learn how
  • Mrs. M~ commented on The Pitch@Carly, how do you handle snow days in Alaska? Do you have to make them up? I imagine you must have tons of issues with that every year. This year we had a day of school called off because it was too cold--that has never happened before. You must deal with
  • Carly Sween commented on The PitchHad to laugh about the snow comments. I teach in Alaska so we win the God-awful winter award every year. Yes, it was 20 below this morning. We are having an unusually cold spring. Supposed to be great northern lights tonight, though, so that gives us something to look forward to. Always enjoy your
  • Mrs. M~ commented on The PitchYes, yes, FIVE snow days in the last three months, and two of them were this week. In APRIL. This has been a god-awful winter. People are becoming almost laughingly crabby and morose. To the south of us they got a terrible ice storm, and lots of people have been without
  • Mrs. M~ commented on Retirement is for WimpsAnd here is one more, as I sit at home during our 5th snow day of the "spring!" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randy-turner/a-warning-to-young-people_b_3033304.html
  • Mrs. M~ commented on Retirement is for WimpsJust in case you have not seen this, check this out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/teacher-resignation-letter-gerald-conti_n_3046595.html
  • Mrs. M~ commented on Retirement is for WimpsYou bring up a good point--will blogs like this even be around in 10 years? Will we all be wearing those goofy Google glasses by then? I am still waiting for all of the Jetson's inventions to come to reality, by the way. THAT would be a good use of technology.