Monthly Archives: February 2009

“I like the old ones better.”

February 23, 2009
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“I like the old ones better.”

How did it get to be the 23rd? Jeeze Louise, I have been out to lunch lately… Well they say that the longer you teach a particular grade level, they more you become like the students. I already had a head start on that before I started teaching 7th graders. Have I already said that 7th graders are some of the most conservative people on the planet? Well, I’m going to say it again. Seventh graders are some of the most conservative people on the planet. By conservative, I mean resistant to change. I know I have said that middle schoolers crave routine, even as they claim they don’t. Well, this quality has been on full display for the past couple of days, because I borrowed a set of another, more high-tech version of CPS clickers, and we’ve been test-driving them. Watching the kids’ reactions has been just as much fun as playing with the new clickers. They (the new clickers) look quite different from the ones we’ve been using. The first kid through the door stops at the clicker bag and does a classic cartoon double-take. “I like the old ones better. These are too big.” (me) “No, they’re

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“That’s student teacher, not guest teacher.”

February 17, 2009
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“They asked me to take a student teacher, and for once, I want to know what you think.” “What’s that mean?” “The student teacher part, or the part about asking your opinion?” “What?” “Never mind. For a while she would watch how we do things, and then I would watch her as she took over, and then I would leave, and she would be running the show.” Politeness Girl had tears in her eyes. (me: sniff.) “Would they know how to use the clickers?” “I guess we could teach her stuff like clickers and the LCD projector.” “What about the nutty videos?” “I doubt it.” “NOOOOO!” “What about SSI? Would she make us do SSI?” “I guess that would be up to her. Maybe she would have her own way of getting you to study.” “YAY!” “What about rating us from 1-10 and having to get an 8 and all that? That’s hard!” “We’re talking about a student teacher, not a guest teacher.” “Oh. YAY!” “Thanks a lot. I’ll miss you too.” I usually have a policy of only accepting full-time student teachers; I can’t find my groove in half a day, and invariably they’re taking other classes, and always

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Flash(way)Back II

February 12, 2009
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Ok, back to my story.  So after the fine phone call that started my Friday, I go up to the office to let the secretaries know that a representative of our city’s finest might be paying me a visit. First they think I’m joking, they they start razzing me, “Cops comin’ for you again Coward?” “Same same since seventh grade.” “What?” It was 1974, and I was late for school. I hate being late. For anything. Even school, even then. I was riding my bike as usual, and in 1974, we didn’t wear helmets, let alone worry about which side of the road we were riding on, and we thought stop signs were for cars and losers. Today, the road I was on the wrong side of is 4 lanes wide, and the light I ran controls one of the busiest intersections (the cross street is 6 lanes now) in my old hometown. Back then, it was a mere 2 lanes (plus the turn lane) I was crossing against the light. I got across without a care, though that was probably because I didn’t look. I was looking a block ahead, and I could see them lining up outside in

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“We interrupt this tragedy to bring you some comedy…”

February 8, 2009
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Selected exchanges from Friday’s mental floss: What musical instruments are represented below? a)  P O b)  BA BA c)   ECLART d)  @ # $ % “What do you mean, P an’ O?” “John just gave us the answer, didn’t he?” “I did? Make me say it again.” “The answer to B is not sheep.” (Half the class) “D’oh!” (Furious erasing and crossing out.) “Since when is a sheep a musical instrument?” One genius did say, “Bagpipes!” Add together each of the defined words to get a whole new word. Example: to shout + what you say when you feel pain = yellow. a) A light brown color + to leave = b) Vehicle + an animal pal = c) A store’s announcement + a type of women’s clothing  = “What’s a pall?” “That’s pal.” “What’s a pal?” Furious waving to be the first one for c. “SignBra!” Wacky Wordy: What phrase is represented by the following? Look kool XtXhXeXrXoXaXdX “Look cool!” “What about the rest of it?” “If you look cool, you don’t need it.” For more mental floss, head on over to Brainscramble.com.

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Flash(way)Back

February 6, 2009
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Today the cops came for me at school. Wow, that’s a pretty dramatic opening for a teacher blog entry. With any luck*, visions of God-knows-what are flashing through your head right now. “What did he do? Did they haul him off in handcuffs in front of his students? OMG, will his next post be from the cooler?” The reality wasn’t quite so dramatic, though the front office staff got quite a charge out of it. Actually, it was only one officer. And he left his number, instead of leaving with me. But it took me right back to when I was in seventh grade. That was the last time the cops showed up for me at school. Yep, this post isn’t about my class or teaching, this is all about me. I got a phone call at school at 7:30 in the morning. This in itself is a bit unusual, because I don’t really talk on the phone (no, I don’t own a cell phone – and never will), and most people know not to call me. Even the office staff knows (if it’s not an emergency) to send a runner, instead of

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Random Featured Post

“How cute. Like hobos…” (Also: Hank Williams.)

Wednesday. Vocabulary Pretest. Talk of facades and irony. Both figure large in The Outsiders. More on that later. Today I have more insight from my friendly class. We’re reading chapter 4 (the death of Bob, Dally helping with the getaway, jumping the train out of town), and we get to where Dally is telling Pony and Johnny to “hop the 3:15 freight to Windrixville.” We pause and talk about how it’s only been less than 36 hours (book time) since the beginning. They find it hard to believe until we start to do the timeline. Figure that Pony gets out of the movie in the late afternoon, and gets jumped and saved. Pony and Johnny and Dally go to the Nightly Double the next night, and it’s now 3:15am that same night. Then I make sure they know that a freight is a train. And one girl says, “How cute. Like hobos…” Hobos maybe. Cute? [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do? When the boys run to find Dally at Buck Merrill’s house, Pony offers a brief description of Buck that ends with, “…he was out of it. He dug [...]

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Mr. Coward has been teaching on the beautiful central coast of California since 1989.

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