Monthly Archives: March 2009

What’s a Rerun of a Flashback Called?

March 31, 2009
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I was trying to wait until I reached 100 posts before I did this. You know, like in television, your series used to have to reached 100 episodes before you could go into syndication ands reruns. But I figure with my bad paw, I have a bit of an excuse. (It’s getting much better, but I go see the hand surgeon guy tomorrow to get the official word.) And the kids were bugging me about the cage today. I’ll be back to posting regularly soon; we’re reading another Ray Bradbury classic, “The Earth Men,” and it’s been fun. So here we go, and to paraphrase words of an old NBC promo, if you haven’t read it, it’s new to you. From September 26, 2008, The Tom Sawyer Syndrome (Flashback) “If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” That’s Mark Twain’s famous observation after Tom Sawyer has scammed the town kids into whitewashing his fence for him, and paying him for the pleasure. We won’t

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What if they…? (The Gas Effect.)

March 27, 2009
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What if they…? (The Gas Effect.)

The hand is better. I’m not The Craw any more. (I hope the vintage Get Smart reference doesn’t date me too much.) It’s not all the way better, I still don’t have use of my most important finger for bicycling in traffic, and I still can’t actually pick up much of anything with it, but I can sort of type again. Thursday, the Doc in the Box guy pulled an inch-long palm frond spike out of the back of my hand. It went in from (my) palm side. On Sunday. Now I have to go back every day for him to root around in the hole he dug, cleaning it up. Anyway, I think I have enough feeling back that I can tell you about this one. We finished Charlotte, and we’re on to my second favorite (obviously this blog’s namesake is #1) part of the year, the Ray Bradbury section. I love blowing their minds. I always start with the classic, “A Sound of Thunder.” As I  tell the kids, this is probably the most ripped-off time travel story of all time. You know, that’s where that silly movie, The Butterfly Effect,  got its name? They made a straight

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Ouch!

March 23, 2009
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I know I’m lagging. Even though I am an old-school hunt-and-peck typist, I can get moving pretty quickly when I ‘m rolling along, and I usually use at least 6 or 7 fingers, if not all. However… A few days ago I was pulling down old fronds from the giant palm tree (20-30 feet high) in my back yard. It had been dumping big fronds in piles, and it almost buried my bike one day last week. So, I was getting the remnants when one big frond let loose and fell toward me from 20 feet up. I deflected it with my left hand, and it left a couple of spikes in my palm (haha – get it?) which I pulled out. (One was over an inch long!) Every time I get poked, even a little, by one of those things, there is always some annoying swelling. Well this time, the impact and the depth must have done something different. My left hand is about twice its normal size. Typing, skating (I can’t even fit the hand into my wrist guard), and worst of all, drumming and guitar playing, are all pretty much out for a few days. I’m typing

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Career Opportunities II (Also, homework.)

March 19, 2009
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Career Opportunities II (Also, homework.)

The votes are in, and have been tabulated. No, this isn’t about the homework poll. Although, thanks to those of you who have taken the trouble to contribute. I know all that clicking is sort of wearing. (Hello Erica B! Of course I remember you!) I’ll leave it active for a while, and see how many responses I can collect. So far — OK, I guess this is about the homework poll now — I have been surprised by the fact that about a quarter of you give 5-7 minutes or less homework per night. I have always taken (more than) my fair share of the kids’ homework time. Like I tell them, “There are two subjects you have to pass in order to move on to 8th grade: math and English. And, you’ll notice which one is capitalized.” I figure I should get at least 20 minutes/4 days a week out of them. I was also surprised by the small percentage assigned to grammar and mechanics practice. Until I realized, that now that I have changed our “Pink Sheets” (grammar and mechanics worksheet/lessons) from homework to our new PSP’s (Pink Sheet Pairs, where they work together on the sheets,

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Homework Poll

March 15, 2009
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Our district is asking us how much homework we give. I think they’ve had some parent complaints about the homework load. I used to scoff, and still do to a certain extent, at the complaints of “hours of homework devouring our family life.” But my son is a 4th grader in the district (his school is right down the street), and there are nights when I too question the amount of homework assigned. We do call my boy The Pokey Puppy because he does tend to take forever doing anything, but… So I have a new polling widget I want to test, AND I want to see what other people are doing. So, here we go…and thanks.

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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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Recent Comments

  • mrC commented on It’s Go Time!@Sarah-Most excellent! Keep up the good work, and don't let any of them talk you out of it. Glad to hear your kids recognize the value too. Fight the good fight!
  • Mrs. M~ commented on Illin’Feel better soon! There is nothing worse than being at school and trying to be "on" when you feel like death.
  • Sarah commented on It’s Go Time!I just came across your blog...I am a second year teacher and I am currently reading The Outsiders aloud to my seventh graders. I read it to them last year, too. I catch a lot of criticism for reading it to them...but they LOVE to have me read to them. I actually had a group
  • joan commented on Illin’I'm on day two of out-with-the-crud. I needed the rest. Hope you're in tip top shape by Monday!
  • mrC commented on “The Sub Used One of Your Sticks!”That one oughta be strung up like they used to do to horse thieves.
  • Heather commented on “The Sub Used One of Your Sticks!”The last sub I had left no note at all and broke the arm of my spinny chair by leaning back in it so far that he fell in the floor. The kids all said he was the best sub ever. I politely asked the school secretary to never have him sub in
  • mrC commented on The Future of Space Travel@Heather: Gawd I hate that. I think I even posted about it awhile back. @Kelli: This reminds me of high school. I went to a Jesuit high school (all boys) and for our Friday football rallies, we would import cheerleaders from other schools to be a part of the rally. And the girls would always begin
  • Heather commented on The Future of Space TravelMy eighth graders just have the habit of prefacing every question with, "I have a question." And announcing "I'm done" when they complete an assignment.
  • Kelli commented on The Future of Space TravelIs it bad that I sometimes start my stories with "Okay, so...."...? I guess the kids have rubbed off on me. Sigh.
  • Kelli commented on Blogging the Scoring Session (Part I)Ugh! Been there. I have been to those "Scoring and Rubric" type meetings in two different states now... Not fun, and not entirely informative, either.
  • Meg commented on No Groove Yet (Also: The Giver and No Homework Returns)There was a district I student taught in that hand the no fail policy. I child could not be held back a grade, even if they did absolutely nothing the whole year, until they were in high school. It took most of the middle schoolers about 3 seconds to realize they didn't have
  • Kelli commented on No Groove Yet (Also: The Giver and No Homework Returns)You know, that whole "no-zero" policy goes hand-in-hand with the "no-failure" or "no-retention" policy, and my school district is a definite contributor to this madness. I can understand the desire to stop giving zeros and MAKE the kids do the work (giving countless opportunities until successful), but I have been in a situation where
  • commented on Obligatory Santa VideoWe have an unofficial "no zero" policy. It takes a little extra effort on the teacher's part to get all of the students to complete their assignments but we have made it work. The thing that was most helpful was instituting a "homework detention" that is separate from discipline detention. If a

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