Monthly Archives: May 2009

Do the Math.

May 28, 2009
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There was a comment over at seventhgradeenglish.com (how’s that for cross-promotion?) about how the commenter had just finished The Outsiders for the 75th time, and watched the movie at least as many times. Twenty five years times 3x each year. Several thoughts ran through my mind as I read the post. One: Yessss. Another veteran keeping the flame alive. Two: Only three times each year? But many of you are at them thar newfangled charter schools and such-like, and this person probably also has a period of advanced martial arts and one of calculus, and has to serve lunch and coach soccer. Three: 25 years? This person must’ve seen the move when it came out. And it’s just as cheesy today. I think I showed it one year, back in the day. Remember; look for SE Hinton as the nurse nagging Dally. And Tom Cruise and Patrick Swayze and the Karate Kid. Four: 25 years? And the book is just as vital as it was then. I’ll still be teaching it 20 years hence. Five: I just did this math with the kids back in October. “Whoa, you really know this book, don’t you?” Duh. For me, it’s 15 years

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“There’s already something on the back of mine.” (Also: Racial Harmony.)

May 21, 2009
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It was our first day back in the classroom after 8 days in the library. We were all glad to be back. “Oh, my clicker…how I’ve missed you.” One of them actually said that. OMG. What a day. Full of action, and laugh after laugh. First there was the video. YouTube is blocked in our district. Our head of IST keeps bleating about CIPA and how YouTube doesn’t filter, and…anyway, we can’t use YouTube. But finally, they created a workaround for us. We have to do things from home rather than from school, but it works OK. We find the YouTube video we want to use, and copy the URL. Then we go to the district’s “safe video portal” and paste it in. Then we can approve our own video, and use the safe portal to show it at school. It’s a bit clunky, but it works fine. Yesterday I added a video. I hadn’t even showed it yet, when I got an e-mail from my principal. I have only added a couple of videos before, but both of them were of the nutty variety, rather than the “educational” sort.  One of them is near the top of the most

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More Research Follies (Also: “How do I raise my grade?”*)

May 20, 2009
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Today was our last day in the library. Today I collected one page of their paper. I don’t have the time or the inclination to have them write rough drafts, correct them all, and then do it again with the final drafts. No dice, Cheese Slice. So I tell them to take whatever section of their paper they have the most notes on, and turn those notes into one page of their paper, with formatting, citations, the whole nine yards. I check that, return it, and then they have a week to write the whole paper. “For example, if your paper is on why the Titanic sank, and you have the most notes on the design and construction section of your paper, write that up as though you were writing your paper–which you are. Then we will both know if you’ve taken enough notes to write the whole paper. “This should take about a quarter of your notes. Figure that you already have your intro, and your conclusion won’t need notes; that’s where you explain what you found, and whether your thesis was correct or not, and why. So you need notes enough to write about four pages. I’m collecting

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Shameless Hucksterism (CPS.mrcoward.com)

May 15, 2009
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I was just reading an article speculating that the era of everything being free on the ‘net might be ending. Record companies can’t make a living because everyone is downloading for free. Television networks are trying to figure out how to make money from free tv on the ‘net. Why have cable for tv when you can get tv from your net connection? Newspapers are folding because everyone (including them) posts their content for free.  Why subscribe to the NY Times when you can read it for free on the ‘net? Travel agents? Booking trips is freebie online. Etc. Etc. But. Nobody’s making money, and sooner rather than later says this article, things will have to change. YouTube loses millions of dollars a month. Facebook? Ditto. MySpace. Please. And don’t even start about Twitter. They all lose millions of dollars monthly. Ads don’t even come close to paying for the costs of these sites. The only sites that make money are the ones that charge for something. Not necessarily everything. They give content away, but charge for the premium stuff. Like the Wall Street Journal or CraigsList. Yeah, that’s me, like the Wall Street Journal. Anyway, all the lessons and

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Make the Kids do the Work. (Tips III)

May 11, 2009
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We’re in the library now, just starting the actual looking-for-sources-this-library-doesn’t-have-anything-on-my-topic-now-the-librarian-has-an-agenda-too-with-a-bunch-of-lessons-and-what?-homework-and-no-you-can’t-search-Google-here-you-can-do-that-at-home-I don’t-know-what-notes-to-take-I-left-all-my-sources-at-home-did-the-librarian-just-have-to-give-one-of-my-”children”-a-timeout?-OMG-I’d-rather-be-teaching-than-this-whole-”coaching” process. Well. I think you get the idea; it’s a little draining. So I’m going with another installment of the (not so) regular feature, Tips for New Middle School Teachers. (Here’s round 1, and here’s round 2; wow, it’s been since November since I ran this “feature”?) 1. Vocabulary is EVERYTHING. I tell the kids all the time, “If you don’t know the words, you can’t think the thoughts.” We do a vocabulary list every week, that comes from whatever we are reading at the time, but we also have a lot of vocabulary in disguise. Academic words, spelling and roots, slang and dialect. Grammar. It’s all about the vocabulary. They can’t write if they don’t know the words. They can’t understand what they’re reading if they don’t know the words. They can’t do the job (any job) if they don’t know the words.  The comma fanatics and don’t-begin-a-sentence-with-a-coordinating-conjunction people can take a hike, so to speak. It’s all about the vocabulary. 2. Make the kids do the work. I swear, next to the phrase, “as lazy as the day is long,” my second most used comment at Open

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Random Featured Post

True That.

We had an open mouth quiz on chapter 8 today. One class has several boys who have a new phrase they’re trying out. Personally, I sort of like it. 4) On p127, we get an example of what seems to be foreshadowing. What is it? a) When Two-Bit says that Darry will kill him if Pony’s really sick. b) When Two-Bit says Darry could be a Soc. c) When Pony says he has a helpless feeling. d) When Two-Bit calls Pony chicken. e) When Pony says he’ll be well by tonight. “OK, number four. What’s foreshadowing?” The class takes care of that one for me. Most of them laugh, and one says, “I was wrong.” (Pony’s line at the end of chapter three, and a beauty example for them of foreshadowing.) “Oh yeah. Ok, so it’s C, right?” “True that.” “Number six. Darry, I mean Dally (they always mix up those names), right?” “True that.” (me, doing some “refocusing” of a gentleman off to the side) “‘Clark,’ could you focus your comments on the questions? Open mouth only applies if that mouth is talking about the questions.” “True that.” “And I think we’re done with that line, for today at [...]

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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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