Monthly Archives: November 2009

Happy Birthday

November 12, 2009
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I don’t know about you, but we had Wednesday off. Wednesday?! Talk about a wrench in the finely-tuned machine that is the routine of my classroom. I think it’s a first, interrupting the week that way. It threw us all for a loop. Everybody thought today was Monday. I was checking homework today, and I get to one kid who says, “I thought that was due Thursday.” “Ummm…It is.” “D’oh!” Plus, I took Monday off because it was my birthday. Just ‘cuz. And I was super-productive: I walked my boy to school, I ate some bacon (that precooked frozen bacon at Costco is one of the wonders of the modern world — 45 seconds to bacon!), took a nap, puttered in the yard, skated, and went out to dinner. Beauty. The problem was upon my return. For some reason, seventh graders obsess about birthdays. It happens year after year; I’ll be in the middle of explaining something, and one excited hand has been up the whole time. I finish, and finally call on the kid. “Tomorrow’s my birthday.” Thanks for sharing. And of course, that unleashes a torrent of “my birthday’s in a week” sort of things. Save it for

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New Material, and OMG, Groups!

November 7, 2009
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I’ve been testing some new material lately. We finished Outsiders last week, and since S. E. Hinton managed to cram an example into the book of pretty much every single literary term we’re supposed to teach, I finally made a worksheet. And some new literary terms questions based on The Outsiders. (One, two, three) (Advertising: I updated my Outsiders CPS clicker database to include the three new quizzes about literary terms (30 new questions based on the book), AND three 20-question Challenge Boards. The CPS database is the only place you can get the answers to all the Outsiders quiz questions on the website. Hint. Hint. Go to clickers.mrcoward.com.) We played Jeopardy last Thursday as a finale to The Outsiders. Actually, now that I have the clickers, I’ve been using the built-in feature called Challenge Boards. (Here’s a screenshot.) You get four categories with 5 questions each, with game point values from 10 to 50. You take previous questions you have used, and drag them into the categories and amounts. Since I have waaay more than 20 questions, we do multiple rounds. I use this as a quiz grade instead of having a final exam (they also do a project).

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Only 35% New Shtuff (But it’s Gold.)

November 2, 2009
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…I’ve been a little laggy about posting (again) because I’ve been revamping my school’s website. Check it out: http://lams.slcusd.org. …While I was checking out the sites for other schools in the district, I happened across a feature that Charlie Perryess, one of the English teachers at our sister middle school (about 1/2 of our 730-something students), has on his site. I think I may have to steal it. He only updates his site every three weeks (!?) so he gives a rundown of the activities and such for that time. At the end he has a section he calls, “Questions parents might ask their wonderful,yet not terribly forthcoming kids.” That’s the 8th grade version. The 7th grade version is, “Questions parents might ask to get a little more of an answer than ‘everything’s fine.’” (This guy also has to teach home economics and drama! The curse of diminishing enrollment.) The questions are beauty. Designed to check to see if the homework is done, in a non-confrontational, encouraging way.  My wife is sooo good at talking to our son this way. I have a little more trouble with the proper…tone.  Example: 1. Which character from Beowulf have you chosen to make

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I SAW You. (Three-Word Phrases II)

November 1, 2009
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As I have said before, the three-word phrase is a principal means of “communication” for the middle school beast. Since I last posted about this topic, I have remembered a few more favorites. 1) “I don’t care.” This one persists into high school. And beyond. And it often begins well before junior high. What it really means is: “I can’t possibly admit I care, because I think it’s too late to do anything about it. And you probably won’t believe the excuse I make up anyway. I’m ready for the worst, so there.” “Grades will probably get mailed out this week by Wednesday. So you should start dogging the mailman about Friday. Haha.” “I don’t care.” Only the people with F’s say that. Or A+’s. 2) “S’not my fault.” Ditto above with respect to onset and persistence. Nothing is EVER your fault in seventh grade. (on the Friday rounds) “Got some KBAR for me, baby?” “Ummm. (lots of rummaging) I don’t have it…but…s’not my fault. I asked my mom to sign but she left for my brother’s thing and…” “What about the other three nights of signatures, and the response?” “S’not my fault. I left my notebook at school.” “And

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Random Featured Post

You Gotta Have a Shtick (or a stick).

One of the things I like to say about teaching junior high is down at the bottom of this page in the footer. You’re too lazy to scroll, aren’t you? Fine. “Five shows a day, 180 days a year.” And there aren’t many crowds tougher than 7th graders. “This is boring.” The worst of all sins. Most of us who teach junior high have a shtick. A role we play, some isms we like to use again and again. Idiosyncrasies we play up for entertainment/attention value (oh the sharing I get when we talk about that word idiosyncrasy during “Monsters are Due on Maple Street“). The key is to make the shtick such a natural part of the classroom routine, that it doesn’t distract too much. Well, sometimes we need the distraction. There’s the Raffle King. There’s the Timer. There are the clickers. The Cage. Mental Floss. Nutty videos. MYOB. All of these are stalwart features of my classroom shtick. And as of a few years ago, there’s also the Quiet Stick. (four or five years ago – me visiting another teacher’s classroom before school) “Leenie! What the shiggy are you doing? Where’d you get this, and WHY ARE YOU [...]

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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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