As you may or may not have noticed, I actually have a streak going. After taking most of July and August off, it’s been six days in a row now! My longest run in 2+ years of doing this. So even though it’s getting late, I think I can squeeze in a rerun (from the very early days of this blog, back in 2008), and make it seven straight. We started The Outsiders today. This is always my favorite time of the year. Baiting the hook, setting the hook, landing the fish. (It’s a metaphor for getting kids to like reading.) And I’d like make my regular plea to teachers everywhere to read aloud to your students. So let’s travel back to fall of ’08… (So I can keep the streak alive and still get to bed at a fairly decent hour.) Read The Outsiders Aloud! I have been teaching The Outsiders ever since I started teaching junior high. The only “required” novel when I got to my school in 1993 was Tom Sawyer. The “approved” novels were shtuff like A Day no Pigs Would Die and Where the Red Fern Grows. Ummm, no offense, but I couldn’t cope. (Actually, I kinda liked
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At our first faculty meeting of the year, before school started, one of the items that came up was funding for our after-school “math lab” aimed at kids who are having “math issues.” (Don’t most all middle-schoolers have math issues? Just saying.) The math teachers were complaining that the kids who get sent there for not doing their math homework, or the ones who are forced to go by their well-meaning parents, are the ones, even though they probably need the help the most, are the ones who are getting the least benefit out it. “They don’t want to be there, they disrupt, they don’t bring their stuff, they don’t listen.” Let’s see, they’re in junior high. They hate math, and are failing, and someone is making them sit through more math. Hmmm. Now I’ve never been a fan of rewards in my class. I don’t give out candy, I don’t give prizes or incentives for good behavior or for turning in homework regularly. We don’t have class parties or anything like that. I offer some extra credit for going above and beyond, but that’s about as far as I go. No stickers, Weepuls, or nights off homework. (Although I
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I posted earlier this month about reading books on my Palm. I bought several e-books this summer, and I really like being able to carry around a whole buncha books in the palm of my hand (pun intended). So here’s a survey, dear readers. I haven’t used the survey plug-in in quite a while, and I am very interested in whether you guys have embraced the e-book thang. I’ll be back after you’re done. One more thing before I turn in. The other day I posted about my wife replacing my busted smell phone. I forgot to say how stoked I am to now have a dummy, a phone I can stash near at hand and, and when/if one of them makes the fatal mistake of taking hers out, I can (with a little practice and a little audience distraction) deftly switch hers out for mine, and dramatically hurl it across the room to explode in a million pieces against my cinder block walls. Or perhaps I could repeatedly whack it with my stick, like the city of Springfield whacked on snakes on Whacking Day. I have threatened to do so many times, and actually did chuck one (it survived
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Here’s another plug for the Middle-L e-mail listserv. As I have said before, I am a big fan. I have also previously posted some great op-ed pieces written by Marion Brady, who is a big contributor to the list. Go subscribe now, I’ll wait. OK. This is an example of the kind of great stuff you can find on Middle-L. A new subscriber wrote asking for advice on teaching middle school. She was showered with great ideas. One of my fave responses came from Megan Jones. She has some great advice, that is so in line with my own philosophies of teaching junior high (sorry, middle school), that I had to reprint it here. Thanks, Megan. (Of course, being the know-it-all that I am, I have to offer my own commentary.) I teach middle school language arts (grades 6 and 7) and absolutely love it! Middle schoolers are a tough, but rewarding group to work with. Some tips that have been helpful for teaching Middle school age students (learned from other teachers and trial and error) are the following: 1. Be real and yourself: students at that age are extremely self conscious and a person who is comfortable with who they are is an
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Just a quick little bit of circle-time sharing. Regular readers (I think there are a few of you) know that I HATE cell phones. I don’t really like talking on the phone at all, actually, but we’ll cover that issue separately. However after, ahem, a run-in shall we say, with a bum on a bike while I was skating, which resulted in 5 stitches in my lip the day before school started last year, my wife has of late, “requested” that I carry a hell phone on my daily skate. So for the past few months, I’ve been carrying a prepaid phone with enough minutes to last me a lifetime. I think I’ve used about 10. A few weeks ago, I took a fall, and crushed the phone in my pocket. My wife was at BestBuy the other day getting me a replacement, and of course the salesman was trying to upsell her the extended service plan for the phone. After listening to the guy’s spiel, she asked, “Would it be covered if my husband broke it with his butt?” My 11 year-old boy stifled a laugh, I hear. “No m’am, that would not be considered normal use.” Needless to
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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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