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
Middle school teaching: Five shows a day, 180 days a year.
That reminds me of those great SNL skits about the Sofa King. You know, how the prices are "Sofa King" low, the deals are "Sofa King" great, etc. (You obviously have to say those phrases out loud to get the joke.)