Monthly Archives: March 2012

Relief is Nigh (dot dot dot)

March 28, 2012
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Relief is Nigh (dot dot dot)

Every year for the past three I have voted against the two-week spring break, but right now that stretch can’t be here too soon or last too long. I’m crabby and ready for a long break. And we haven’t even had any actual bad weather this year at all, like you all in South Dakota and Virginny and places like that… Speaking of… Mrs. M, have you read Downtown Owl? It’s set in a fictional NORTH Dakota town in 1984, and features a noob hs history teacher. There really isn’t much of a plot, but it’s one of those books where you don’t care because the characters are so good. Well, not necessarily “good.” You know what I mean. Is there some sort of rivalry between North and South Dakota? Just wondering… Heather, over in the comments, says I’m brave to bust out Tom Sawyer this year. More like moronical, as my brother used to say. I swear, Mark Twain’s comedy stylings fly right over about half of them, but when I act it out and explain, they’re rolling on the floor. And I know I ain’t that funny. There just isn’t the vocabulary and background knowledge any more. Everything has been

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A Flower? Phew.

March 26, 2012
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This one is from January ’09; back in the early(ish) days of this here blog. I was just reminded today when one genius thought I was asking for a paragraph of 150 pages, instead of 150 words. “I thought that was a pretty long paragraph… I mean really.. And you’re always telling us to use paragraphs, so I thought, whoa, and then I thought, hey, and then-” We were reading Tom Sawyer then too. Yesterday, we were going over chapter three, where Tom sees Becky (“The Adored Unknown”) for the first time, and falls in love. He shows off for her and she tosses a pansy over her shoulder. They always ask why he picks it up with his foot. “Being a boy, he can’t be seen picking up a flower. So he’s trying to be all nonchalant about it” There are also always some that ask what a pansy is, even after I just get through with my previous response. This time though, a girl in my friendly class says, “Oh, now I get it. It was a pansy, like the flower. Phew. I was a little worried about this book. I kept wondering.” “Why?” “I thought it said

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Way to Ruin the Mood

March 22, 2012
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We’re up to chapter 14 in Tom Sawyer. The boys are on the island, grooving on the freedom and nature and the tastiness of the food. I ask how many campers we have in the audience, and I get at least half. Some are very enthusiastic. “I would love to be on that island.” Then there is the 35% that didn’t read. Anyway, I’m trying to be more positive. And read more in class. Of course I try to save all the good bits for reading aloud. I skipped Tom Sawyer last year. That crew didn’t exactly have the longest attention spans in the world, so I saved myself the trouble. For some reason, I though the current bunch might be more receptive. I guess for the most part they are, but the early chapters are always a struggle. I swear the book gets more laughs when I explain/act it out than when we read Mark Twain’s actual words. It wasn’t like that when I started. They actually laughed at the sarcastic lines. Not just 5 or 6 in each class, but most of them. Back in the day, I used to be able to make a motion like I

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We Interrupt This Post…

March 19, 2012
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I was going to post about some new books I just finished (there is some down time in Vegas after all), but then I got distracted. You know the old saw about becoming like the kids you teach? Remember, I was already there before I started teaching. I got distracted by another book that my wife was using as a resource for a workshop she was giving to some ad copy writers. I finally got around to reading it right now as I was going through my Nook to remind myself of the various books I intended to talk about. So now I’m 20-some pages in, and I’m already hooked. The book is called Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath. Yes they’re brothers. After four days in Vegas with all three of mine, I applaud the Heath brothers’ ability to work together. I already love it, and have confirmed several ideas I had about teaching, and inspired me to change a couple of things, though I’m not quite sure yet how to do that. Already I know that I have to try harder to avoid what the authors call the “Curse of Knowledge.” (Wait

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Vegas, Baby

March 17, 2012
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Vegas, Baby

I haven’t taken off  three days of instruction since I don’t know when. Sure, I did bolt for three days once (also to Vegas...for the boy’s fourth birthday) while the kids were in the library “researching.” That time I figured that between the sub, the librarian, and her hard-a**ed (in a good way) aide, things would be fine. I mean, help them find books, show them how to do a search or two, do some shushing, go one-on-one with a few to get them taking notes without copying; how hard could it be to cope without me and the stick for three days? I never heard the end of it. They were not on task, and the guest teacher wasn’t any help, and some of them still didn’t know what their topics were, and…” Welcome to my world. Anyway, this time the sub had to do some actual teaching. We’re just getting started on Tom Sawyer (thank goodness for the wiki/Moodle), and we’re getting mighty close (two more weeks! and then two weeks!) to spring break, so I can’t afford to “roll a movie” or whatever. The routine must be maintained. I was gone Monday through Wednesday, and I needed them ready for

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Random Featured Post

Twits

I just read a webnews headline that read: “Twitter is the New CNN.” Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket? If Mr. Coward were to “tweet” his way through a typical day period (which is about as likely as, oh let’s see, Hell freezing over is too cliche, how about…Bill Gates going broke.) 8:21- the homies r screaming since vp said hand over your heart 4 the pledge – oh the pain! I left the door open: some poor late kid in the hall looks alarmed 8:22- I gotta put a switch on the speaker: more drivel from some underprepared kid talking 2 close 2 the mic…sounds like the bus station back in the day 8:26- blue slip. since it doesn’t say NOW, I set it next 2 the Popple…probly forget it later 8:30- finally!! “share” time is over and we can start – don’t remind me that I told Vero she could share first tomorrow about something she will have forgotten by then if we’re lucky 8:32- checking vocab hw, 1/4 not holding…”why is my grade so low?” it ain’t rocket science people 8:38- correcting warm up…let one of them try to write on the shmartboard …you [...]

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Mr. Coward has been teaching on the beautiful central coast of California since 1989. He sometimes tweets when he's in the right mood: @mrCinSLO.

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Recent Comments

  • Mrs. M~ commented on Speaking of…Here is another good one for you. What is going on in our country??? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/22/school-warns-students-no-test-no-sports/
  • Mrs K commented on TweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetDude... you haven't tweeted since January. Come back! ;)
  • Meg commented on No Soup for YouWell, cold soup CAN be rather scary... ;) Thanks for the laugh!
  • Heather commented on No Soup for YouGazpacho beats Jhonny any day of the week.
  • Heather commented on MAUS is back. (Rerun)I like the idea of a fairly steep age requirement for an interview project. Interviewing is one of our standards for eighth graders, and I usually have them interview someone about what middle school/junior high was like "back in the day" after reading The Outsiders and Garrison Keillor's anecdote "Something from the Sixties" from
  • Carly Sween commented on Even “Disneyland” is in Danger (Part 1)Sure. I'm all for the sharing idea. :)
  • Carly Sween commented on The PitchI'm in Fairbanks and we rarely have snow days. We don't usually get dumped on. It just starts snowing in October, a little bit at a time, and doesn't melt until April. Temps stay so cold that roads aren't slick. However, the last few years we have had issues with ice. It gets too
  • Mrs. M~ commented on Even “Disneyland” is in Danger (Part 1)I like the discussion board idea--as long as you put your two cents in too! :-) I shudder to think where our country is headed with all of this testing and corporate involvement. OMG, Survivor. As one of my other favorite bloggers put it, "Survivor’s fun sponge was finally squeezed, drenching
  • Meg commented on Even “Disneyland” is in Danger (Part 1)I find it funny how much the US is trying to change the system to "up the test scores" when China is trying to figure out how we produces such creative and innovative thinkers. Seriously, China, Japan, all of those 'high test score' countries are sending people over to the states to learn how
  • Mrs. M~ commented on The Pitch@Carly, how do you handle snow days in Alaska? Do you have to make them up? I imagine you must have tons of issues with that every year. This year we had a day of school called off because it was too cold--that has never happened before. You must deal with
  • Carly Sween commented on The PitchHad to laugh about the snow comments. I teach in Alaska so we win the God-awful winter award every year. Yes, it was 20 below this morning. We are having an unusually cold spring. Supposed to be great northern lights tonight, though, so that gives us something to look forward to. Always enjoy your
  • Mrs. M~ commented on The PitchYes, yes, FIVE snow days in the last three months, and two of them were this week. In APRIL. This has been a god-awful winter. People are becoming almost laughingly crabby and morose. To the south of us they got a terrible ice storm, and lots of people have been without
  • Mrs. M~ commented on Retirement is for WimpsAnd here is one more, as I sit at home during our 5th snow day of the "spring!" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randy-turner/a-warning-to-young-people_b_3033304.html
  • Mrs. M~ commented on Retirement is for WimpsJust in case you have not seen this, check this out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/teacher-resignation-letter-gerald-conti_n_3046595.html
  • Mrs. M~ commented on Retirement is for WimpsYou bring up a good point--will blogs like this even be around in 10 years? Will we all be wearing those goofy Google glasses by then? I am still waiting for all of the Jetson's inventions to come to reality, by the way. THAT would be a good use of technology.

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