mrC – Teaching The Outsiders (and more)

The Outsiders

Still My Favorite Book!

mrC

It’s Alive! This blog that is. Nope, still not dead. Mebbe a bit sluggish, but… Spoiler Alert: This post even has The Outsiders in it! So. It’s last Friday, and I am taking the day off to drive 90 miles each way to pick up a huge assortment of vintage, metal kitchen cabinets. Very cool and […]

Seventh Grade Behavior, toys

EEDD

mrC

I have found many curbside treasures on my afternoon skate over the years. Examples include: sets of vintage TV trays, bicycles, a giant paper-mache rocket ship (7 feet high–wish I still had that thing), high-end patio furniture, a nice stained-glass lamp, the yellow dog-mascot of my classroom, a cast-iron clawfoot bathtub, a stage spotlight, a treadmill, […]

Rerun, Seventh Grade Behavior

I Saw You! (Revisited)

mrC

One of the beauties of this job is that every day is different. There’s always something going on, or a crisis or silliness or whatever. However, in some ways, things around here never change. Back in the early days of this blog, I wrote a post called “Masters of the Obvious, 10/27/10”: Let’s begin with […]

Off-Topic, Seventh Grade Behavior

Off-Topic

mrC

Since we read The Outsiders aloud in class, it happens that some classes get out ahead of others in their progress through the book. Some classes are just faster with the vocab or they ask fewer questions about the instructions or whatever, but it means that in some periods we end up with more time […]

grades, parents, Seventh Grade Behavior

“Dear Mr. Coward, I just checked Einstein’s grade…”

mrC

I was an early advocate for posting grades online. In fact, our site was the first school in the district to have a majority of the teachers posting grades and homework online, thank you very much. We were several years ahead of even the high school. I remember parents who were used to having easy […]

Seventh Grade Behavior, Teaching

500th Post! And a Couple of Firsts.

mrC

Waitaminnit! I just went and looked, and the first posts on this here blog were all the way back in 2008. Nine years?! 500 posts?! Ok, some are reruns (mebbe 10-15%), but still… 270,000+ words! But enough looking backward… Although today’s post does have a bunch of links to some old classics from over the […]

First Day

OMG! Twenty Five Years! Plus Ca Change…

mrC

Tomorrow begins my 25th year at Laguna Middle School. It was Laguna Junior High when I started. That ain’t the only thing that’s changed around here. We used to have the oldest staff in the district. Now it’s all young uns and noobs. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld used to […]

Spelling

The Wall of Shame Revisted

mrC

Just over a year ago, I posted about a new feature of my classroom: The Spelling Wall of Shame. Presided over by my wicker mermaid and a tiki head, and featuring the giant OMG eraser, it has become sort of a tourist attraction. My kids bring their friends in before school and challenge them to […]

Rerun, The Giver

(2014) Jonas = Harry Potter?

mrC

The following rerun was supposed to be posted last night while I was watching the season premiere of Survivor. As you can probably tell from the title, we are reading The Giver right now. And they are digging it. You know how it goes with this one: “This is weird.” Yes. It is. I told […]

The Giver

“You May Lie” (as Always)

mrC

We’re reading The Giver right now. Most years this is the first book I make them read mostly at home. After reading The Outsiders and The Midwife’s Apprentice and Maus almost entirely out loud in class and demoing to them how to do this, I usually cut them loose on The Giver and go old […]

cartoons, Seventh Grade Behavior, testing

Whose Perfect Day?

mrC

The old-timers around here know that I have a test every Friday. There are several reasons for this: I like to teach to the test. If your test is good, it’s a good thing to teach to it. I usually work backwards from Friday’s test when I am planning for the week. This is part of […]

sticks, sword, tiki head

Didn’t He Used to Have a Head? (The New Guys, Part II)

mrC

I have a giant palm tree in my back yard. It is at least 35 feet tall now. When last we reported on this tree, almost EIGHT YEARS AGO(!?), it gave me temporary stigmata on my left hand–I’m talking crucifixion baby. But the other side of the story is that I like to carve tiki-stylie heads […]

classroom

The New Guys Part I: That’s Mr. McCaw to You!

mrC

I know that at least a few of you out there are fans of the Inanimate Division of my Classroom Crew. Well, we have an update for you Crewpies. (Is that too weird?) First, Clicker Guy has a new ‘do. He’s done with hats, he’s let his hair grow out, and he is busting an […]

Rerun, routine, Seventh Grade Behavior

Rerun: PIA -3 (2011)

mrC

Tomorrow is Friday; test day. Tomorrow will be Test #15, because we are in the 15th week of school, and we have a test every week. But this being junior high and all, there are still those getting used to the idea. “What are we doing today?” “What day is it?” “Friday!” “And…?” “It’s Friday!” […]

A Sound of Thunder, Ray Bradbury, The Apocalypse

Somebody Stepped on a Butterfly

mrC

“I don’t try to predict the future, I try to prevent it.” -Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury was as good as The Onion at predicting the future. Too bad he couldn’t actually prevent it this time. I have been in denial long enough. Somebody went time-travel hunting on November 9th, stepped off the Path, and killed […]