Christmas

Still Here

January 4, 2012
By

I didn’t keep my December resolution…obviously. I haven’t had a working computer for two weeks now, and I HATE trying to type on my tablet. My new computer should be here in the next few days, and I will be able to unleash the torrent of posts that have been backing up. hahahahaha I am looking forward to digging into Mr. M’s latest issue. We are getting some similar pressure around these parts too, and I am resisting it. So are several of our wily veterans. This one really fries my bacon.  More tonight, when I can hijack the boy’s computer. Before I get back to work, I just have to share the post that was supposed to happen on Christmas Eve. We were hanging out at my parents with one of my brothers and his family on Christmas Eve, and my dad puled out a sheet of Christmas-carol-themed Wacky Wordies. And we started shouting out answers, trying to be the first to solve each one. About halfway down the list was a picture of what looked like a “wise man” with a puzzled expression looking at a child in a manger. There was a big question mark. “What Child

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S-Dawg

December 29, 2010
By
S-Dawg

“The contents of this blog are top secret. We must use the Cone of  Silence.” “But the Cone of Silence never works.” “Regulations specifically state that in top-secret situations we must use the Cone of  Silence.” “Sigh. If you must…” “Why isn’t it called the Domes of Silence?” “What?” My eleven (and a half) year old still believes in Santa. Really. My cranky old self has to be careful. I heard him defending his belief to one of his friends the other day. “Last Christmas, I got a Lego Mindstorm from Santa, and I KNOW my parents would NEVER buy me something that expensive for Christmas, so…AND there’s a government agency (NORAD) that tracks his progress every year. They wouldn’t do that for a fictional character!” His homie had no answer for that one. We put out  carrots in the front yard  for the reindeer. We left crackers, cookies, cider and a thank you note. After he and his mom had written their messages of thanks to Santa, he brought it over to me to sign, while he attended to the snacks (counting out carrots–3 mini-carrots per reindeer). When he came back for the note, he was appalled. “Mom! Looked what Dad

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Christmas Stories

December 22, 2010
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I’m on my 16 day weekend. Sixteen glorious days of sleeping in. They say you can’t bank sleep. “They” are wrong. I do it every weekend and vacation, and draw from the bank during the 183 days of working. I go from getting up at 4:30 AM to about 9:30. For me, that’s the best part of vacations. This year the weather gods are not smiling on us. We have gone from 80 degree days a mere week and a half ago to five straight days of rain. Twelve inches of rain and lakes in my back yard. I haven’t missed  four days in a row of skating in YEARS. You call this vacation? I couldn’t imagine living in places where they get real weather on a regular basis. Anyway, before I go into hibernation and start hitting you with reruns  (“If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you!”), I have a few stories for you. Some of them are even Christmas related, a couple are even mine. (Actually, I started this post last Friday, but…) I usually try to stick with the routine during the  last week before vacation every year. Usually on the last Friday, it’s raining, and

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Thank You.

December 5, 2009
By
Thank You.

One of the reasons I’ve been lagging on posting this past week is that I was getting ready for our town’s annual Christmas parade. My boy and I have been rolling with the local bike posse in the parade every year since he was 2 (he’s 10 now). I used to tow a modified kid trailer with a drum set on it, and he would pound away as we rolled through our quaint downtown amid a steady stream of screams of “MISSSTERRRR COWWWWWARRRRDDDDD!” from the sidelines. But for the past couple of years, he’s been playing the trumpet in the school band, so I switched the trailer to more of a throne/rickshaw setup, and we roll with him riffing on “Jingle Bells” and “Old Saint Nick” from the rolling lawnchair. Well, they used footage of us from last year’s parade in the local commercial advertising this year’s parade. So for this whole past week, I’ve been getting the “I SAW you,” line from all sides. We were talking about it in one class on Friday (the parade was that night) and one boy suddenly (finally) picked up on the fact that I had a son. “You’re a parent?!” He was

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Random Featured Post

“There’s already something on the back of mine.” (Also: Racial Harmony.)

It was our first day back in the classroom after 8 days in the library. We were all glad to be back. “Oh, my clicker…how I’ve missed you.” One of them actually said that. OMG. What a day. Full of action, and laugh after laugh. First there was the video. YouTube is blocked in our district. Our head of IST keeps bleating about CIPA and how YouTube doesn’t filter, and…anyway, we can’t use YouTube. But finally, they created a workaround for us. We have to do things from home rather than from school, but it works OK. We find the YouTube video we want to use, and copy the URL. Then we go to the district’s “safe video portal” and paste it in. Then we can approve our own video, and use the safe portal to show it at school. It’s a bit clunky, but it works fine. Yesterday I added a video. I hadn’t even showed it yet, when I got an e-mail from my principal. I have only added a couple of videos before, but both of them were of the nutty variety, rather than the “educational” sort.  One of them is near the top of the most [...]

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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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