Guest artist

Stop the Madness

December 12, 2011
By

Day Three… And I already wasted a whole weekend without posting. D’oh. Marion Brady to the rescue. I know listservs are so 1998, but as I have said here several times before, you should still be subscribed to at least one: MiddleL. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept of a listserv (or e-mail list), go to Wikipedia and read up. My regulars probably probably remember me beating this drum before, but I’ma gonna do it again. Go join up. People with problems/questions like our MrM’s get answers all the time from people with a lot more letters after their names than I have. You can sign up here. As I have also said before (here’s the first time), my fave contributor on MiddleL is Marion Brady, who has some revolutionary (these days) ideas about education.  We all know that things like NCLB and “Race to the Top” and the testing associated with them are doing more harm than good. The tests are mostly about memorized knowledge and not about the skills need in a future world. Which, by the way, probably can’t be tested for. But there’s a lot of money to be made in the

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Tip o’ the Day

October 19, 2011
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Our tip of the day this time is from someone we haven’t heard from in a long while. In fact it’s been almost three years since this guest artist made his first and only appearance here. Since then he’s been spending a few years down under. And I don’t mean Australia. I mean 6th grade. But now he’s seen the light of day, and by luck there was a spot open again at our site, and so he’s back torturing both 7th and 8th graders in math (my boy included–who also had “mrJ” last year for 6th grade). And I’m back to stealing tips from him. First go read his first appearance here. Ok. On to the tip of the day. I know that when I have subs (sorry, they’re called guest teachers at our school), I always tell them to leave a detailed note about how things went. I also tell them to kick ass and take names, and I leave seating charts to make that easy. And I hate it when I get something like this: “All classes were great. Thanks for a great day. Hope to be back soon.” You are never coming back. Well mrJ had

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His Father’s Son. (Also: Collaboration.)

October 19, 2010
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This past weekend was my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary party. (I was the firstborn son, so you can do the math as far as age is concerned.)  I actually drove to Sacramento for the weekend. It all went smoothly. I’ll spare you the recap, except… Before the party on Saturday night, there was a renewal of vows ceremony at the church. Near the end of the ceremony, the priest called for the four brothers and their families to come up and group around the original happy couple. So we’re all crowded around up in front of the church, and the priest does a blessing of some sort. Then there’s a lull, a moment of quiet… BRRRRRRRAPPPP. My 11 year old boy rips a nice, loud one. I’m just going to leave that hanging for a minute, while I flash you back almost 40 years. Little mrC is in about 5th grade at St. Mel’s, and he and his friends are getting a little fidgety and giggly in Mass. Sr. Enda turns around and gives us the Exorcist stare, and whispers through clenched teeth that we need to show more respect in the House of the Lord. We last about five minutes. This

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Only 35% New Shtuff (But it’s Gold.)

November 2, 2009
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…I’ve been a little laggy about posting (again) because I’ve been revamping my school’s website. Check it out: http://lams.slcusd.org. …While I was checking out the sites for other schools in the district, I happened across a feature that Charlie Perryess, one of the English teachers at our sister middle school (about 1/2 of our 730-something students), has on his site. I think I may have to steal it. He only updates his site every three weeks (!?) so he gives a rundown of the activities and such for that time. At the end he has a section he calls, “Questions parents might ask their wonderful,yet not terribly forthcoming kids.” That’s the 8th grade version. The 7th grade version is, “Questions parents might ask to get a little more of an answer than ‘everything’s fine.’” (This guy also has to teach home economics and drama! The curse of diminishing enrollment.) The questions are beauty. Designed to check to see if the homework is done, in a non-confrontational, encouraging way.  My wife is sooo good at talking to our son this way. I have a little more trouble with the proper…tone.  Example: 1. Which character from Beowulf have you chosen to make

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Guest Speaker: False Assumptions

October 24, 2009
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Previously I have posted about the Middle-L e-mail listserv. I am again recommending it, especially for newer teachers, and those interested in education policy and the “big picture.” As I said before, sometimes you’ll go days without seeing anything new, but all you have to do is introduce yourself, and ask questions, and you’ll get answers and suggestions from some pretty intelligent and talented people. One of those people is Marion Brady. In fact, he’s the main reason I’m still a subscriber. Just Google “Marion Brady” and you’ll see why. He just had a column printed in the Washington Post that, as usual, hits the nail(s) on the head. I won’t reprint the whole thing here (even though Marion wouldn’t mind – he just wants the ideas out there), because I think you should also read the commentary after. Here are some choice excerpts. False Assumption 1: America’s teachers deserve most of the blame for decades of flat school performance. Other factors affecting learning—language problems, hunger, stress, mass media exposure, transience, cultural differences, a sense of hopelessness, and so on and on—are minor and can be overcome by well-qualified teachers. To teacher protests that they’re scapegoats taking the blame for

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Random Featured Post

You Gotta Have a Shtick (or a stick).

One of the things I like to say about teaching junior high is down at the bottom of this page in the footer. You’re too lazy to scroll, aren’t you? Fine. “Five shows a day, 180 days a year.” And there aren’t many crowds tougher than 7th graders. “This is boring.” The worst of all sins. Most of us who teach junior high have a shtick. A role we play, some isms we like to use again and again. Idiosyncrasies we play up for entertainment/attention value (oh the sharing I get when we talk about that word idiosyncrasy during “Monsters are Due on Maple Street“). The key is to make the shtick such a natural part of the classroom routine, that it doesn’t distract too much. Well, sometimes we need the distraction. There’s the Raffle King. There’s the Timer. There are the clickers. The Cage. Mental Floss. Nutty videos. MYOB. All of these are stalwart features of my classroom shtick. And as of a few years ago, there’s also the Quiet Stick. (four or five years ago – me visiting another teacher’s classroom before school) “Leenie! What the shiggy are you doing? Where’d you get this, and WHY ARE YOU [...]

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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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