My seventh grade web site has been up since 1997, and I have received quite a few e-mails over the years. Many people have questions. I try to answer all the questions (and I really appreciate the kind words), but I’m sometime sort of lame about returning e-mails (I don’t answer the phone much either – and I will never own a cell phone). Since many of the questions are about the same things, I sort of kept writing the same e-mail over and over. Now I have this blog thing. I can answer the most common questions for everyone, all at once. 1. “How do you keep up with everything? It seems like you have a lot of activities and writing that has to be graded (outside of the CPS stuff) that would start to be overwhelming” Ummm. That depends on what you mean by “keep up.” I am often laggy about returning work. However, I can buy time as it were, as I lag on grading, by pulling examples from each class, making overheads, and grading them live in front of the kids. We use the rubric for that assignment (always use a rubric, and always give it
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.)