Presenting the Book

Obligatory Santa Video

December 19, 2011
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Now that the boy is in seventh grade, his mom has been reminiscing about when he was just a little boy. (Phew… caught that one. The autocorrect thought I was trying too type little booty.) Since it’s Christmas time, of course she busted out his most famous impersonation. This is from when the boy was four. I’d submit it to America’s Funniest Home Videos, but I think it might be too long for tv. Ho. Ho. Ho. http://mrcoward.com/xmas2k3.mov I’m cutting this pretty close, ain’t I?

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Hi?

December 15, 2011
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Day five. My computer just died, so I am blogging from my 99 dollah HP Touchpad. It’s hacked to be an Android tablet. I’m not really used to typing on these here touchscreen things. I hope I don’t end up on DamnYouAutocorrect.com. We’ve been finishing up The Midwife’s Apprentice. (I feel like I’m trying to imitate Hemingway with all these short, choppy sentences.) Today we’re at the end where Alyce knocks on the the midwife’s door and gets rejected. So I stop and ask… “Why? What does Jane want Alyce to say?” Now just couple of days ago we were at the part where Jane visits the inn, and pulls a Magister Reese while talking to Magister Reese, indirectly telling Alyce that she needed to learn to not give up. I had stopped then, and we made a big deal of it. So,silly me, I thought they were ready to show me they remembered from a whole two days ago. “I’m sorry?” “For what?” “Ummmmm” “To promise she won’t steal her mothers?” “Not bad…but no.” All day most of the wrong answers fell into those two categories, with one or two outliers like this gem, “I’m good at cleaning and

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IHAQ’s

September 23, 2010
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You all know the type. They might as well just walk in the door with their hand up. Actually some sort of do. They are the question machines, also known as IHAQ’s (pronounced I Hacks). “I have a question.” They have a question about EVERYTHING, many times BEFORE you even start talking. I have a couple of serious IHAQ’s this year. One girl would be a lock to win one of those challenges on Survivor where you have to keep your hand over your head or your bucket of water puts out your fire or something. I have a question. Actually I have four. Is that ok? One: Why do they always say, “I have a question”? Of course you have a question; that’s why you raised your hand. And if you have a comment, rather than a question,  you can still just raise your hand, and make your comment. You don’t have to preface it with, “I have a comment.” It’s like those kids who think a conclusion to an essay sounds like this, “…And that’s why I think cheese-making should be an elective in the seventh grade wheel…” Well, duh. Two: When the hand is up, what is

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First Day of School Quiz!

August 25, 2010
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OK. This time for real. Daily, baby. Well maybe… It seems like I wait longer and longer each year to get ready for school. We started today. I went in Monday and started hooking things up, but most of that day was spent in meetings, checking out our district’s latest software purchase, DataDirector (more on this later in the post), and hounding IST to fix all the stuff they broke over the summer (they were actually very nice about it…except for…well anyway…) First Day Quiz Question One: What was the most common computer issue your gallant narrator had to fix for people yesterday, during our one prep day? a) printer not working b) mouse not working c)  software that used to be there isn’t any more d) monitor resolution e) can’t play dvd’s You’d think I might have started earlier this year, what with teaching eighth grade for the first time since 03/04 and all, but you’d be wrong. I was at Refugio Beach all last week, instead of getting ready.  Oh well. Our district has subscribed to a new web-based data service. IST, it seems, has been spending their a good portion of their time entering three years’ worth

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Virtual Mailbag: Yes, I do.

November 14, 2009
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Over there in the comments, Christine (thanks for the nice words) asks if I really read the whole of The Outsiders to the kids. Ummm, yeah. That’s sort of one of my shticks. Well, more like a hook. As in the fishing metaphor. The Outsiders is the hook I use to draw reluctant 7th graders into English and reading and actual discussions and such, and make them like it. In 16 years of teaching this book, I have yet to meet a 7th grader who doesn’t love it. But if you give it to them and let them go on their own, they will devour it in hours, and while they will still love it, they will miss two-thirds of what the book has to offer. And if you do the whole “popcorn” reading thing…well, no offense, but let me just say that I HATE THAT! The kids have to hear the rhythms and the feel of the dialogue and the writing, and I think one of the big problems kids have with reading comprehension is that many of them read so slowly that they lose the overall meaning. (More on this later.)  So unless you have a class full

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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.

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