Category: Presenting the Book
MCTV is Live
“Yes, the camera is STILL streaming. Pretend you’re on Survivor and ignore it.” Alas, that is rather impossible for the seventh grade animal. The experiment continues apace. We’ve been live-streaming every period for about a week now. I even left the camera on a couple of times overnight. One of the kids wanted to watch […]
Continue Reading...My Classroom Crew (Inanimate Division)
If you’re a regular reader (I know there are at least three of you), you know that I rely heavily on the work of my loyal and diligent student assistants. They are all better organized and neater than I am, and they allow me to get a whole lot more done and a whole lot […]
Continue Reading...Follow the Plan, Stan (Sub Tips)
I had a sub a week or so ago who went off plan. hrrrm. Dear Guest Teacher, If you are a noob teacher, out there subbing (sorry, guest teachering) your heart out and trying get a foothold on a full time gig, and you’re reading this? Don’t do that. We don’t forget. If you’re just […]
Continue Reading...Quiz Show!
We finished The Outsiders on Wednesday and today was Outsiders Jeopardy day. I have a webpage with a grid of 12 categories, each with 7 questions, that I use as a fun finale/review/recap before we move on to the next book. The kids are in groups, and most years I just rotate clockwise through the groups, […]
Continue Reading...Old Guy Alert
OK. All of a sudden this year, as we are reading The Outsiders, I am having to explain (or GoogleUp-on-the-big-screen*), all kinds of things I have never had to explain before. Up until this year, the references I had to stop and talk about were always pretty much the same ones. You know, the ones they put into […]
Continue Reading...Were There Also Yessies?
We have a new candidate for greatest misspelling ever. And the sweet irony of it is that it surfaced during a spelling test. Plus, I think I came up with a new catch phrase (for that class anyway). I have them reading non-fiction for their independent KBAR book. That’s sort of one of the “big” […]
Continue Reading...Last Day of Summer Thoughts
As we all know, the longer you teach one grade level, the more you start exhibiting the same traits as your students. Some might say it’s a chicken/egg thing; it could just as easily be the reason you ended up teaching that level for so long is you were that way all along. Hmmm. (You […]
Continue Reading...Obligatory Santa Video
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 […]
Continue Reading...Hi?
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 […]
Continue Reading...IHAQ’s
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 […]
Continue Reading...First Day of School Quiz!
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 […]
Continue Reading...Virtual Mailbag: Yes, I do.
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 […]
Continue Reading...Hank vs. Prince. (Also: “Lean meat?”)
Most of the classes finished the pivotal chapter 4 today. We listened to Hank Williams sing “Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do?” My Hank bobblehead rocked, even headbangin’ a little. Most of the kids squirmed and looked at each other nervously. “Pony feels the same way.” I did have a few […]
Continue Reading...50% New Material
We finally had a regular schedule today (54 minute periods). Monday was our weekly TCT (Teacher Collaboration Time)/Late Start Schedule (43 minute periods – the kids start at 9:30 instead of 8:20; not as collaborative as hoped) and yesterday we had the ASB election assembly (assembly schedule: 47 minute periods). (Aside) As ASB election assemblies […]
Continue Reading...“Can we read Outsiders today?”
The down side of reading the book entirely in class is that there’s usually a lot going on in class. What with the warm up, a little grammar work, vocabulary, and whatnot (there’s always that dang whatnot), sometimes it ends up… “Dang it. We’ll have to get back to reading tomorrow.” We’re a little behind […]
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