Random Featured Post – Teaching The Outsiders (and more)

Random Featured Post, Stories of Seventh Grade, Teaching, Twitter

Twits

mrC

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 […]

Quiet Stick, Random Featured Post, Stories of Seventh Grade

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

mrC

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 […]

open mouth quizzes, Outlining, Random Featured Post, Research Papers

Open Mouth Democracy?

mrC

First off: Ok, Ok. I’m starting to find my happy place with research. Thank you for the comments and suggestions; I think next year will be better. You guys gave me some good ideas. We’re working on outlines this week, prepping for research. Among other activities, I give them partially completed outlines and word banks […]

Random Featured Post, Seventh Grade Behavior, Teaching, three-word phrases

Three-Word Phrases

mrC

Seventh graders “communicate” mostly in three-word phrases. If the phrase isn’t really only three words long, they can usually pare it down. “What’d I miss?” It sounds like “Wuddeyemiss.” And it always comes right as you’re starting class. Raise your hand if you have had this happen in the past week. Past three days? Today? […]

RaffleKing, Random Featured Post, Seventh Grade Behavior, Stories of Seventh Grade, The Giver

“Do you love me?” (Also: Weird “Week”)

mrC

Wotta “week.” Considering how tired I am, I can’t believe it was only a three-day week – for some reason we had a 4-day weekend for Veterans’ day. And I done clean forgot that I was supposed to give the “District Benchmark Test #1” (that’s a whole ‘nother post) by Friday. So we spent Wednesday […]

Presenting the Book, Quiet Stick, Random Featured Post, Seventh Grade Behavior

You Gotta Have a Shtick (or a stick).

mrC

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 […]

Random Featured Post, Seventh Grade Behavior, Stories of Seventh Grade

A First!

mrC

This afternoon, I asked my friend and colleague, in his experiences with junior high, how many times he could remember seeing two seventh grade boys hugging. Sincerely. “Like a man-hug, or a real one?” “What’s a man hug?” “You know, you start out with the soul shake, and then you pull in and sorta bump […]

open mouth quizzes, Random Featured Post, Seventh Grade Behavior, Stories of Seventh Grade, The Outsiders

True That.

mrC

We had an open mouth quiz on chapter 8 today. One class has several boys who have a new phrase they’re trying out. Personally, I sort of like it. 4) On p127, we get an example of what seems to be foreshadowing. What is it? a) When Two-Bit says that Darry will kill him if […]

Random Featured Post, Stories of Seventh Grade

Best Faux Pas Ever. (Glad it wasn’t me.)

mrC

(Friday Flashback – Last Year) “Mrs. G” has been teaching in our district for over 40 years. She’s been at our school since it opened in 1980. She’s taught English, art, social studies, music, and much more. She is literally an immovable object, and doesn’t need to rise from her chair to strike fear (well, […]

Outside links, RaffleKing, Random Featured Post, Seventh Grade Behavior, Stories of Seventh Grade

Oh Raffle King, Oh Raffle King…

mrC

(Sung — way off key, and sort of warbley — to the tune of “Oh Christmas Tree.”) I guess we need to talk about the King. On Wednesdays, after we go over the vocabulary homework, and discuss the words, I give them a vocabulary pretest. If they ace it (100%), they are exempt from the […]

Presenting the Book, Random Featured Post, Seventh Grade Behavior, Stories of Seventh Grade, The Outsiders

“How cute. Like hobos…” (Also: Hank Williams.)

mrC

Wednesday. Vocabulary Pretest. Talk of facades and irony. Both figure large in The Outsiders. More on that later. Today I have more insight from my friendly class. We’re reading chapter 4 (the death of Bob, Dally helping with the getaway, jumping the train out of town), and we get to where Dally is telling Pony […]

experiment, open mouth quizzes, Random Featured Post, Seventh Grade Behavior, testing, Tips

Quizzes for Dummies?

mrC

A few years ago, while we were reading Outsiders aloud, I was about to give them my usual “reading check” type quiz to make sure they were following along, thinking about what we’d talked about, connecting the literary terms to the examples in the book, etc. I can’t quite remember what my inspiration was (probably […]