Rerun – Teaching The Outsiders (and more)

Rerun, Seventh Grade Behavior

I Saw You! (Revisited)

mrC

One of the beauties of this job is that every day is different. There’s always something going on, or a crisis or silliness or whatever. However, in some ways, things around here never change. Back in the early days of this blog, I wrote a post called “Masters of the Obvious, 10/27/10”: Let’s begin with […]

Rerun, The Giver

(2014) Jonas = Harry Potter?

mrC

The following rerun was supposed to be posted last night while I was watching the season premiere of Survivor. As you can probably tell from the title, we are reading The Giver right now. And they are digging it. You know how it goes with this one: “This is weird.” Yes. It is. I told […]

Rerun, routine, Seventh Grade Behavior

Rerun: PIA -3 (2011)

mrC

Tomorrow is Friday; test day. Tomorrow will be Test #15, because we are in the 15th week of school, and we have a test every week. But this being junior high and all, there are still those getting used to the idea. “What are we doing today?” “What day is it?” “Friday!” “And…?” “It’s Friday!” […]

Rerun

Rerun: Dr. Crankenstein (2010)

mrC

I’ve been a little cranky lately. The sticks and swords are out a lot more often, and the growling has gotten more frequent. I’m having trouble myself coping with annoying people without punching them in the face. Maybe it’s the time of year. Six years ago at this time, I was also cranky. Maybe it’s […]

open mouth quizzes, Rerun

Rerun: Open Mouth Democracy (2009)

mrC

When I wrote the post below back in 2009, I had no idea that our democracy would completely implode this year. Somehow the “correct answer” didn’t float to the surface when it mattered most. sigh. Anyway, this one is from back when I used to do a full-blown 5-6 page research paper thing. And one […]

Rerun

Rerun: Sunny (2009)

mrC

Another fave student from the past story. This one is from 2009. Sunny. I have one class that has 20 girls and only 7 boys in it. Obviously this class has a different dynamic, as they say, from my other classes… (Grammar Tip: I just backspaced, and changed “different…than” to “different…from.” It’s “larger than,” and […]

Rerun

Rerun: Politeness Girl (2008)

mrC

The chorus of “thank yous” at the end of class has become sort of de rigueur these days–and it sorta bugs to tell you the truth–but back in aught-eight, it was pretty cutting edge for a student to say that. Oh how I miss Politeness Girl. She actually meant it when she said thank you. One […]

Rerun, Seventh Grade Behavior

Did You Ride Your Bike?

mrC

I don’t usually do two reruns in a row, but today I got, I mean received, the first flurry of one of the specialties of the seventh grade critter: questions that they should already know the answers to. The first one was the perennial classic, “Did you ride your bike?” This as they gaze upon […]

ADD/ADHD, Rerun

My Name is mrC and I Have ADHD (Rerun 2011)

mrC

So far this year I have had two kids come up to me and tell me they had ADD/ADHD and had trouble with focus and organization. Really? Gawd how times have changed. I can’t imagine walking up to Sr. Enda back in the 1970s and giving her ammunition like that. “So, MISTER Coward seems to […]

discipline, Rerun

Discipline? Umm, I Don’t Usually Have a Problem With That. (Rerun)

mrC

One of the things I remember always being asked, when I last actually had to interview for a job back in the day, was about my “discipline” policy. At one of my first interviews, at least half of it was devoted to how I would handle certain “scenarios.” I kept insisting that those things hadn’t […]

8th grade, Rerun, Survivor

Survivor is Back! Time for a Rerun.

mrC

It’s season #27 for Survivor. I have to admit I have seen pretty much every episode of every season. At two seasons a year, this is year 14. About 14 years ago, I remember reading a blurb in the paper (back when we still got a physical paper on the porch) about this new survival […]

Back to School, Rerun

BTSN Rerun

mrC

Back to School Night #21. Big crowd. Today’s column was mostly going to be a scan/pic of my hastily scrawled notes for this year’s gig. I must say that I really outdid myself in several areas, sheer sloppiness being one of those areas. And it really paid off. I think it was one of the […]

8th grade, Maus, Rerun

MAUS is back. (Rerun)

mrC

In my 20 years at this school, I have been stuck with 8th graders exactly three times. This is not one of those years, and since I am now the de facto “Introduction to Video Production” teacher, chances are that I won’t be again any time soon. Whew. Although I did consider asking for a […]

Rerun, The Giver

Turkey Baster?

mrC

It’s Giver time, and we hit chapter 5 today. The Stirrings! One of my favorite things to read aloud to a class of easily embarrassed 7th graders. Today, I’m going to rerun the post from this time a few years ago (2009!), when there was a decidedly vocal reaction to Jonas’s dream. I’ll be back […]

Rerun, Writing

Writing is Easy!

mrC

The wife just sent me a link to a very boss article in The Atlantic about teaching writing in secondary schools. It talks about how all that write-about-yourself and express-yourself and peer-editing (gawd!) shtuff assumed that by just writing and enjoying writing and talking to each other about writing, kids would somehow just “catch” the mechanical […]