Update: The standing girl from yesterday finished day two today. She mixed it up a bit with some one foot for about ten minutes here and there. She said she doesn’t do it in other classes. Hmmm. Clue one. She said she will do it again tomorrow. Inspired another kid in that class to stand. He only lasted about 25 minutes. We’re working on verbs now. We have watched “Verb! That’s What’s Happening” at least four times… (Aside: When I was a high school wrestler back in the 70′s, our assistant coach was a body builder. He was runner up Mr. California–he lost to our former governor out here in California–but he did win Best Arms. Needless to say, he mocked all of us mercilessly if we couldn’t lift a stack of weights taller than he was. But I filled the 90 pound spot on the team, and could actually benchpress my weight…which was some sort of line for him. So I got mocked a bit less. Unless I took off my shirt. But every time he competed, we got our revenge. He would spend the week before a competition buffing up and ripping as he called it. By the
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Gotta make this short; Survivor returns tonight. Last year’s crew of kids was, I have to say, a bit vanilla. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, but they didn’t make for good blog fodder. This crowd is a whole ‘nother pack o’ dogs. I think this year is going to be fun to read about, if not live through. First I have more “astronauts” than ever before. These are the kids who spend most of their time on Planet Janet or Planet Charles or just randomly wandering the cosmos. My thumbs got sore from snapping my fingers like a hypnotist all the time, so the Stick has been in heavy use as a focusing aid early this year. I think I’m up to 10 miles a day patrolling the aisles and whacking and helping and cajoling and REMINDING. (That’s would be waaaay up from typical 4.7 miles a day.) Now I think I have a whole new breed on my hands. I don’t even have a name for this one yet, because it’s so new–at least to me. One year I even had a girl who was prone to mini seizures, and would drop in the middle of class and twitch on
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Since we started on a Wednesday, today marks the end of the first week. It’s going to be a very interesting (read: long) year. Let’s see… I got several hand-washers. Not a bad thing, but a bit unusual for the crowd I run with. I got “Space Invaders” constantly penetrating The Bubble. This crew seems to have a larger percentage of these than usual. I got boxes and boxes and boxes arriving all the time with computers and monitors and speakers and cameras and tripods and lights and boxes and boxes and boxes. (I have filled five recycling dumpsters with cardboard and packaging, and I ain’t close to done.) I am moving furniture and building tables and ordering kids around as they plug in network cables and monitor adapters, and label cameras and charge batteries and make comics while we wait for all the cameras to arrive and get set up. Tomorrow is Back to School Night, and I still have to figure out what the video class is all about so I can explain it to the parents. With any luck they’ll spend most of the 10 minutes drooling over the equipment. (One of social studies teachers opined, “Those
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(I’m referring to teaching, of course, although the same is true for living through it, if only because it’s half as long. And I get to still say junior high instead of middle school because ours is still only a two year school.) I ended my previous post by saying that one of the biggest eye-openers of my student teaching experiences way back in the day was that I decided that I liked teaching junior high better. I know that high school teachers (do any of your kind stop in here?) will scoff, and non teachers might not see that they are two different species, but I like the junior high animal better. Obviously, in public school, the range of diversity is even greater than that of dogs. (Aside: I read somewhere that there is more variation in the size, shape, and abilities of dogs than in any other species. Update: I guess it only takes the flipping of a few genes to cause such variations in dogs, which is why it has been so easy for humans to breed so many sizes and shapes is such a relatively short time.) Anyway, with so many variations in (and intermingling of ) the
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Usually I like to highlight my many and various triumphs in the classroom, and offer tips for the unwashed masses; you know, success stories. Let’s call this one a failure story. They say that in science, a failed experiment will teach you as much as one that succeeds, maybe more. Hmmm. Let’s hope so. Every year I try to make sure, even though there’s a definite routine I follow, that I still have room to mix it up and try out new material. (Aside: Believe it or not, I wrastled for awhile about where to put the word that in the previous sentence. Wait, I’m talking to English teachers. Of course you believe it. But try it. Should the word that go after the word sure, or where it ended up–after the second comma?) This year, like always, we have the 600 Words/Week going. And, as always, they need something to do while I check on them every Tuesday. Usually what I have done is give them time to write toward next week’s 600 words, and a list of suggested topics that they can do with what they like: use, mutate, ignore, combine, whatever. I don’t care; just write. This year I
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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 chests, and then the other hand sorta slaps the back.” “Not that kind.” “Ummm. None.” “I knew it. It was a first for me too!” Milk and Cheese, the “True That” boys, were at it again. They were moving their desks closer together (again), like they like to do, and jabbering nonsense. Nothing major, and technically it was before class, but I said, “Well the quarter does end Friday, and I change up the seating chart every quarter, so next week I get to move you guys far, far apart.” One of our recent vocabulary words was crestfallen. I should have taken a picture of them to use as an example. Milk holds out both arms pleadingly (and it if it wasn’t sincere, he should be an actor) and says, “But…But…But… What about The Team?” OMG. The class is dying. Half of them are happy [...]
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