Seventh Grade Behavior

Are They Lying? Duh.

February 29, 2012
By
Are They Lying? Duh.

My brother Gregory House, in almost every episode, finds a place where he can say, “Everybody lies.” Welcome to junior high. “I left it at home.” For the fourth time in a row? Hmmm. “Mrs. McCheese let us out late.” Every day this week? Hmmm. “I swear I turned that in.” Not one of the no-names? Not in the pile for a different period?  Hmmm. “Our printer broke last night.”  Mighty timely, that. Seems like it happened last (several) time(s) an essay was due. What? Still no e-mail or flash drive? Hmmm. “I e-mailed it to you.”  Not in inbox, not in Spam. E-mail link on webpage. Constant hounding about how to do it. Hmmm. “My clicker juked me!”  Every time you finish one or two points below the threshold for SSI. Noticeable erasures on two questions. Hmmm. ” I am too listening.”   hahahahahahahaha. “I did too read the directions.”    hahahahahahahaha. “I was thinking.”   hahahahahahahaha. I know what thinking looks like. And that ain’t thinking. Unless you count thinking about lunch. Hmmm. “It’s _____’s fault.”   As Robert Plant once stuttered, “Nononononobody’s fault but mine.” Take heed middle schoolers. “No one helped me write this.”  So you went from this (atrocity) to this (fulfills every single part

Read more »

Only in Junior High

February 22, 2012
By

More home tech issues lately In fact, the last time I tried to post, I began with those very words, and when I got to the part about finally fixing everything, my router connection died again. I have been afraid to jinx it for a couple of days… But I think I’m back (again), and I have a couple of  those “only in middle school” things… No Way, Really? Two students in separate classes shared a birthday today. One of them was our astronaut friend from a few days ago. Her counterpart earlier in the day had wanted me to play it down when I noticed her birthday flagged on Powercheese, but our girl “Tamera” was almost offended that I didn’t sing for her. Or at least woohoo sincerely. What is it with seventh graders and birthdays? Oh, yeah, it’s all about me. (Meaning them.) Anyway, after I appeased her by doing a sufficiently sincere woohoo, I commented that she shared a birthday with “Cora.” “Yeah, I know. It’s been like that for years.” Completely straight-faced. Not joking in any way. There’s no reply to a line like that. It speaks for itself… Where’s the Button? A few days ago, I also

Read more »

90 Times.

February 8, 2012
By

I swear, their timing is impeccable. Just as I start to feel better and (presumably) get less crabby, the kids start to aggravate even more than usual. But I guess I should be happy that, for a couple of them, there might have been a breakthrough. And yes, I still call them kids. I crack up at the teachers who say, “OK children…” Gawd, we would have died laughing if Sr. Enda, or even the hippy art teacher, had called us children. The art lady almost didn’t come back after our reaction to her calling us playbabies. I have preached again and again in this here blog about how important it is to have a routine in a junior high classroom. Because no matter how many times they say they hate it when things are always the same, the reality is that they cannot cope without regularity and a routine.  So my class is built around the weekly routine: Monday: Go over/explain homework for the week. (Like I tell parents at BTSN, “If they come home on Wednesday, saying Mr. Coward just assigned this and it’s due tomorrow…it’s a lie. They get it all on Monday.”) Warm up that intros

Read more »

A Moment of Insightful Self-Awareness (and Then It’s Gone)

January 25, 2012
By

I have one of those kids this year whom it’s really hard to get mad at because: 1) He’s funny, and 2) He just can’t help it. Really. When someone says something, and he reacts, you can almost see the marionette strings being yanked as he does one of those double-take head shakes like in the cartoons. He’s just thought of something to say…so out it comes. He has this almost stream of consciousness patter going sometimes, and it is as fascinating to watch and listen to as it is disruptive. Today I called on him for an answer, partly because I wanted to yank his strings and bring him back to reality, and partly because I could see that he had the right answer on his sheet. So I thought it was win-win. No dice, cheese slice. “Tyrell? How about number four?” “Umm. Ok. I got this one. Let’s see…(pretends to peruse paper carefully; even pretending to put in a monacle or something, and scrunching up his face in concentration and stroking his invisible goatee) Ok… That’s a compound sentence. That it is. Like a compound bow. Man, those things shoot far. I saw once…” “D’oh! Tyrell. That’s a simple

Read more »

The Future of Space Travel

January 18, 2012
By

Ok, so… Almost all of my seventh graders, for years now, have prefaced every story or new thought with the words, “OK, so…” Do yours do something like that or is it just my quirky crew? I’m back and I no longer hate computers. Just anti-virus software. I digress once again, and I haven’t even started. Now that I have a working ‘net connection again, I can interrupt my other various ramblings to bring you a classic seventh grade character, the astronaut. Astronauts (many formerly known as Space Cadets) are those students who spend much of their time away from the place we call Earth. Seventh grade is full of them. They’re the ones who finally splashdown, give a startled look around at everyone half done with something, and raise their hands to ask what. They’re the ones that ask the question you just answered. They’re the ones who can’t tell you that they’re confused because they aren’t actually there. This year I think I have the archetype. Let’s call her “Tami,” short for “Tamera,” which she hates. A couple of weeks ago, she got around to checking her grade online. That would be about three weeks from the end of the

Read more »

Random Featured Post

True That.

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 Pony’s really sick. b) When Two-Bit says Darry could be a Soc. c) When Pony says he has a helpless feeling. d) When Two-Bit calls Pony chicken. e) When Pony says he’ll be well by tonight. “OK, number four. What’s foreshadowing?” The class takes care of that one for me. Most of them laugh, and one says, “I was wrong.” (Pony’s line at the end of chapter three, and a beauty example for them of foreshadowing.) “Oh yeah. Ok, so it’s C, right?” “True that.” “Number six. Darry, I mean Dally (they always mix up those names), right?” “True that.” (me, doing some “refocusing” of a gentleman off to the side) “‘Clark,’ could you focus your comments on the questions? Open mouth only applies if that mouth is talking about the questions.” “True that.” “And I think we’re done with that line, for today at [...]

more -->


Mr. Coward has been teaching on the beautiful central coast of California since 1989.

Archives

May 2012
M T W T F S S
« Apr    
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Recent Comments

Links

Privacy Policy

Tags

cartoons Charlotte Doyle Class Activities clickers CPS CTEL Flashback grammar high school idiosyncrasies irony Mailbag Me mechanics middle school teaching Monsters on Maple Street Moodle online learning oral reading Outsiders CHapter 5 Outsiders Chapter 7 RaffleKing Ray Bradbury Reading Richard Cory Seventh Grade Behavior Stories of Seventh Grade substituting Teaching Teaching Tips teaching with technology teaching with technology teaching writing Technology techology testing The Earth Men The Giver The Midwife's Apprentice The Outsiders Tips Tips for teachers Tom Sawyer Wiki Writing