On the second day of Christmas… I had been crabby for the first half of the week for many and various reasons: a “mama bear,” a moron or two, a faculty meeting, the brrrnesss of the weather lately–30 degrees on my bike to school every day this week…really? Really? I thought this was California… But today was full of laffs. aside: For some reason, I just really love spelling it that way and seeing it spelled that way. I don’t know why, I just smile every time I see it that way. Here’s one of today’s knee slappers. (I think I might need to save some of the others for days 9 or 10, if the well starts to run dry.) A few weeks ago, I found a stash of the “consumable” workbooks that I thought we were out of, and we’re working (haha) our way through the “reading in the real world” type exercises. Yes I have blogged about this before, but instead of making you click the link to get the back story, I have conveniently included it below, along with the related “video,” which this lesson gives me an excuse to drag out each year. I’m sure my old
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I know I have been a little sporadic lately in the posting department. I’ve been playing around A LOT with my new Nook Color, and only some of that has been reading. I don’t know if you’ve seen anywhere that the hacker community has really taken a hankerin’ to this groovy little device. They’ve made it pretty easy to stick in a micro-sd card and reboot, so that your Nook becomes an almost full-fledged touch-screen tablet. Whoa! So I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting and app hunting. More later. Anyway…on to today’s pearls of wisdom. We’re back from a three-day weekend, and I’m looking to start slowly, maybe give them a chance for some easy points, review something they should already have down cold. Hahahahahahaha. I put a list of 10 words on the screen and said, “Make ‘em plural.” enemy, stereo, knife, wife’s, child, sheep, tray, box, volcano, Simpson The fun begins immediately. “Does spelling count?” (Seriously? Yes. All. Day. Long.) “Only if you want to get it right.” “That’s not fair.” “Wha? IT’S THE WHOLE POINT.” I give them about three or four minutes, and then we trade and correct. And here it comes: the most misused
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Currently: We have thrown in the towel on the faculty meeting, and are now back to doing what we do best; that is, observing the junior high animal in its natural habitat. Watch with me… The very first “literary term” I work on every year is point-of-view. It is such an integral part of why The Outsiders connects so well with them, that it’s the first thing we talk about. Why is the first person narrator so much more interesting? What can’t he know/tell us? How reliable are his opinions? Etc. We talk about how second-person is reserved for “choose your own adventure” books and instruction manuals, and how third person narrators can let us into every character’s head. We work it all the time. And, no matter what No Child Left Behind says, not every kid is gonna get it. No matter what you do, some of them just don’t have the horsepower sometimes. Every year about this time, I keep putting the same question at the end of every test. “___________ is written in… a) 1st person b) 2nd person c) 3rd person d) 4th person.” I fill in the blank with whatever book/story we’re reading. After doing
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I’m on my 16 day weekend. Sixteen glorious days of sleeping in. They say you can’t bank sleep. “They” are wrong. I do it every weekend and vacation, and draw from the bank during the 183 days of working. I go from getting up at 4:30 AM to about 9:30. For me, that’s the best part of vacations. This year the weather gods are not smiling on us. We have gone from 80 degree days a mere week and a half ago to five straight days of rain. Twelve inches of rain and lakes in my back yard. I haven’t missed four days in a row of skating in YEARS. You call this vacation? I couldn’t imagine living in places where they get real weather on a regular basis. Anyway, before I go into hibernation and start hitting you with reruns (“If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you!”), I have a few stories for you. Some of them are even Christmas related, a couple are even mine. (Actually, I started this post last Friday, but…) I usually try to stick with the routine during the last week before vacation every year. Usually on the last Friday, it’s raining, and
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I must confess that I am not really a fan of Halloween. I have always hated costumes and dressing up. In fact, I got married on Halloween just so I wouldn’t have to wear a costume on Halloween any more. (We bolted for Vegas in the little red Porsche she had at the time and we went to one of those chapels on the Strip.) My wife says it was because it was the scariest thing she had ever done. The bartender at the place where we waited for the “limo” thought we WERE dressed up for Halloween. But ever since we had the boy, I’ve had to do Halloween again. I do like the candy part. The kids think Halloween is bigger than Christmas. No lie. I think they’d give up a week at Christmas to have Halloween and the day after as holidays. I can’t cope. Every year it’s the old… “Are you going to give us homework on Halloween?” “I’m gonna double up. Halloween is NOT a holiday! Besides, you’re too old to trick-or-treat. Sixth grade is the cut-off. Escort your little brother or sister and take your percentage of the candy, but you’re too old to trick
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(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, not exactly fear any more, but…) into 8th graders’ hearts. She doesn’t care what people (parents, admins, other teachers) think of her, and speaks her mind whether it’s “appropriate” or not. She currently teaches 8th grade US history, and has been going toe to toe with a particularly pesky student I had last year. Now, this “Steve” sends me e-mails about how the posts he’s reading in the discussion forums on our Moodle don’t have enough thought behind them, and he has a real brain. But he’s a loud-mouthed pain in the rear, whose parents it seems, are wrapped around his finger. I was probably the only teacher he got along with…until Mrs. G. He’s still a pain, and though, like me she recognizes and likes the Steve underneath, she’s not afeared of giving what she gets. So… Food is not allowed in our classooms. [...]
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