Stories of Seventh Grade

Way to Ruin the Mood

March 22, 2012
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We’re up to chapter 14 in Tom Sawyer. The boys are on the island, grooving on the freedom and nature and the tastiness of the food. I ask how many campers we have in the audience, and I get at least half. Some are very enthusiastic. “I would love to be on that island.” Then there is the 35% that didn’t read. Anyway, I’m trying to be more positive. And read more in class. Of course I try to save all the good bits for reading aloud. I skipped Tom Sawyer last year. That crew didn’t exactly have the longest attention spans in the world, so I saved myself the trouble. For some reason, I though the current bunch might be more receptive. I guess for the most part they are, but the early chapters are always a struggle. I swear the book gets more laughs when I explain/act it out than when we read Mark Twain’s actual words. It wasn’t like that when I started. They actually laughed at the sarcastic lines. Not just 5 or 6 in each class, but most of them. Back in the day, I used to be able to make a motion like I

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Heavy Mental

March 8, 2012
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Heavy Mental

I’m supposed to be getting ready for my trip to Vegas. My dad is turning 75, and he’s taking his four sons to Vegas. (Yes, I know; my poor mom.) We’re going to a place that lets you operate those big excavators for a few hours, and dig holes and drive around and such. I’m picturing some jousting, with the buckets clanging. We’re also going to drive go-karts that go very fast and go to the Pinball Hall of Fame. It’s going to be a blast, but I’m missing the first three days of next week, and as you all know, it’s much harder to be gone than it is to be there. And three days? I’ve been lagging on everything (like reading Giver projects and Perfect Papers) trying to write everything down and remember every little bit of  THE ROUTINE. Warm ups in order for three days? Keys so even the gluiest sub can walk them through it? Explaining how to check homework and books and vocabulary exemptions?  LCD projector and computer? Clickers? Keeping the servant busy for three days? Reading Tom Sawyer with them? I’m a little discombobulated. OMG…what about the video class? (I’m locking up the expensive cameras

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“What about the butterflies?”

December 8, 2011
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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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Traies?

February 15, 2011
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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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1st + 1st = 2nd

January 31, 2011
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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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Random Featured Post

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

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 darkening ovals to generate data for the district, AND there was a “multi-media” assembly that, amid the rock and rap, touted the beauty of trust and honesty (also: don’t do those things which I obviously can’t mention, because ads for them started appearing here). AND, yesterday was “parent visitation day.” Whole lotta scare quotes today too. Usually I get a pretty good turnout for these parent visitation days (it sounds like a Catholic holiday). Our previous principal (our present principal is an FNG, both to the job of principal AND to our school) instituted these as a sort of PR for parents. Many parents of ms’ers are more than a little leery of sending their little angels to the big bad junior high. (You should have seen the reaction a few years ago when the district proposed making our school 6-8. OMG. You’d have thought [...]

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

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