When I tried to put the ellipsis dots (…) as a title, my blog software couldn’t cope, and title in the permalink became 1903. So I’ll just call this entry 1903… Today I witnessed another sign of the continuing de-evolution of seventh graders – isn’t each succeeding generation supposed to get smarter? We were working on apostrophes, and they were doing ok until… #11. (Lets/Let’s) go to the store. Two-thirds of them picked “Lets.” And to add insult to injury, they thought I was joking when I reminded them that “let’s” is a contraction for “let us.” “Wha? Lettuce? What are you talking about?” OMG, second day back from vacation, and they’re already wearing me down… 46 more days… Awhile back I talked about how the head of our district instructional services department had to finally track me down in my classroom to get me to show up for an EL in-service. I suggested to her that the way things ended up — with her coming to observe me and then sticking around after to talk about the things she saw, and how I could incorporate some of the stuff she was pitching into my routine — might be the way
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We finally finished Tom Sawyer. Some of them just gave up on me. Some of them realized it got easier as they went along. Some of them actually enjoyed it. But ALL of them had fun during one of our last discussions of the book; it’s chapter 33, where Tom and Huck go back to the cave for the money. Throughout the novel we talk about how Tom, when he plays, always has to “go by the book.” Or to use one of this week’s academic words, Tom always follows protocol. He climbs the fence, instead of running through the gate, after pelting Sid with dirt clods for ratting him out about the thread. He won’t “die” when Joe runs him through in their sword fight, because Tom’s playing Robin Hood, and he can’t die. He goes over the cliff with the ham, instead of using the trail, when they run away to the island, because that’s what a pirate would do. And he does it again in chapter 33. The bonus question on the quiz that day was… “*Bonus: There is an example of Tom “going by the book” in chapter 33 which he would probably be very embarrassed
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It’s been a weird week. We had Monday off for MLK. I was on call for jury duty on Tuesday, so I had a sub (sorry, they’re called guest teachers @ Laguna). To make it easy, I had the guest teacher administer the “District Benchmark Exam Part II,” the results of which I’m not sure what to do with. Mostly our English department has been ignoring them, saying the tests don’t really test what they claim to. Also, everyone covers the various standards at various times throughout the year – I don’t do a research paper until the spring, so we haven’t talked much about citing sources – so the idea of testing standards a-g in the beginning of the year, and standards h-m during the middle part, and so forth, just doesn’t work very well. Plus, why do I need to waste three class periods from my precious allotment giving yet another test? Anyway, I had the guest teacher give them the test, and I’ll figure out what to do with the results later. Then we were in the computer lab on Wednesday, to work on the Tom Sawyer Moodle. This is the main reason I’ve been lagging on
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Last Friday’s doodle theme was pranks. We don’t hit chapter nine in Tom Sawyer (the murder in the graveyard – where the plot finally begins) until tomorrow, so the book has mostly been the Pranks of Tom Sawyer. On Thursday we had talked about the part where Tom, after pelting Sid with dirt clods, chooses to elude Aunt Polly by climbing the fence instead of using the gate. They always take Mark Twain literally when he says that Tom was usually “too pressed for time” to use the gate. “How many of you have ever had to run from a prank? Not that I want to hear any details. But most of you will agree that the escape is part of the fun; juking around hedges, and crawling under fences, that’s half the fun.” Now they get it. Anyway, the doodle theme was pranks. At the end of the period, in my friendly class, I hear some giggling and nudge-nudge-ing. Then Kara (who’s dad was actual rock star) raises her hand, and asks, “Do you look at these doodles?” “Duh. My student assistants check them first, and we pick the ones that deserve extra credit.” “Uh oh.” “What? What did
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A lot of the kids have been having trouble getting through the early chapters of Tom Sawyer. Mostly it’s the vocabulary, though for some it’s the fact that they don’t bother to read it. Once we go over the reading in class, or I explain as we read aloud, they get it, and they like it. Today in class, we’re reading chapter 6 which begins with Tom trying to get out of school by pretending to be sick. “How many of you have ever faked sick to try to get out of school?” Almost every hand goes up. “Nothing changes in 170 years, does it?” They like Mark Twain’s sarcastic sense of humor, and how the goody-goody Sid is obviously a fool in Mark Twain’s eyes too. And they love the pranks. But it’s still tough, especially for the first six or eight chapters. Every year I struggle with how to get them to read it, and get them to get it. This year I’m trying an experiment. Our county office of schools hosts a Moodle server, and I use it a lot in my class. I have a whole Langston Hughes project we do online that includes quizzes and
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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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