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Uh Oh. (Also Cartoons.)

August 26, 2011
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Woo Hoo! The first week is in the books. You gotta love those three day weeks. First week shtuff: I’m a bit worried. I herded them into the computer lab for the STAR reading test today. (Aside: It’s from the same people who make Accelerated Reader. We still have the old version, not the web-based Renaissance Learning version. We’ll have to go to that next year as we migrate to Windows 7, but for now it’s refreshingly old-school. You don’t even get to use your mouse. ) And the bottom line is that I have more kids reading at a 4-5th grade level or less than ever before. But I also have almost as many kids reading at a “12+” level. So while my mean is about 7-8, the reality is that “teaching to the middle” just ain’t gonna work. I don’t have a whole buncha kids actually at grade level; they’re all way advanced (the few who didn’t get siphoned off to “accelerated”) or well below. D’oh. Also, the boy aced it. I haven’t had a PHS (Post High School) instructional reading level in years. Hard to say at this point if that’s necessarily a great thing. Will he

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Maybe I could get used to this. Maybe.

April 8, 2010
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I voted against the two-week spring break schedule. The union put it to a vote last year, and the two-week break won out 51-49%. I liked starting later in the fall, and spring around these parts is pretty windy, while fall is postcard weather. And it puts a big Christmas-like hole in the middle of whatever you’re doing this time of year. Etc. Right now though, it’s looking pretty good. I just realized that we’re eight days into April, and I haven’t worked a lick this month, and then some. I’ve been sleeping in every day, and even managed a couple of days of skiing. It was the first time in 12+ years, and I rented a pair of those short dog snow skates, 99cm, the better to imitate my fruitbooting experience, and didn’t crash…much. The weather was beauty, the snow was fresh, and everybody else was back at school, so the place was empty. I’m actually a bit tattered because I got so many runs in, and sunburned. So maybe next year I vote yes…? Obviously I’ve been lagging. That’s the problem with this two week break thing; you forget how much you think you’re going to do but

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Sheep

August 27, 2009
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Another first day of school. It’s actually kind of fun (except for the getting up @ 5 am part). The seventh graders are all in their seats well before the passing period is over, and they’re still so eager, and not…well…eighth graders. The eighth graders I flunked last year (sad to say that number has averaged about 15% over the last 16 years) have all gone to summer school so they can be eighth graders, but they don’t hold a grudge. “Hi Mr. Coward. You gave me an F last year, but you’re still my favorite teacher. How are the sevvies this year? They seem so short.” “That’s what the eighth graders said about you last year.” First day highlights: Our new principal (third one in three years) seems to have our unruly staff well in hand so far. (It’s still early.) I have a student this year whose oldest brother I had during my first year at this school. Sixteen years ago! His brother is 28! I have the fifth sibling from the same family this year. I thought it was number six, but I miscounted. “I hope you’re the last one.”  He is. “Did I get all of

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Random Featured Post

“How cute. Like hobos…” (Also: Hank Williams.)

Wednesday. Vocabulary Pretest. Talk of facades and irony. Both figure large in The Outsiders. More on that later. Today I have more insight from my friendly class. We’re reading chapter 4 (the death of Bob, Dally helping with the getaway, jumping the train out of town), and we get to where Dally is telling Pony and Johnny to “hop the 3:15 freight to Windrixville.” We pause and talk about how it’s only been less than 36 hours (book time) since the beginning. They find it hard to believe until we start to do the timeline. Figure that Pony gets out of the movie in the late afternoon, and gets jumped and saved. Pony and Johnny and Dally go to the Nightly Double the next night, and it’s now 3:15am that same night. Then I make sure they know that a freight is a train. And one girl says, “How cute. Like hobos…” Hobos maybe. Cute? [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do? When the boys run to find Dally at Buck Merrill’s house, Pony offers a brief description of Buck that ends with, “…he was out of it. He dug [...]

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

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