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	<title>Teaching The Outsiders (and more)</title>
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	<link>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com</link>
	<description>Middle school teaching: Five shows a day, 180 days a year.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:58:01 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Rants and Raves</title>
		<link>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/rants-and-raves/</link>
		<comments>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/rants-and-raves/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:50:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>mrC</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Book List]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Special Ed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/?p=2745</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have been illin&#8217; on and off (mostly on) for over a week. I  have attended an exquisitely useless meeting,  forced to grind my molars to powder in order not to make enemies of an entire department, the kids are on glue, and Modern Family was a rerun after I stayed up to watch all dopey and sick. I have been a little crabby lately. But I have also been doing a lot of lying around in bed, reading on my various devices. (I wish I had thought before just now, to convert my e-books to Palm format, so I could have been auto-scrolling, and not even had to move a finger to swipe.) So I&#8217;ve been reading some great books lately. Rant: I missed the Puppy Bowl for the first time since its inception eight short years ago. I always catch at least a quarter or so, but this year we were somewhere where the &#8220;real&#8221; Super Bowl wasn&#8217;t even mentioned. Too busy chattering about the upcoming David Beckham undies ad. I was too hungry to complain. I also miss the Bud Bowl. Rave: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party and the sequel, [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Illin&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/illin/</link>
		<comments>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/illin/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:49:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>mrC</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[cartoons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Me]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/?p=2739</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been one of the walking dead for the past several days (it feels like a hangover&#8211;or, ahem, so I&#8217;m told&#8211; with a cough). I finally called in for a sub this morning. I forgot that practically every math teacher in the district was supposed to be at their version of our &#8220;benchmark scoring day.&#8221; The difference with the math people is that they were required to come; ours was voluntary. So. It seems every sub in the district was out. My boy tells me that his class had a different sub than the other classes which means that they were covering my classes with the other subs&#8217; preps. D&#8217;oh. I used to hate doing that when I was a sub. The boy said his was 10 minutes late, and they were stuck outside the door, milling around. Which, as you know, seventh graders don&#8217;t do quietly. Another teacher shushed them a bit until the sub showed up&#8230;without a key. I looked online, and roll got taken in only three classes. Double d&#8217;oh. Anyway, I have spent almost every moment not at school asleep (yes, even on my bike to and from), so I only have enough energy right now [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>A Moment of Insightful Self-Awareness (and Then It&#8217;s Gone)</title>
		<link>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/a-moment-of-insightful-self-awareness-and-then-its-gone/</link>
		<comments>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/a-moment-of-insightful-self-awareness-and-then-its-gone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:51:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>mrC</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Seventh Grade Behavior]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Giver]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/?p=2734</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have one of those kids this year whom it&#8217;s really hard to get mad at because: 1) He&#8217;s funny, and 2) He just can&#8217;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&#8217;s just thought of something to say&#8230;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. &#8220;Tyrell? How about number four?&#8221; &#8220;Umm. Ok. I got this one. Let&#8217;s see&#8230;(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&#8230; That&#8217;s a compound sentence. That it is. Like a compound bow. Man, those things shoot far. I saw once&#8230;&#8221; &#8220;D&#8217;oh! Tyrell. That&#8217;s a simple [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>&#8220;The Sub Used One of Your Sticks!&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/the-sub-used-one-of-your-sticks/</link>
		<comments>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/the-sub-used-one-of-your-sticks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:37:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>mrC</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[substituting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/?p=2722</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Before I get back to the district assessment scoring day, I have to give props to the sub (sorry, guest teacher) who filled in while I was eating snacks and reading papers and &#8220;calibrating.&#8221; The scene when I announce that I will be gone on a particular day plays out the same almost every time. The following is from last year when I wen to my units&#8217; 50 anniversary, but it could be from any time in  the last 19 years.  There’s a mixture of yeas and ooohs. I always play it up, “I see how it is. I’ll miss you guys too…” Then there’s the chorus of, “You should get ______. (S)he is the best!” (Insert three or four names of pushover-type “guest teachers” who resort to videos or games of Heads Up Seven Up.) Then there’s me saying, “I never request a particular sub, sorry–guest teacher; you guys will have to learn to cope with whomever they send at you. Sometimes they will send you a bonehead. In your life you will sometime, no doubt, have a bonehead for a boss. But guess what? He’s still the boss! So the watchwords are: silence and respect. If you end up with [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/the-sub-used-one-of-your-sticks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Future of Space Travel</title>
		<link>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/the-future-of-space-travel/</link>
		<comments>http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/the-future-of-space-travel/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:48:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>mrC</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Seventh Grade Behavior]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://teachingtheoutsiders.com/?p=2727</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ok, so&#8230; Almost all of my seventh graders, for years now, have prefaced every story or new thought with the words, &#8220;OK, so&#8230;&#8221; Do yours do something like that or is it just my quirky crew? I&#8217;m back and I no longer hate computers. Just anti-virus software. I digress once again, and I haven&#8217;t even started. Now that I have a working &#8216;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&#8217;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&#8217;re the ones that ask the question you just answered. They&#8217;re the ones who can&#8217;t tell you that they&#8217;re confused because they aren&#8217;t actually there. This year I think I have the archetype. Let&#8217;s call her &#8220;Tami,&#8221; short for &#8220;Tamera,&#8221; 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 [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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