Now that the boy is in seventh grade, his mom has been reminiscing about when he was just a little boy. (Phew… caught that one. The autocorrect thought I was trying too type little booty.) Since it’s Christmas time, of course she busted out his most famous impersonation. This is from when the boy was four.
I’d submit it to America’s Funniest Home Videos, but I think it might be too long for tv.
Ho. Ho. Ho.
http://mrcoward.com/xmas2k3.mov
I’m cutting this pretty close, ain’t I?
First off: Ok, Ok. I’m starting to find my happy place with research. Thank you for the comments and suggestions; I think next year will be better. You guys gave me some good ideas. We’re working on outlines this week, prepping for research. Among other activities, I give them partially completed outlines and word banks to fill them in with. I strategically place a few clues in the outline, and they have to determine the hierarchy of the various entries I provide, and fill in the blanks. Like this (the stats are kinda dated, but it’s a topic near to my heart): Topic: The automobile has become the American Nightmare kills 265,000 and injures millions annually, road rage and reckless driving have increased, better city design to decrease auto dependence, leading source of air pollution, alternatives to the automobile, main means of transportation, too many people dependent on the car, large SUV’s: rollovers and danger to smaller cars, more cars and more roads mean more traffic congestion, average car: 5 tons of carbon dioxide each year, contributes to acid rain and smog, leading cause of death and injury, new dangers with 2 recent developments, public transportation I. Main means of [...]
more -->
Thanks for the laugh!
I shudder to think where our country is headed with all of this testing and corporate involvement.
OMG, Survivor. As one of my other favorite bloggers put it, "Survivor’s fun sponge was finally squeezed, drenching
Alright…another teaching topic to discuss on the message boards. Hopefully I can get some good dialogue going as I did with my last dilemma. The following is taking place in my school:
New Principal. New Assistant Principal. The new administration has come in wanting to make a BIG change in the existing philosophy. That change…eliminate all zeros. The existing philosophy of the jr. high is that if a student does not do their work, they receive a zero. In sixth and seventh grade, the student might get an extra day, but in eighth grade, if the student does not have their homework, it is an automatic zero. This has been the way of the road for at least the last five years. They argue that the student is not learning anything by getting a zero and it is unfairly giving that student insurmountable odds of receiving a good grade in that class if they are getting zeros. The administration would like to make students complete the work during a “No Zeros Study Hall” which the teachers may have to take care of. The work will then be graded fairly and given credit for.
While this is just a small part of the new philosophy, I think that I am summarizing it enough to give the gist of it. Upon hearing this, I read a couple different articles about the pros and cons of this, but I am still not sold on it.
Any thoughts?
Our school implemented the “no zero” policy a couple of years ago, although it is not hard-and-fast. An occasional zero still slips by once in a while. None of the staff was really sold on it until we read ‘Power of ICU’ by Danny Hill and Jayson Nave. The two authors (who are real school principals) came and spoke to our district, and they had a big impact. We do not do the program full-force, but the parts we do have been working pretty well. We use the ICU lists, and it does help us have more of the students get the work done. Twice a trimester we have “ICU clearance days” where the kids who are caught up on their work get a fun activity while the kids on the ICU list have to get caught up on work. The book is worth a read.
We have an unofficial “no zero” policy. It takes a little extra effort on the teacher’s part to get all of the students to complete their assignments but we have made it work. The thing that was most helpful was instituting a “homework detention” that is separate from discipline detention. If a student came to class without their homework, we e-mailed our assistant principal who called home to arrange for the student to stay after. This year’s group of parents have not been as cooperative about homework detention, so we have had to use the academic referral process which lands kids in in-school suspension if the work is not completed by the deadline. I am contemplating instituting some type of missing assignment contract next semester – if a student comes to class without their work, they will have to complete a form telling me when they will (during silent lunch, homework detention, or homeroom- those are going to be the only options). I am going to have to check out The Power of ICU.