Day five. My computer just died, so I am blogging from my 99 dollah HP Touchpad. It’s hacked to be an Android tablet. I’m not really used to typing on these here touchscreen things. I hope I don’t end up on DamnYouAutocorrect.com. We’ve been finishing up The Midwife’s Apprentice. (I feel like I’m trying to imitate Hemingway with all these short, choppy sentences.) Today we’re at the end where Alyce knocks on the the midwife’s door and gets rejected. So I stop and ask… “Why? What does Jane want Alyce to say?” Now just couple of days ago we were at the part where Jane visits the inn, and pulls a Magister Reese while talking to Magister Reese, indirectly telling Alyce that she needed to learn to not give up. I had stopped then, and we made a big deal of it. So,silly me, I thought they were ready to show me they remembered from a whole two days ago. “I’m sorry?” “For what?” “Ummmmm” “To promise she won’t steal her mothers?” “Not bad…but no.” All day most of the wrong answers fell into those two categories, with one or two outliers like this gem, “I’m good at cleaning and
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On the fourth day of Christmas… In all my years of schooling back in the day, I never got to ride the school bus. For first through eighth grade, I rode my bike to St.Mel’s–which obviously didn’t have bus service. Actually, I rode in a carpool for awhile until they figured I could ride the 2 miles on my bike. I think maybe about third grade. By seventh grade, I had a ticket. But I hadn’t ridden a school bus. I know…why would you want to? But I did want to. Then it was high school at Jesuit. Too far to bike. So we rode the city bus. Not quite the same, though there were so many of us going to the same place, AND doing all the requisite yelling out the windows, it might as well have been a school bus. Except you had to pay. (I know, our district charges for the bus now too.) Things got so wild sometimes, especially during afternoon boarding, that the city threatened to stop the line if we didn’t shape up. Dang those Catholic boys. Then, during my first year here, back in ’93, I didn’t have the right rain gear dialed in for
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Day Three… And I already wasted a whole weekend without posting. D’oh. Marion Brady to the rescue. I know listservs are so 1998, but as I have said here several times before, you should still be subscribed to at least one: MiddleL. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept of a listserv (or e-mail list), go to Wikipedia and read up. My regulars probably probably remember me beating this drum before, but I’ma gonna do it again. Go join up. People with problems/questions like our MrM’s get answers all the time from people with a lot more letters after their names than I have. You can sign up here. As I have also said before (here’s the first time), my fave contributor on MiddleL is Marion Brady, who has some revolutionary (these days) ideas about education. We all know that things like NCLB and “Race to the Top” and the testing associated with them are doing more harm than good. The tests are mostly about memorized knowledge and not about the skills need in a future world. Which, by the way, probably can’t be tested for. But there’s a lot of money to be made in the
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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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I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions. (I’ll wait while you go read that post. Really, you should. Then you’ll understand when I say, “Well at first I was like…”) OK. But I have made a December 7 resolution. I’m going to post 12 times between now and Christmas Eve. So here we go. On the first day of Christmas… I’m hoping we have some DEVO fans out there. I’ve been feeling a little crabby lately for various little reasons, and so the idea of ”Whipping it good” is rather appealing lately. So along comes this handy flowchart. But first you might want to rock to the song a bit before tackling the flowchart. NOW, you’re ready. Click for the full-size. Feel free to implement the procedure in your classroom. You’re welcome.
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I know, I know. Thanksgiving is over. Time for a new post. Well, I’ve been busy… I’ve been learning a lot about maintaining a thirty year old pinball machine. And, ummm, playing one. Digesting food. Seriously. I weighed myself TDay evening, and then again then next morning (barely–it was almost afternoon). Six pounds difference. I don’t know where it goes. Well, I guess I know where at least some of it goes. Trying to stay ahead of my video class. Since there aren’t as many hardware issues this quarter, things are moving along much more quickly. I have a couple of pairs who are two weeks ahead of last quarter. D’oh. Enjoying our 70+ degree weather. In November. Sorry. It’s one of the reasons I live here. Reading. Latest in progress: Damned (narrated from Hell by a 13 year old girl…there are certain contexts when a 13 year old girl’s perspective is the best one to have), by Chuck Palahniuk, the same guy who wrote Fight Club (never read it or seen it… I might now). Damned funny. Sorry. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (an epic in three parts totaling 1000+ pages — I’m about 1/4 of the way in). I love his work. It’s
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(to: my vice principal - 11/18/11) Joe, You know I was reluctant to let my room be the holding cell for your permanent lunch detention crew. At first things were pretty good, so I thought I was being a bit hasty in worrying so much, but in the last few days… There’s been some food on the floor. Mostly those large grapes from the cafeteria. A pizza crust Tuesday, but almost every day this week there has been a grape here and grape there. I think they’re mostly concentrated close to that stage area that I have by the front door. Two got squished on the floor, one got squished on a desk, and Jimmy N. ate one from under his desk today. He said it was tasty. I know, eww. But he was too quick for me and we all thought he was joking. Could you please have the wardens in charge start having the crims detail the room before the bell rings? And please start opening the doors a bit before lunch ends to air the place out. It smelled like chicken yesterday. Other than that it’s been ok. Thanks a lot. mark
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Of course my parental units also had to visit for my fittieth. (I tell the kids that as a certified English teacher, I have a license to make up and misuse words. Most of them believe it.) And here’s Mom sporting my 7th grade report card from the school year 1973-1974. So let’s deconstruct this “artifact.” First it comes in one of those tight-fitting envelopes with the little curved notches in the top for ease of sliding the card out. Mom didn’t spring for a yearbook that year, so the envelope has a bunch of signatures and a couple of “see ya next year’s.” It’s also signed by Dean Martin, right above my best friend’s signature. I don’t remember Deano hanging out at Mel’s. I think that’s the logo for the diocese. We were the Saints, but we didn’t have a logo. 1. Old school typewriting, typed by our school secretary (mom of a classmate, and as scary as the nuns). St. Mel was St. Patrick’s cousin. 2. Dunno why the COWARD is in all caps. She does that on the inside too. Now, let’s look inside. 1. There’s that all caps thing again. Must be intentional. 2. Knowledge of Religion. Catholicism from
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I turned fifty last week. Or as we like to say in my room, fitty. I’d like to think that’s accurate too. Although, my sister-in-law gave me a big sticker to wear at my (surprise) party that said, “I’m 5 Today!” That’s probably most accurate. Then she went and wrote “decades” in small print under the five. D’oh. My nephew was over playing my pinball machine this weekend. My wife had told him that she got it for my 50th birthday. “I can’t wait ’til I’m 50.” He’s 21, and he was totally serious. His girlfriend said the same thing. So did another nephew. Who knew fitty could be so desirable? All it takes is the right toys. Meanwhile, I’m feeling closer to 100 after this weekend. I will see you all on Wednesday. Here are a couple of books to check out. I especially liked Downtown Owl. Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman. Even though nothing really happens until the end, the characters are just so great, you don’t really care about the plot. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Narrated by a precocious nine-year old, who isn’t too annoying. Very touching and funny too.
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1. Raise your hand if you’ve had this exchange with a parent: “L’il Einstein has not really been paying attention when I’m giving directions, and that’s one of the reasons he’s not doing well on…” “Oh, that’s his ADD again! You’ll just have to…” 2. Raise your hand if you’ve been forced to fill out one of those behavioral observational forms from a doctor who want to prescribe narcotics to an 11 or 12 year old. You know, where you circle the numbers from 1-4… “Easily distracted” 1 2 3 4 Ummm. He’s a 7th grader. Duh. 3. Raise your hand if you’ve been forced to make “accomodations” for “ADD” kids. There are only so many seats at the front of the room and only so many times I can “refocus” a kid in one period. 4. Raise your hand if you have twice as many “ADD” kids as you had ten years ago. By that I mean, “kids with a diagnosis of ADD/ADHD.” Remember, you can’t call them hyper any more. Are you tired yet? Way back in the day, I was “diagnosed” with ADD. I don’t think it went by those initials then (they just called us hyper),
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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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