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Monday, 20 November 2006

  • The good news is that most who didn't have the science fair project either had enough guilt to stay at home or were very shamefaced at school. Even better, all those who didn't were excluded from going to watch our basketball teams (lose) with the rest of the school. Now just to deal with parents whose kids fail because they didn't turn one in- or parents who did the project and whose kids will still fail....  I have to stop being such a sap.

Sunday, 19 November 2006

  • Two days!!!

    Two days left until Thanksgiving break! I'll soon be in Colorado's happiness chillin with the sis, finally seeing her abode of about a year. Sleeping, eating and generally taking more than 3 hours off is going to be a glorious marvelous wonderful experience.

    I had to share this... we've been studying ancient Greece for the past two weeks, and last week we had a field trip to the IMAX to see the feature on Greece, we've talked about art, architecture, philosophy, culture, government, class structure, etc etc. So in review for the big cumulative Greece test Friday, I gave a quick open book/open note vocab quiz in class for some easy points/review. Words like Athens, democracy, philosopher, all those good things. However, at least a third of all the kids had some variation of the following experience (of course, one after the other as they tend not to notice much outside their conversations carried over directions or teaching.)

    (Student raises hand/calls out/freaks out. I walk over, ask what I can help with)
    Student: Miz Maaaaaaaaaaarsh! This word isn't in the book! I can't find it!
    Me (before checking the word): Did you check the index, the glossary and the section we covered yesterday?
    Student: It's not in there. This word isn't here!! (Freak out ensues)
    Me (looking at the word in question): You're telling me you don't know this word and you can't find it in the book?
    Student: Yeeeeeeeeeessss. It's not heeeeeeeeere!
    Me: Please read me the vocabulary word that you can't find.
    Student: Greece!

    Ah, sixth grade. Science Fair projects due Monday morning- we've talked about them since the first day of school, I assigned the final project topics about 6 weeks ago, and we've talked about them every day for the past 3 weeks. However, even with all that and the fact that they're worth 20% of this term's science grade, I have this feeling that Monday will still hold a few "Huh? Science what?!" moments. Especially as I had kids asking me at Saturday school what their topics were because they didn't remember. Lord give us strength.

Sunday, 15 October 2006

  • Another week,  onward!

    David Sedaris in town on Tuesday- that'll be a fun outing with a few TFAers.

    Friday- had a meeting with mom and grandma of troubled child in my first period. Then in my haste to endear myself to mom, I said "She's precious!" of the baby on her arm.    It was troubled child's baby brother. Oops.

Thursday, 12 October 2006

Tuesday, 10 October 2006

  • Week updates... and it's only Tuesday

    Highlights of the week:

    -All of Memphis schools had Monday off for conferences. We're hardcore and held conferences Saturday then had a normal 7-5 day on Monday.
    -Elijah puked. 4 times before his mom came to pick him up- desk, hallway, bathroom, classroom floor. I cleaned up two of them. Then he asked for more chicken.
    -Called a parent to tell her LaDeidra was acting a fool today. LaDeidra answered twice and pretended to be her mother, then disconnected the phone for 2 hours. I eventually called Victoria's grandmother who called the mom and we had a nice chat. I don't know that LaDeidra will be sitting tomorrow, or in the near future. Shame that it has to come to that.
    -Definitely felt played as the white teacher in some parental politicking. Ew, that's sleazy.
    -Copied each TCAP and Stanford test score from each child in the grade and will begin endeavors to educate each as to their previous scores in both subjects as well as how many questions they must get right to improve this year.
    -Starting section leading tomorrow at St. John's, quit Rhodes tonight, I think.
    -Ate some delicious Bunny Tracks with Lily, Meredith and Beth and felt better about being insane. Beth's lesson for tomorrow is to teach the Crucible to a class that will no longer be hers next Monday from a book that doesn't contain the Crucible.
    -Science Fair-ing away. Oy.
    -Helping run Student Government now.
    -Had my program director, two TFA recruitment directors and my principal observing me Monday. No pressure there. At least they weren't around when Elijah lost his lunch.
    -Finally "tracked" my kids to see where they are on each objective- mostly in the 70-80% range for class averages. Not as bad as I thought. Some are even close to 90s range. Gasp.

    And back to good and bad science fair project samples. Do avocado pits grow in milk? Only time will tell.


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Shannona

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    • Name: Shannon
    • Country: United States
    • State: Washington
    • Metro: Seattle
    • Birthday: 8/4/1983
    • Gender: Female
    • Member Since: 8/12/2002

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