3 May
Carol Lee Donut Eating Contest…
14.5 donuts. Record is 18. The kids loved it. It was disgusting. Belly to prove it.
Robby and I started off in competition and were not allowed to know how much the other had eaten. On number 13 we had a conference to discuss what number we were on. Tied. Truce came at 14 1/2…
2 May
Tim & Moby
The kids love Tim and Moby; I thought they might think it was corny at first. Much to my surprise, they are still young enough to enjoy it. I’m not so sure the higher grades in Middle School would appreciate it as much. United Streaming clips were a hit too; until I showed a clip from “Cold Mountain.” Now all they want is real pop culture, the good stuff…
1 May
Use the SOL frame question, even if it is crappy…
Today Captain Crablegs came to observe me and made a VERY good point (well, a few, but this one stuck out). While I am still following the SOL framework closely, I do not want be an SOL drill sergeant. I want the kids to enjoy class and want to learn the material, not just for the SOL. My hippie CT feels strongly about this. The SOL leaves out a lot of important information; for example, Westward Expansion does not include the Trail of Tears, the buffalo, railroads, immigrants, the Donner Party, etc. Those are pretty key components. When designing the text sets for the unit we were concerned about this and tried to include as much as possible in addition to the SOL curriculum.
However, sometimes I was so adamant and judgmental about the SOL that I underestimated the significance of their guiding questions and frame. The key question is what allows the students to tie together the material from the lesson and connect it to the overall unit. It allows them to put the lesson into perspective. Even if the question is garbage, use it. That doesn’t mean the lesson has to be garbage too!
1 May
Lost and Found BLOGS
The random/out of order BLOGS have been found on various hard drives and flash drives in Word Documents. They are being uploaded in the order of their discovery.
1 May
Student Technology Access
A number of my students do not have access to computers and internet at home. Because “benchmark testing” has been in full swing, we have limited to no access to the computer labs. One student in particular, who happens to be very bright, does not have a computer at home due to financial constraints. I asked him to bring me a note from his mom stating that he was allowed to create an email account here at school in order to access some of the online forums and collaboration sites we have established. He said he already had an email address and wrote it down for me. At the beginning of his address he included a http://www., i.e. http://www.studentsadress24@gmail.com. This broke my heart; clearly this was not a mistake due to intelligence, but rather a lack of experience and access.
Liz's Blog 