Day 8: August 31st, 2012

Day 8:

Woohoo! It's Friday once again! Bound to be a good day right?

I finished reading Red Death to my 8th graders today. We discussed the story at the end and I got quite a good response from about every student, which told me that most all of them were listening and were truly interested in the story. You wouldn't believe the groans and moans and wailing I heard when I told them what we were going to do next: Write a new ending to Masque of the Red Death. You would have thought I asked them to define 100 words out of the dictionary! Nevertheless, the majority of them were able to write down an excruciating one page alternative ending to the story. This was also their first homework assignment for those who didn't finish in class.

I honestly cannot remember what I did with my 7th graders today (I am writing these posts from memory until I am caught up!) What I do know is that the class periods were shorter for this day and I was required to perform in a skit with three other new teachers in front of the school for an 8th period assembly. That wasn't so bad because most of our skit was done behind the curtain where hundreds of eyes weren't focused on us. Two memorable comments from 7th period (7th period is proving to be a difficult class!): "M" (girl): Looks at me and says "Are you going to have a baby?" Me: No, I'm just chubby because I just had a baby this last year. My conclusion? 7th graders have not yet learned the unwritten social rule that you DO NOT EVER ask a woman if she is pregnant unless it is glaringly obvious that she is. "A": Raises his hand (and all I can think is, oh no, what is going to come out of his mouth this time?) "I am going to be completely honest. I find this journal writing boring and difficult. I don't have anything to say." Me: "Of course you have something to say. The point of this exercise is to get you writing, even if you don't know what to say, so in the mean time, write the first thing that comes into your head and go from there." "A": Talking fast "Well, right now I have a bad song going through my head and I am NOT going to write those words down!" Me: "Don't write those words down, just write, 'I have a bad song going through my head and today is not my day'  Yikes! I can tell you right now that that will be the last time he does that in front of the class. I am going to let my students know that if they have a problem with what I am teaching, to talk to me after class about it and not bring it up randomly in the middle of class to make a show out of it. Wow, my 8th graders are really looking good now!