April 2008 - Posts
My kids took the math test today. I really have no idea how they did. I can make a few guesses based on the sheet of paper where they signed their names and wrote down what time they handed the test in, though. Let's just say I'm not too pleased with
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Today is the day before the third and fourth graders at my school take the state standardized math exam. We had some review material to finish up, but overall, I tried to keep it light and easy and really tried to keep the kids' confidence up. But then
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Kind of a slow Sunday, so I thought I'd repost something that still gets a ton of queries and hits. And it's still topical, since I have just as many "odd" names this year as I ever have. So, please to enjoy, an old post titled, "Pimp My Name." You don't
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I auditioned for a game show here in Dallas last weekend called Whatta Ya Think? and I actually did quite well. If indeed they start filming in June as they said, I ought to be called back. Maybe that's why today I had game shows on my mind, and taking
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There's a great Carnival of Education but over at The Education Wonks this week. One of the articles that I really enjoyed was Coach Brown's take on people who think that teachers should stop complaining because they don't have it so bad compared to other
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This week's Mr. Teacher column on education.com is all about the trials and tribulations of getting kids to check the reasoning on their math answers. No, 11-5 should NOT equal 14! Nor should it equal 115!!! I started a Participation Posse today. Took
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I got an e-mail today through my school server that was a memo from downtown about the summer dress code. In my district, for most of the year, men wear ties and women wear hose. Summer dress code relaxes that a bit. No more ties or hose, it's really
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I am working on a theory for a new way for kids to learn more. Part of the problem right now is that many of my kids just don't listen to me. I'm imparting great wisdom to them, but they are too occupied with pencil shavings in their desk, microscopic
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One of my extremely hyperactive, misbehaved, needy little boys asked me a very interesting question yesterday. So of course I gave him a very interesting answer right back. He asked, "Mister Teacher, why do some people grow up to be bank robbers?" I could
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Well, as it was foretold, this was not an easy week with Lump. Here when I agreed to let him come to my classroom (yeah, like I actually had a choice in the matter), I figured it would just be a matter of overlooking the fact that he was doing absolutely
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This week's Mr. Teacher column on education.com may make you want to say Hey, watch your language! Since I work at a school with a very large percentage of Spanish-speakers, I have done a few things over the years to try to pick up a little bit of the
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There is a kid in the third grade who is not new to my school but who came to my class for the first time today. He had been in another section, but things weren't working out for him so well over there. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that he would
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Elementary History Teacher, over at History is Elementary (sounds redundant, but roll with me here folks) has tagged me for a book meme. Per her site, here are the rules: 1. Pick up the nearest book 2. Open to page 123 3. Find the fifth sentence 4. Post
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Ever since spring break, the air-conditioning in the third and fourth grade wings has not worked at my school. On some days, this has not been too much of a problem, if it's been relatively cool outside. But there have been a few days that have been downright
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I've had an influx of new students over the past couple of weeks, but so far the best story to tell has to do with the one who showed up today. Normally, when I post about kids here, I replace any and all names with the letter A. That just won't work
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This week's Mr. Teacher column on education.com is all about my experiences with teaching liquid capacity to my kids a few weeks ago. Liters, milliliters, pints, quarts, etc, etc. I gave them assignment and got some pretty interesting results. Go check
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I'm back! Did you miss me? For my dad's birthday last June (yes, June), I gave him a calendar with a couple of specific dates circled in the instructions to keep those dates clear. Ever since they announced that the Final Four would be in San Antonio
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This week's Mr. Teacher column on education.com pretty much wrote itself. Last year, I gave my kids some creative writing prompts during the last week of school. One of them was asking for what advice they would give to next year's third graders. The
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