Smart aleck

I know, lots of school entries lately. But you'll be patient, right? I don't have my own babies, so my students fill that void right now. And, I spend more time with them than anyone else during the school year if you really think about it.

Today, during fourth hour, kids are working on their maps of Ship Trap Island (from Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game"). They are using context clues to determine where the different locations on the island go. They think they are drawing maps. They are really doing a close second reading before I assign them another essay. This is the second essay in a month, the third this year so far. We've been spending a lot of time talking about how in an essay you need to include both facts (concrete details) and your opinion about / explanation of those facts (commentary). It's a hard concept for them to grasp, thus the second essay less than a week after they turned in the first. In fact, I haven't even graded the first essays yet. That's my task this weekend so I know where we need to spend more time focusing. I'm guessing we'll be talking more about concrete details, commentary, and conclusions. But that's just a guess.

I'm mean like that. Tricking them into doing some learning with a fun activity. That just tickles my funny bone!

Anyway, it's fairly quiet in the room. I'm walking around signing their daily reading logs (yeah, they have to read and write EVERY day for homework - I told you I was mean), when all of a sudden, there's a bit of commotion across the room.

L has killed a fly on his book. He’s pretty excited about it. I looked up to figure out what’s going on, and Y tells me, “It’s okay, Miss, he’s just killed a fly. It was on his book, though. There’s blood and guts and intestines all over it." Then, as an afterthought he added, "Oh, and pus.”

I said, “Did you really have to add that last one?? That’s gross, Y.”

He said, “Sorry, Miss. I was just adding details. Concrete details. Would you like some commentary, too?”

Smart aleck.

I love my job.