A Day In The Journey

I invariably have a small amount of trouble teaching my students about objective case. I'm not sure why. It's pretty simple: when you use a pronoun as the object of a preposition, a direct object, or an indirect object, you use objective case. Apparently, this little nugget of grammar wisdom is skipped over too often, which is why people say things like, "Between you and I" (wrong), "My sister went to the mall with my mom and I" (also wrong), and "You are giving that to who?" (wrong, wrong again). There is a lovely little moment in The Office (US series) that deal with this controversy. I tried briefly to find the video clip, but YouTube is a vast marshland of video clipage through which I was unwilling to wade. Here, instead, is the text of the discussion:
Ryan: You know what I really want? What I really want is for you to know (the computer system) so you can communicate it to your people here, to your clients, to whomever ...
Michael: (Snort) OK.
Ryan: What?
Michael: It's whoever not whomever.
Ryan: It's whomever.
Michael: No. Whomever is actually never right.
Jim: Well, sometimes it's right.
Creed: Michael is right. It's a made-up word used to trick students.
Andy: No. Actually, whomever is the formal version of the word.
Oscar: Obviously, it's a real word, but I don't know when to use it correctly.
Michael (to camera): Not a native speaker.
Kevin: I know what's right. But I'm not going say, because you're all jerks who didn't come to see my band last night.
Ryan: Do you really know which one is correct?
Kevin: I don't know.
Pam: It's whom when it's the object of a sentence and who when it's the subject.
Phyllis: That sounds right.
Michael: Sounds right, but is it right?
Stanley: How did Ryan use it, as an object or a subject?
Ryan: As an object.
Kelly: Ryan used me as an object.
Stanley: Is he right about that ... ?
Toby: It was: Ryan wanted Michael, as the subject, to explain the computer system, the object, to whomever, meaning us, the indirect object, which is the correct usage of the word.

There you go. Short, simple, and sweet lesson in the use of objective case. So what brings this up in my blog today? This:

Now I realize the quality is rather awful as I was using my cell phone and had the setting such that I couldn't zoom. I apologize. The sticker says: Who freed who? Suddenly I understand why my students grapple with simple grammar concepts: adults surround them with ignorance. The end.

Now that I have that out of my system, on to other tidbits.
* I'm in the middle of Season 3 of Lost. I'm very, very confused and completely addicted.
* You shouldn't drive too fast in a raging downpour. This is not because of any visibility issues, mind you, but because water splashing up into your engine is a bad thing.
* The school where I teach uses ABeka for the main portion of the Reading program. We also supplement using the Houghton Mifflin Reading series because it involves more critical thinking skill development, and it's the curriculum the state schools use for Reading at the lower grades. Last year, because I was catching up with myself all year due to coming in at the beginning of the second quarter, I only used the parts of the HM workbooks that stood alone (ie, didn't require reading the selections from the HM readers). This year I started using the HM readers as well. They're really quite nice. The stories are engaging (albeit a little dated at times--a problem that's inherent in some ABeka stories as well, so no biggie), there are many pictures to aid in teaching predicting skills, and really excellent summary questions that include writing connections. I really wish I had been able to integrate this more into the curriculum last year. Of course, I did integrate other comprehension and critical thinking exercises. It will be much easier and better with this particular resource, though.
* Toe socks are fun.
* Funny story: Yesterday, I was bustling about the classroom as usual. I had finished the Language lesson and walked over to my desk, set down my Language book, and picked up my Spelling book. I then taught the Spelling lesson and the Reading lesson. About 25 minutes later, I walk to the door at the back of the classroom to line up the students to switch classes before PE. I can see my computer monitor and notice that my open document is currently scrolling up and up and up. I look at it for a moment and realize that it's been scrolling up and up and up for 25 minutes. I realize that when I set down my Language text, the corner of it had landed on the "Enter" key of the number pad. When all is said and done, I had a Word document that was 1497 pages long. Yes, 1497 pages. Needless to say, I went to the top, copied the two pages I was supposed to have into another document and just deleted that one. Hahaha. What a day!

I supposed that's plenty enough for now, all. Have a great weekend!

Posted by Renee at 03:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Some links:

timeline

names

first responders

memorial service 09

That is all.

Posted by Renee at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Around this time of year (ie a week and a half before school starts), I begin trying desperately to avoid the final stages of school preparation. Mind you, it isn’t that I don’t have a moderately sick love of school things, or that I don’t appreciate the beauty of having well-done preparations. Rather it is my constant fault of getting to the 3/4 or 7/8 mark and being “done.” Surely my readers understand that feeling. It’s the one where you’ve been spring cleaning and you only have to beat out the rugs and mop the kitchen, but you have just reached your limit…you’re done. It’s the one where you’ve complete 5 hours of the 6 hour drive and you are beyond ready to have arrived…you’re done. This is where I find myself at this point in the approach to the school year: wanting to have the completed and beautifully organized lesson plans and preparations all finished, but no longer having the desire to finish them.

Typically, I reach this point and brace myself to soldier through. This year, however, I stumbled upon a better plan. More accurately, a friend slipped a thought into my brain, and I latched on. Rather than soldiering through, I should find some other person to complete my work for me. I should, in fact, capture an elf! Yes, the more I thought it through, the more it made sense. After all, elves do beautiful work. Their quality is unmatched; their ardour to complete a task unquenched. The idea of hiring one did, I will say, cross my mind, but was almost immediately stymied by the realization that elves do not typically advertise in the “job wanted” section of the newspaper. Furthermore, I suspected that money was not an object of their desire, and I could think of nothing that I possessed that elves might find a fit trade for their labour. No, no. The more I pondered the situation, the more I was left with only a single path: I must capture an elf if I wished to avoid my work.

The first question raised was, of course, what could I use to capture an elf? This proved to be problematic for my brain at that moment, so I pushed the question aside for later examination. Instead, I turned to the next question at hand: where to begin looking for my elf. Of course, it is common knowledge that the elven kind prefer greenery and poetic scenery, so I began my search in the gardens.

I looked into the rose vines first, thinking that although the blooms were spent, the nature of the rose would be attractive to the elves. Yet, I found none.

I turned next to some obliging daylilies.

Again, there was no elf to be found.

I checked among other flowers and plants that seemed conducive to housing or hiding elves.

I even ventured to look into a particularly intriguing tree.

Yet all my efforts were to no avail.

They pointed me in the direction of a clump of rushes near the pond.

Although I looked quite carefully, I still had not found my elf.

At this point, it began to rain, so I was forced to postpone my search for a time. The rain was lovely, and I crossed my fingers in the hope that it might cause the elves to venture out afterward in search of after-storm beauty.

I began poking around behind the back shed, but my search was abruptly halted by a canine constable who advised me that trespassing in the area of the shed was “highly discouraged.”

I obligingly removed my search to another location.

After having exhausted every place I thought likely to house an elf, I began to feel my quest a lost one. Out of places to check, I decided to sit by the pond and wait for inspiration.

It was lovely. Frogs were singing. Mist was rising from the pond. The sun began to set in rare form. I paused, contented, to watch for a moment.

As the stars, and the mosquitoes, began to come out, I decided I had better be content to abandon my quest and finish my work on my own. My grand scheme for capturing an elf and save myself some trouble had fallen to ruin around me as I had been completely unable to even find one. I suppose it was all good and well, however, since I had never quite figured out how I might capture one anyway had I managed to find it. “Perhaps another year will bring success,” I thought as I returned to the house and my laptop and my meticulously saved lesson plans.

Posted by Renee at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)