another tuesday. . .
Well. Last week was pretty normal. We watched The Alamo with John Wayne. That was fun. It really is a pretty good movie. Of course, I love John Wayne, but it really is pretty good. We watched it for 6th grade history, but I ended up letting the 5th graders watch most of it--it just worked out better that way. Which means I'll have to figure out whether to show it again next year, or what. Of course, that is a year away. . . . Did I mention that almost all my kids failed their first vocabulary quiz. Yikes. And not for lack of my going over things in class, either. But I guess it's good in a way, b/c I find that they rarely realize the importance of paying attention to stuff like that until they see the grade. Or something like that. So, we took that one over again. And now they study vocabulary more. 5th grade is reading Indian Captive right now. It's the story of Mary Jemison who was taken captive by the Seneca Indians when we were still colonies. I'm trying very hard to give them interesting projects for literature rather than just giving them worksheets with short answer questions. I think we'll build a model of a longhouse. They would like that. Not necessarily related to specific content of the book, but it's important. And fun. 6th grade is reading With Lee in Virginia. I do have comprehension questions for that book, but I hate for them to be inundated with short answer worksheets about their books. I want them to enjoy the book for what it is. not that I don't want them to get content--that's important, too, but the gathering of content knowledge should be enjoyable in some way, rather than drudgery. At least, I think so.
Yesterday, my alarm did not go off. My mom woke me up at 7. I usually leave at 6.55. I made it to school (thanks to a secret no-traffic day) at 7.50. Just in time to organize my class for morning assembly. Needless to say, it made my day-start slightly rough. And when coupled with my raging sore throat. . .well, today, despite the frustrations to be chronicled next, has gotten off to a much better start. Stupid alarm.
Today was talk about citations day in upper school composition. They had all turned in their Latin research projects on Friday and only 1 of them had used any form of citations. Apparently the idea of using citations was a foreign concept in some way. So, we covered foot/endnotes, bib notes and MLA parenthetical references for fictional works, reference works and web pages. That was fun. And two of my boys decided today was argue day. One of whom decided to insist the Inc. doesn't mean Incorporated. Insisting to me, no less. Then the two of them decided to argue about my handwriting and whether what I had written on the board was "ar" or "or." Sigh. And it's only Tuesday. Sheesh. It was jsut bizarre all the way around. I even almost had to yell, and I had to threaten a student with a head thwack and detention. Sometimes I wonder why God doesn't let boys skip the wierdness of teenager-hood. It would certainly be easier on parents and teachers. Oh well. I got my discipline muscle mildly stretched. We'll see how far they decide to push. I don't think they realize that if they push me to the line, they'll be horribly sorry. (insert evil smile) Anyway. What a week already.