Now it’s time to turn your ear toward the version the 8th grade gossipgirls (and boys) tell.
(Disclaimer: My students are fascinated by the lives of their teachers but - because we are prone to modesty and good old fashioned “I’m your teacher, not your friend” sensibilities - are left to pure speculation. Though they don’t [...]
I think I’d be considered a “late bloomer” for most of the adolescent-into-adulthood milestones in life.
Working with 8th graders either confirms this OR confirms that we’re all going to hell in a handbasket.
One or the other.
It seems kids are more mature these days. I don’t even flinch anymore when a student says “Um, it’s 2009!” [...]
Me: Spit out your gum.
Female Student: I don’t have any.
Me: Then what was that white stuff in your mouth?
Class: Ohhhh myyyyy goshhhhhh. You are soooooo siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick, Ms. [Redacted]!!!!!!
Apparently, my head is in the gutter?
“Hey, we should look that up on SparkleNotes!”
-8th grader
Imagine you wake up with that “Geez, it feels so late” feeling. You look at your cell phone alarm, which you will NEVER USE AGAIN. It has mysteriously frozen at midnight. You click until it comes back to life.
It reads 7:30.
But, but…you have to report to work at 7:40 and, on days with good weather, [...]
My students just finished writing -or I just finished grading, whatever- short stories. This is the second year that we’ve used pictures from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick as story starters. In a nutshell, the book contains black-and-white drawings, each accompanied by a title and a caption, enticing readers to make up his or her [...]
A colleague of mine came back from her Department Leader meeting with a stack of books that the district had purchased, but that had since been deemed “inappropriate” for classroom use. Yeah, our district usually operates that way.
Anyhow, they were up for grabs for use in our personal classroom libraries, which operate by a different [...]
Since my close encounter with moving to DC - when I was scrambling for any morsel of what my future life/job/universe might be like - I’ve been reading several blogs from writers in the area. On the outside looking in, if you will. The public schools had been of particular interest to me -obvs- and [...]
Why Sarah Has Posted One Million and One Times This Weekend
Short Stories and Other Miscellany Turned in Last Week
(As seen compared to the size of my morning coffee. I don’t have a chance.)
“Don’t look at me,” says Iris while lying on a floor of strewn-about dog “toys.”
Yes, I’m even taking pictures of my dog and [...]
(Asks one of my students)
THEY DIE.
(Said in unison, in a “duh” tone of voice, from a group of students in the back)
It would be cuter if they were 1st graders.
But they’re not.