I like to stand at the door of my classroom and greet my 8th graders with, "Wuz up my nerds?"
They act like they hate it, but I know that deep down they love it... and think I'm AWESOME!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Holy American Classic Novelist Batman!

Today I introduced the vocabulary words for our next short story, taken from Mark Twain’s memoir, “Roughing It.” I explained how Mark Twain was a famous American author who wrote classic novels including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I reminded students that Mark Twain lived before television and internet, and how in those days, people had to read the newspaper to learn about what was going on in the world.

We proceeded to use our vocabulary words to complete the following sentences about Mark Twain:

As a young man, Mark Twain held a wide array of jobs.

Twain claims to have taken news stories and made them more sensational.

Twain preferred to earn his livelihood as a writer that as a miner.

It was more tolerable to write about hay than to work in a coal mine.

...At this point a student raises his hand...

Student: “So did Mark Twain do all of this before he decided to be Batman?”

Me: “Like I said, Mark Twain was a writer. You’re thinking of Bruce Wayne.”

3 comments:

  1. Hi! I'm a longtime reader and first commenter. I love your blog and your sense of humor. I suppose my admiration made its way into my subconscious, because I dreamed that I visited your classroom. It was very interesting, especially when a marching band came into the room playing a fight song, and when a young student pulled out a airsoft gun. :)

    Keep up with the great posts!

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  2. Brookworm271- That is hilarious. Hopefully your dream wasn't a nightmare. Thanks for reading!

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  3. oh bubby...this is so funny! i love reading your blog. Oh the crazy things we hear in the classroom!

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