Tuesday, March 22, 2011
New Posts on my New Site
It case you've missed it, I have moved to a brand new site. Check out my latest posts: "Hot for Teacher," "It's all About Poop," and "Breaking News: The Titanic is Gay." Classroomconfessions.com Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Technology for Dummies
Check out my latest post, "Technology for Dummies," at my new blog address: Classroomconfessions.com
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you there.
Miss Lewis
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you there.
Miss Lewis
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Classroom Confessions has Moved
It's official- Classroom Confessions has found a new home at http://classroomconfessions.com/I use Blogger for several sites with students, and I want to make sure there is enough separation between them. I like the look of wordpress, I can do more with the site, and let's face it... I like change.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing more stories with you soon at classroomconfessons.com
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Parent Teacher Conferences... round 2
One of my favorite students stopped by between, setting up for the school book fair, and conference time to hang out. After the events of our last Parent Teacher Conferences, and the enlightening conversation about the Chilean Miner rescue, I immediately got my computer out and started typing. I couldn’t keep up, but here’s a taste of what ensued:
Student: “People think I’m a nerd. I’m not really a nerd. I just know things… but I do want to get one of those ‘NERD’ shirts like yours though. Oh my mom had a friend who was in gifted-and-talented when she was in high school. I’ve known her forever. They paid her way to go to college. Hey Miss Lewis, do you have your iPad with you? I was going to ask you if I could play with it.”
Announcement: “Mr. Vogel, Please come to the office.”
Student: “Hee hee hee. Did they just say Mr. Vogel?”
Me: “Yes. Yes they did. Why do you know who Mr. Vogel is?”
Student: “No, it’s just funny because that’s a car.”
Me: “Nope. That’s Volvo.”
I suggest that the student get out a netbook and work on our class blog or play some games. It gets quiet… for a while…
Enter four girls with no place to go. They also get on a computer. For the next hour, I listen to a whole lot of Katy Perry being “sung” at me, along with a slew of, “Come here and look at this” as they Google pictures of Justin Bieber and Taylor Lautner to ogle over. Then the musical renditions of Evenessance starts…
Skip ahead 20 minutes. The girls are driving me insane so I suggest they go elsewhere. They do. It’s quiet.
Me: “So what are you going to do over break?
Student: “I’m going to go to my uncle’s. I’m just going to hang. Probably get an Adventureland pass. Last year I didn’t go much, but I’m thinking this summer I’ll go on Monday through Thursday, not every day, maybe just Monday, Tuesday, and Thursdays, but I like Friday's too. Hey How do you get carpal tunnel from texting? Because on 1,000 Ways to Die there was a lady who had type 3 carpal tunnel from texting and she went to get some stress relief from acupuncture and she went to grab her phone and she fell and the needle went through her head. Oh, I like that Final Destination movie. It's crazy. Well, I don't like 2, 3, or 4; I like the first one. It was crazy. I want to see the new movie Paul with the alien. It looks really good but I’m not old enough to go. I’ll see if my step-mom can take me. I’ll go with her if she wants to see it. But she won’t get it. She’s old. She’s not young like me. You would get it because you’re funny, but she’s just old and not funny. I get driver’s permit soon. I’m a good driver. I’ve driven across town before on my own. I did really good, I just have problems with my turns. I’m more safer than my sister. It takes her forever to pull out of the driveway.
Now the girls have returned with all of their Katy Perry glory. I make them clean my desktops while they argue over which is better; Subway or Quiznos…
Student: “People think I’m a nerd. I’m not really a nerd. I just know things… but I do want to get one of those ‘NERD’ shirts like yours though. Oh my mom had a friend who was in gifted-and-talented when she was in high school. I’ve known her forever. They paid her way to go to college. Hey Miss Lewis, do you have your iPad with you? I was going to ask you if I could play with it.”
Announcement: “Mr. Vogel, Please come to the office.”
Student: “Hee hee hee. Did they just say Mr. Vogel?”
Me: “Yes. Yes they did. Why do you know who Mr. Vogel is?”
Student: “No, it’s just funny because that’s a car.”
Me: “Nope. That’s Volvo.”
I suggest that the student get out a netbook and work on our class blog or play some games. It gets quiet… for a while…
Enter four girls with no place to go. They also get on a computer. For the next hour, I listen to a whole lot of Katy Perry being “sung” at me, along with a slew of, “Come here and look at this” as they Google pictures of Justin Bieber and Taylor Lautner to ogle over. Then the musical renditions of Evenessance starts…
Skip ahead 20 minutes. The girls are driving me insane so I suggest they go elsewhere. They do. It’s quiet.
Me: “So what are you going to do over break?
Student: “I’m going to go to my uncle’s. I’m just going to hang. Probably get an Adventureland pass. Last year I didn’t go much, but I’m thinking this summer I’ll go on Monday through Thursday, not every day, maybe just Monday, Tuesday, and Thursdays, but I like Friday's too. Hey How do you get carpal tunnel from texting? Because on 1,000 Ways to Die there was a lady who had type 3 carpal tunnel from texting and she went to get some stress relief from acupuncture and she went to grab her phone and she fell and the needle went through her head. Oh, I like that Final Destination movie. It's crazy. Well, I don't like 2, 3, or 4; I like the first one. It was crazy. I want to see the new movie Paul with the alien. It looks really good but I’m not old enough to go. I’ll see if my step-mom can take me. I’ll go with her if she wants to see it. But she won’t get it. She’s old. She’s not young like me. You would get it because you’re funny, but she’s just old and not funny. I get driver’s permit soon. I’m a good driver. I’ve driven across town before on my own. I did really good, I just have problems with my turns. I’m more safer than my sister. It takes her forever to pull out of the driveway.
Now the girls have returned with all of their Katy Perry glory. I make them clean my desktops while they argue over which is better; Subway or Quiznos…
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Exaggerate: (v)- to magnify beyond the limits of truth
Today in class, we read some Mark Twain and talked about exaggeration. We talked about exapmples of exaggeration from the story, then for fun, I asked them to write a paragraph using exaggeration to describe their experience with this week’s snow storm.
To inspire their young minds, I showed them a Facebook post from my friend Brian:
Brian McMurray
Survival Log: Day 2 - Things are beginning to degrade. The snow has piled up past the garage doors making travel difficult. I have removed the tires from the car and shredded them to fashion a series of digging tools. Was also able to duct tape a fork to a pool cue and create a makeshift harpoon, which I immediately used to harpoon the neighbor’s cat. Poor guy never saw it coming but at least now we're eating.
These were some of the paragraphs my gems came up with... clearly we still have some work to do...
"I was so bored during the snow storm, I thought I was dead."
"On our snow day it was so bad. The snow drift piled up to the sky. The wind was so cold that when old ladies go outside, they swear up and down they see polar bears."
"There was so much snow I couldn’t see outside. We were out of food so we had to eat snow. I died of the ultimate brain freeze."
"On Tuesday, Des Moines Schools got out of school early because there was snow up to our eyes. We had a hard time getting home. There were 1,000 car accidents in 15 minutes. It was OUTRAGEOUS!"
"On Tuesday was a bad day because it was alot of snow. It was really coold outside. We whent home urly. It was exaggeration to be home and I didn’t know what to do."
"The snow was so white and deep it would go past your head. This big bad blizzard happened on Wednesday. Oh jeez it was BIG! The wind would blow you away all the way to Mexico."
"Yesterday during the blizzard we didn’t go anywhere cuz we couldn’t get out the door. My mom suggested we clean the house. We really had no choice cuz my mom was a force to be reckoned with. That was the worst day of my life. School would of bin better."
To inspire their young minds, I showed them a Facebook post from my friend Brian:
Brian McMurray
Survival Log: Day 2 - Things are beginning to degrade. The snow has piled up past the garage doors making travel difficult. I have removed the tires from the car and shredded them to fashion a series of digging tools. Was also able to duct tape a fork to a pool cue and create a makeshift harpoon, which I immediately used to harpoon the neighbor’s cat. Poor guy never saw it coming but at least now we're eating.
These were some of the paragraphs my gems came up with... clearly we still have some work to do...
"I was so bored during the snow storm, I thought I was dead."
"On our snow day it was so bad. The snow drift piled up to the sky. The wind was so cold that when old ladies go outside, they swear up and down they see polar bears."
"There was so much snow I couldn’t see outside. We were out of food so we had to eat snow. I died of the ultimate brain freeze."
"On Tuesday, Des Moines Schools got out of school early because there was snow up to our eyes. We had a hard time getting home. There were 1,000 car accidents in 15 minutes. It was OUTRAGEOUS!"
"On Tuesday was a bad day because it was alot of snow. It was really coold outside. We whent home urly. It was exaggeration to be home and I didn’t know what to do."
"The snow was so white and deep it would go past your head. This big bad blizzard happened on Wednesday. Oh jeez it was BIG! The wind would blow you away all the way to Mexico."
"Yesterday during the blizzard we didn’t go anywhere cuz we couldn’t get out the door. My mom suggested we clean the house. We really had no choice cuz my mom was a force to be reckoned with. That was the worst day of my life. School would of bin better."
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.”
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.”
Monday, January 31, 2011
A child only a mother could love
Today we were having a nice discussion about The Monkey’s Paw and the magic of irony. We discussed how messing with fate was destined to end badly for anyone who dared to use the cursed monkey's paw to make a wish.
In the story, the Old Man and Old Woman make their first wish for money to pay off their mortgage and keep their son out of debt. When the son dies in a tragic accident, the Old Man and Old Woman receive the money they had wished for, but as compensation for their son’s death. The second wish is made, and of course it is to bring their son back to life. During the night as their son makes his way back from the cemetery to their doorstep, the Old Man wizens up and makes the third and final wish for their son’s death.
Student: “That’s mean.”
Me: “If it makes you feel better, they didn’t wish to kill their son, they just wished that he didn’t have to come back all gross.”
Student: “So. It’s their son.”
Me: “You have to remember that he died by falling into machinery. Like you said before, he was all ground up like hamburger; the family couldn’t have an open casket. He has been buried for weeks, he had to climb out of his coffin and through six feet of dirt, and then he had to drag himself for miles back to his parents’ house. Now imagine that all of that had happened to you. Can you imagine what your body would feel like? Can you imagine what you would look like and smell like?
Student: “So. I don’t dress to impress.”
Me: “Well, I guess I can’t argue with that now can I?”
In the story, the Old Man and Old Woman make their first wish for money to pay off their mortgage and keep their son out of debt. When the son dies in a tragic accident, the Old Man and Old Woman receive the money they had wished for, but as compensation for their son’s death. The second wish is made, and of course it is to bring their son back to life. During the night as their son makes his way back from the cemetery to their doorstep, the Old Man wizens up and makes the third and final wish for their son’s death.
Student: “That’s mean.”
Me: “If it makes you feel better, they didn’t wish to kill their son, they just wished that he didn’t have to come back all gross.”
Student: “So. It’s their son.”
Me: “You have to remember that he died by falling into machinery. Like you said before, he was all ground up like hamburger; the family couldn’t have an open casket. He has been buried for weeks, he had to climb out of his coffin and through six feet of dirt, and then he had to drag himself for miles back to his parents’ house. Now imagine that all of that had happened to you. Can you imagine what your body would feel like? Can you imagine what you would look like and smell like?
Student: “So. I don’t dress to impress.”
Me: “Well, I guess I can’t argue with that now can I?”
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