Something in Your Eye?

It’s been one of those days. I had a good lesson, but it required a ton of stuff, including a whole set of copies I somehow left in the copy room. During my prep I was racing around trying to get everything together and as I was walking down the hall in the 8th grade [...]

The Final Word

I never wrote about it, but all year long Goofball had a big problem with gas. When I say big, I mean the kid produced an ENORMOUS amount of gas, and it stunk - that whole ’silent but deadly’ kind. For a while it was so bad that it was like being smoked [...]

City Slickers

I don’t know why I am still a little surprised every time one of my students asks me something about the country (not the nation, the countryside, fresh air, etc). Most of my students have never left the island of Manhattan, some of them haven’t even been outside of the neighborhood more than a few [...]

Young Love…

It’s finally happened. The romance that has been brewing between Goofball and Attitude Girl for the last 9 months has blossomed into full-blown ‘boyfriend and girlfriend’ status. I caught them kissing in the stairwell by the nurse’s office this afternoon. I broke it up and threatened that if I ever again saw so much as [...]

So Close To JUNE!!!!!!

Must survive until the end of May….
I swear, this is the hardest month. I am sleepy and have very little to write at the moment. The only entertainment from the students has come from (shocker) Goofball, who hid behind one of the classroom closet doors and made weird growling animal noises for 20 minutes this [...]

Kings of Mischief

A lot of people can’t deal with middle school kids. I can see why…they are totally crazy. The thing is, the are also hilarious. The boys especially are a ridiculous mix of immaturity and machismo. Today, it was the immaturity that won out, but in a rather amusing manner.
We were mid-poetry lesson (using repetition in [...]

Tidbits

The most recent major assignment the students had was a writing project using the Bill of Rights as applied to many of today’s issues. As I was grading them this weekend, there were two statements that I found amusing.
The first is from Goofball who was writing about the death penalty. He wrote: [...]

Old Lady

I bent down to get a sock from the floor this morning and somehow pulled a major muscle in my lower back. I could barely stand for more than about a half an hour, and sitting down was not an option. I managed to get to school and basically made it through the day. The [...]

Student Clothes

Goofball’s grandmother must spend a fortune on clothing for him. That kid is so accident prone it’s unbelievable and it seems like every time they come back from lunch he has either damaged, stained, or lost some article of clothing. Usually it’s grass or mud stains. During his bloody nose stage he must have ruined [...]

Little Men

Little boys always have something to prove. Most of the time my boys are trying desperately to prove how tough they are despite that they are mostly still under 5 feet. We recently got new windows in the classroom and they are a bit sticky and hard to open. My room was roasting this morning [...]