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#Post#: 3336--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: January 30, 2018, 2:24 pm
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[quote author=jackson link=topic=349.msg3300#msg3300
date=1517235930]
When you paddled Tyler did you go back into your classroom to
get your paddle after you had decided on Tyler's punishment?
Where do you keep your paddles in your classroom?
[/quote]
Yes, and I have a storage cabinet for supplies, which includes
the paddles.
[quote author=Zyngaru link=topic=349.msg3328#msg3328
date=1517320906]
A book that I enjoyed as a boy was "A Separate Peace" by John
Knowles Although there could be some crying with it?
[/quote]
I love that book, though I was an adult before I dscovered it.
It is on the syllabus.
[quote author=Zyngaru link=topic=349.msg3328#msg3328
date=1517320906]
So if no crying, I guess "The Yearling" is not an option. :o
[/quote]
I said that badly - I am going to risk getting the boys mad at
me, just not in the first six weeks - we'll wait until we have
things more settled.
#Post#: 3342--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: db105 Date: January 30, 2018, 5:57 pm
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[quote author=Jack link=topic=349.msg3322#msg3322
date=1517308648]
We're going to do Hatchet by Gary Paulsen next, and then I'll
give the boys a few options on where we go after that.
[/quote]
I'm not sure if the goal here is reading literary books or just
learning to love reading, without necessarily worrying about
literary quality. If it's the latter, Hatchet is a great choice.
Very readable and entertaining, and very suitable for boys.
What about Ender's Game? Flowers for Algernon? Cory Doctorow's
Little Brother? Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg's The Ugly
Little Boy?
[quote]In the meantime, word certainly did get around about me
paddling Tyler, and how he rated it. I first heard about it
from Kim Malone the next day, though she heard about it from
Scott and Tyler, not from her own (first grade) students (by the
way - Paden has a crush on her). I have had a number of
requests for parent conferences, which aren't exactly easy on
me, since I'm busy after school. I've been able to work some in
before school, some in when I get off around lunch time, and,
with Mr. P's permission, I've had some parents (and students)
visit me here.[/quote]
The requests for parent-teacher conferences are not related to
your paddling Tyler, are they?
#Post#: 3344--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: January 30, 2018, 6:19 pm
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I'm having to balance teaching certain materials and teaching a
love of reading. I have a few things I'm mandated to teach, but
I also need to make sure that learning is occurring. Love of
reading is probably the top priority, just not the only.
I know Hatchet is a great choice. The problem is that I have my
reading list pretty well prepared, and I'm trying to keep things
broken up, so we don't do too much of the same type thing
together. Also, I have a couple of reasons for wanting to do
Hatchet and Brian's Winter back to back, and I'm not sure this
is the right time to do that or not.
I don't think it's specifically about me paddling Tyler. The
discussions I've had so far seem to be more about my theories
and believes on running a class room and discipline.
#Post#: 3367--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: February 1, 2018, 4:40 am
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Ralph walked into class yesterday, talking with another boy (a
ninth grader).
"No seriously - look. Mr. Wells, (he) doesn't believe me about
Fido."
So, the first five minutes of class involved watching videos on
my phone of Fido performing tricks or just acting like Fido. Of
course, the entire class had to see them.
Now they want Fido to come to class for a visit.
I'm thinking - you just say videos of this rabbit hitting me and
chasing dogs and kids. I guess they want to find out for real.
Oh well - I told them that, if they behave, and if we get ahead
before the end of the six weeks, I'll ask if he can visit.
[hr]
In related news, Colt and I had a talk about some of the boys
whom he had over for the movie whom haven't visited before. He
likes some of them more than others, but there aren't any he
really dislikes. He was asking about how many kids he can have
over on a regular basis (keep it about where it is after school,
but a few more on weekends - during the days, not sleepovers -
would be okay). It turns out that Emmet and Ralph are friends,
so Colt had considered asking him over more often. Emmet has
asked his own friends a couple of times, but he usually just
hangs out with Colt. I'll probably talk with him about that
myself. Still, it seems like we all like Ralph, so he'll
probably start being a more regular visitor.
#Post#: 3372--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: kalico Date: February 1, 2018, 10:00 am
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Omg Fido..... who wouldn't love that rabbit
That's nice that Ralph will be around more and maybe they might
become better friends over time.....
Hugs kal
#Post#: 3506--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: February 5, 2018, 5:24 pm
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Well, it took a while to get through it, but we finished Count
of Monte Cristo today, with a discussion, then started the movie
(the 2002 version with Jim Caviziel). We'll finish it
Wednesday, with time to discuss the difference in the movie and
book, and then start Hatchet on Thursday.
The kids mostly loved Monte Cristo once it got moving, and they
did enjoy exploring the historical setting and looking at some
of the other fiction that is available focusing on that time
period, so I think we mostly achieved our goals.
#Post#: 3552--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: February 7, 2018, 4:42 am
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Three things:
First, I make a habit of reading the kids student records.
First, I'm trying to get know my students. Remember, most of
them are some type of discipline problems. Re-reading the
records as I spend time with the kids helps me be sure I'm not
missing things. Second, there discipline records are there, and
while Mr. P doesn't wrote for MMSA, some of them can be kind of
amusing.
Second, David recently mentioned (in chat) the Kid's Baking
Championship. Since we still don't know why the old forum was
taken down, I'm not going to post a potentially copyrighted
picture here. I'll just suggest you Google for Aditya, to see
the one I mean.
The reason I mention this here is that I have a seventh grade
student who looks a lot like this. His name is Asa Chatwal
(weird that a kid of Asian Indian descent has a Jewish given
name, but he's second generation American, so who knows). He
looks a LOT like Aditya. It's not like their twins - Asa shaves
his hair on the side, but wears it a bit longer and parted on
top, his glasses are gold wire framed and round, his dimples
aren't nearly that deep, and he doesn't have braces. Still, I
had a picture of Aditya on my phone in class yesterday, and they
would definitely make you do a double take if you saw them
together.
Asa is actually a pretty good student. He's listed as being
ADD. It's actually pretty rare for a boy to be ADD, since most
boys are also hyper. The problems are actually pretty similar,
except Asa doesn't fidget. He's actually a good student, except
I have to get his attention occasionally, which is a bit hard to
do without embarrassing him. I had wanted to get him a fidget
spinner, to see if an activity would help him concentrate, but
they're banned at school, and a number of kids have been paddled
for them, so Mr. P didn't feel it was a good idea to make an
exception for him, even just in my class room. Instead, I found
a book an helped him find a couple of videos, and i gave him a
dollar coin, and he's trying to learn to roll it across the back
of his knuckles. He's like me, where he seems to be able to
listen better when he's doing something.
Anyway, after seeing the picture David brought to my attention,
I looked up Asa's record just for fun. He's been attending here
since third grade. He's never been in serious trouble, but he
seems to get in trouble once or twice a year for ignoring
instructions or breaking rules. He's given some leeway for
being ADD, but you still have to hold them accountable. Last
spring, he had his only parent/principal conference, because he
was sent to the office for cheating. He wasn't paddled, and
didn't even get detention, so they must have decided he hadn't
been. I'd like to find out about that story. He has had one
pants down paddling, and that was just last semester.
Apparently we had a run of bad weather during the fall, and some
kids started playing tag in the hall. Of course, just running
in the hall can get you sent to the office, so you can imagine a
game of tag wasn't popular. A note says 6 boys from 5th to 7th
grade each received two swats (on pants) and were sent back to
class). Only three days later (that Friday) five more boys
were taken to the office. Three of them received two swats on
their pants, and two boys, who'd been in the first group,
dropped their trousers and got three swats - and that included
Asa.
He's been pretty good in my class, though.
#Post#: 3562--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Adric Date: February 7, 2018, 7:26 pm
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[quote author=Jack link=topic=349.msg3552#msg3552
date=1518000167]
Last spring, he had his only parent/principal conference,
because he was sent to the office for cheating. He wasn't
paddled, and didn't even get detention, so they must have
decided he hadn't been. I'd like to find out about that story.
He has had one pants down paddling, and that was just last
semester.[/quote]
Too bad you don't know how that got resolved, since it sounds
like he wasn't cheating. I can understand you not wanting to
discuss it with Asa, but how about asking Mr. P?
[quote author=Jack link=topic=349.msg3552#msg3552
date=1518000167]
I had wanted to get him a fidget spinner, to see if an activity
would help him concentrate, but they're banned at school, and a
number of kids have been paddled for them, so Mr. P didn't feel
it was a good idea to make an exception for him, even just in my
class room.[/quote]
I had never seen one of those until my spouse bought some roller
bearings and printed up a few spinners on the 3D Printer. I
can't quite figure the appeal, but I have since seen a few in
the hands of teenagers in the mall.
#Post#: 3564--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: David M. Katz Date: February 7, 2018, 9:26 pm
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It is good that you have found a way to connect with Asa.
I agree, apparently he was found to not be cheating.
#Post#: 3571--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: February 8, 2018, 5:49 am
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We're starting Hatchet in class today. Most of the kids liked
Count of Monte Cristo, but I think everyone's ready to move on.
Based on the reading we were able to do with Count, I'm
expecting to finish it and Brian's Winter by next Thursday.
Did you know there's actually a movie version of Hatchet? It's
called Cry in the Wild, from 1990. I only found it by
accident, but I'm going to try to make time to view it. Not
that I have time to show it to the kids - I wonder if I could
interest them in a Saturday viewing?
Anyway, back to Count of Monte Cristo - we had time to talk
about it at the end of class yesterday. Most of the students
liked the book. Some felt it was hard to swallow, or got boring
too often. Everyone agreed that 1) the movie was better, and 2)
Dumas really needed an editor.
[hr]
I don't know if Mr. P would even remember an event from almost a
year ago, but at least I can be honest with him about reviewing
the student files. On the other hand, I could probably tell Asa
something like, 'I was trying to get to know all the students,
and reading through your recrods, when I saw...' If Mr. P
doesn't remember, I might try that.
[hr]
Yesterday, the students were coming in first thing in the
morning. I have one boy named Paul whom I really like.
Paul has very dark, nearly black, brown hair, and his eyes are
almost that dark - they look solid, where you can't even see the
iris. On the other hand, his skin is very fair, and his cheeks
are rosey. He's an 8th grader, a few months younger than Colt,
but he's small for his age. It's possible he's just short, but
I've met his parents - his mom seems average height, but his
dad's as tall as I am, so late bloomer seems more likely.
I don't really remember Paul, but he's apparently been to the
house a number of times. He and Colt have known each other
since Colt started there, though they've never been close
friends. He has visited prety much every time Colt had an open
invitation to his class though - when School ended last year,
Halloween, Christmas.
You might remember that because they were altering discipline a
bit for me, because my classes were stacked with kids who needed
extra attention, all the parents were contacted and permission
was sought to put them in with me (I can proudly say that I
didn't hear of anyone being removed - most of the parents
actually seemed happy, but that might just have been at the idea
their kids would be getting extra attention).
Paul's parents contacted me to see if we could have a meeting
before the next semester started. I explained that I'd just
been in the hospital the week before, that I was back on my
feet, but I was running behind on a lot of things, and invited
them to visit me at home. They accepted.
When they arrived, I invited Colt to join us. Colt is not
especially mature or big for his age. If you're familiar with
the Tanner Stages, I think Colt is probably late stage two or
early stage 3. When you saw him and Paul side-by-side, despite
the fact that Colt is only three months older, he looks older by
at least a couple of years, even though Paul is probably 5'1" or
2". (Maybe that means he'll eventually be pretty tall).
Colt went and got Blizzard and Bandit (my ferrets) and the two
of them and Paul immediately fell in love with each other.
While the boys were talking and playing, Paul's parents
explained that they try to talk with all of Paul's teachers
ahead of time. You see, Paul is extremely ADHD, but he doesn't
tolerate meds well. They refuse to put him on meds for the side
effects of other meds, which then need more meds for the side
effects of those.
Let me say here that Paul immediately reminded me of Charlie.
When I first met Charlie, he was in a horrible place. He was
angry and bitter (and hurt and lonely) because his father had
abandoned him and his mom, and his mom had let the doctors talk
her into exactly the type of over-medication that Paul had
avoided.
I know it's stupid, but I fell in love with Paul at that moment.
His parents found a doctor who agreed with them and worked to
avoid that problem. It took a while, but they found a balance
where they medicate him as much as he can stand without harmful
side effects, and they deal with the rest with natural
treatments (some of which are actually effective) and behavioral
therapy.
"We assume that, since you're teaching at BCA, that you believe
in paddling."
"You can say that again!"
"Colt, why don't you go show Paul your bedroom," I suggested to
the little smart alec.
The boys left, and Paul's parents went on to explain that they
('well, mostly me these days', his father clarified) spank, and
they expect him to get paddled at school when he gets in
trouble.
"But we like to talk to his teachers before they take him on.
We expect him to be held to standards, we just hope his teachers
will understand his condition, and..."
She obviously didn't want to ask me to cut the kid a break.
Instead, I explained to her about Charlie - and about Zeke, and
really a lot of my boys.
"I think it's important to hold all boys to the same general
standards, but I also think it's important to work with the boy
and to appreciate not just his success, but the effort he's
putting in as well."
His parents seemed so relieved, it made me a little sad. Let's
just say that he's been back over here for a couple of play
dates (he and Zeke actually get along great, though I think he
confuses Zeke from time to time), and I got tickets for him and
his parents to see Black Panther with us, though they haven't
told him yet.
[hr]
So, back to yesterday morning. Paul came into class, took off
his coat, and hung it over the back of his chair. I looked at
him for a minute, then invited him to join me in the hall.
"Paul, I looked at your student record last week. I'm not
positive about this, but - if I turned in a dress code demerit
on you, what are the chances you'd get called to the office and
paddled?"
Paul's eyes went wide as he followed my finger towards his
waist, where his shirt was untucked. He suddenly looked sick to
his stomach.
"Pretty good?"
"Why don't you tuck it in before I have to write you up then?"
"Yes, sir."
Paul was wearing khaki slacks and a navy polo. He grabbed the
bottom hem of the shirt and lifted it up, tucking it under his
chin, revealing a very nice, firm and flat belly, as well as the
waistband of a navy blue pair of Fruit of the Loom boxer briefs
or briefs. His pants were far enough down I could also see a
hint of 'vee' at the hips, and, if not for his underpants, I'm
pretty sure I would have been able to tell if he had any hair
yet.
He was already undoing his belt when I spoke again.
"Paul, two things. First, where is the waist of your pants
supposed to be?"
He looked at me, then looked down, and tapped the top of his hip
bone.
"Let's pull your pants up and fasted your belt a bit tighter,
when you get your shirt tucked in, okay?"
Hie finished undoing his belt and reached for the button as he
nodded and mumbled 'yessir'.
"Good, and second, are you really going to drop your pants right
here in the hall?"
He'd been reaching for his zipper when he suddenly stopped and
looked around.
"Go to the bathroom, get it done, and get back to class. I
won't mark you tardy."
"Yes, sir," he said, not holding his pants up and together.
"I'll hurry. Thank you."
I just shook my head and went back to class.
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