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#Post#: 3762--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Adric Date: February 14, 2018, 2:03 pm
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[quote author=Jack link=topic=349.msg3757#msg3757
date=1518627744]
However, by the time he stood up to go to the library, he
stretched again, and I realized his shirt was untucked, and his
pants were half way down his hips (or lack thereof). :oops:
Guess I'll talk to Mr. P about taking it easy on him for
that.[/quote]
Good idea, but it's hard to see how Mr. P could justify going
easy on Gary without going easy on every other boy. Better if
Gary's teachers could somehow just fail to notice his multiple
unintentional dress code violations.
I'm sympathetic to Gary's problem because I remember what it was
like to be a little one with no hips trying to keep my shirt in
and my pants up. It was an all-consuming effort. My ultimate
solution was suspenders but I wouldn't wish that on any kid.
They worked fine but they were an irresistible attraction to
other kids who wanted to pull them back and snap them. What
would have worked better would be some kind of attachment
(velcro?) to attach the pants to the shirttail. That would both
hold up the pants and keep the tail tucked. Another would be
elastic in the waistband since that would apply a more constant
tension than a belt. Just tightening the belt up super-tight is
not a solution.
#Post#: 3764--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Zyngaru Date: February 14, 2018, 2:58 pm
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[quote author=Adric link=topic=349.msg3762#msg3762
date=1518638617]
I'm sympathetic to Gary's problem because I remember what it was
like to be a little one with no hips trying to keep my shirt in
and my pants up. It was an all-consuming effort. My ultimate
solution was suspenders but I wouldn't wish that on any kid.
They worked fine but they were an irresistible attraction to
other kids who wanted to pull them back and snap them. What
would have worked better would be some kind of attachment
(velcro?) to attach the pants to the shirttail. That would both
hold up the pants and keep the tail tucked. Another would be
elastic in the waistband since that would apply a more constant
tension than a belt. Just tightening the belt up super-tight is
not a solution.
[/quote]
I didn't have a buttocks until puberty. Before that it was just
legs. I walked everywhere so once puberty hit, I started to
develop butt muscles. Shirt tails had to be tucked in back when
I went to school. My belt was enough to keep my trousers up
unless I was playing, running or exercising. But back then, I
wore an undershirt and a cotton button up shirt with long tails.
That much material bunched up under the waist of my trousers
gave my belt something to hang onto.
For Gary, I think velcro would be a good solution. The Velcro
strips would have to be sewn on. Just sticking them wouldn't
work, with the friction of cloth rubbing they would come loose.
Another way would be buttons and button holes. Sew buttons low
on the trousers on the inside. Sew button holes on the bottom
hem of the shirts. Button shirts to trousers. You could also
use large safety pins, like diaper pins. I know they don't use
those anymore. But you can still get them. The only concern is
when they come unfastened, you can get pricked with the pin. It
happens.
I thought about wearing the suspenders under the shirt. But
that would keep the trousers up, but make it difficult to keep
the shirt from bunching up and coming untucked.
The best way that I can think of, is attaching the shirt to the
trousers. Buttons, pins, or Velcro.
#Post#: 3767--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Adric Date: February 14, 2018, 4:30 pm
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[quote author=Jack link=topic=349.msg3757#msg3757
date=1518627744]
As for Hatchet - I guess DB is right. There wasn't one boy in
the class who hadn't done at least some reading on it. One boy
had left his book at school, and talked his mom into taking him
to the book store when he found out school would be
closed.[/quote]
On a slightly related topic, I remember when this event
HTML http://articles.latimes.com/1994-07-15/news/mn-15840_1_alaska-indians<br
/>made the news. I suspect it would be easier to survive if
survival skills were already a part of one's culture, but it
could still be tough. It sounds like a reasonable alternative
to prison under the circumstances. (It could be a death
sentence if they were not good at survival or became seriously
sick or injured.)
#Post#: 3782--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: February 15, 2018, 5:36 am
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While I seem to be adjusting to my meds, I was just exhausted
yesterday. I came straight home when I got out of school, and
took a nap. A normal nap for me is 15 or 20 minutes, and
sleeping much longer usually leaves me feeling groggy. Yesterday
I slept a solid hour and felt great when I woke.
This morning, I woke at my normal time, but just couldn't go
back to sleep.
Everyone was supposed to finish Hatchet yesterday at home. I
ended up writing a small quiz this morning.
It's not a normal quiz, and there won't be a grade. I'm mostly
interested to see how much they retained, and what they thought
of it, plus a few questions of that versus Count or other things
they might have read.
We're supposed to start Brian's Winter today. For reference, I
chose this, rather than The River, because The River is an
actual sequel, while Brian's Winter, is an imaginary or
alternate world story, and I want to use the two stories both to
demonstrate the idea, and as a basis to teach them about
compare/contrast writing.
We're going to put that off at least a half period today, and
I'm going to teach the kids how to Google instead.
I already mentioned that some of the kids had complained that no
one had ever told them about really good books like Hatchet
before, and it wasn't fair. I'm going to show them how I found
articles that helped me decide on our reading list - articles
that reminded me of some books I'd forgotten, and pointed out to
me books I'd never read. I'm also going to introduce them to
Good Reads. I sent out an e-mail last night, and I hope to have
permission from everyone's parent(s) to help them set up an
account on Good Reads, or at least walk them through the site a
bit. Depending on how they answer, I may follow that up by
taking them to our school library tomorrow. At this point, I
don't think I'll have too much trouble having them read more
Paulsen over the weekend, especially since Saturday is supposed
to be cold and rainy.
#Post#: 3791--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Zyngaru Date: February 15, 2018, 10:35 am
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You might have some pushback from parents of the younger boys.
I don't know how protective the parents are about computer
access for their boys. I realize that kids today have access to
all sorts of things with so many different devices. Hopefully
since this is a request coming from a teacher. A teacher that
they see immediate changes in their boys from his teaching.
That they will give permission, so their boys can find great
books on their own. I can see some parents wanting access to
the sites and accounts though.
#Post#: 3792--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: db105 Date: February 15, 2018, 1:07 pm
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I think it's a good idea to teach the boys how to find books
they like.
Goodreads is a nice tool. It suggests similar books for each
book, so it's worth checking the recommendations for books
similar to the books you like. The goodread lists are more of a
mixed bag, because most lists do not have too many voters.
Just googling something like "best YA books for boys" or "best
YA fantasy" it whatever genre you are interested in will give
you many pages with recommendations that are good for getting
ideas. Then if you see a title you are interested in you can go
to goodreads and read the blurb and reviews.
Regarding Hatched and sequels, I agree that it makes sense to
read Brian's Winter right after Hatchet. Winter is an alternate
ending for Hatchet, and a cooler one than the original ending
(pun intended). I think that after Hatchet, Paulsen got a bit
by-the-numbers in the sequels, though. I enjoyed both Winter and
The River (I haven't read the other two), but it seemed to me
that Brian overcame the challenges in Winter a bit too easily,
and the premise of River is a bit contrived, like "what excuse
can I come up to send Brian into an extreme survival situation
again?". Great books for boys, though.
One thing with YA literature is that it's absolutely inundated
with books for girls. Twilight style sparkling vampire
romance... teenage girl who has a cool supernatural job and is
in a triangle with two superhot boys... Girls read more than
boys and most YA literature is targeted towards them. Sometimes
it's worth adding "for boys" to a search for recommendations.
I assume the boys in your class have already read Harry
Potter...
#Post#: 3795--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: February 15, 2018, 1:53 pm
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[quote author=Zyngaru link=topic=349.msg3791#msg3791
date=1518712512]
You might have some pushback from parents of the younger boys.
[/quote]
I don't really have 'younger boys'. Gary's my oldest, and he's
with BCA for their willingness to work outside the lines, rather
than their dogmatic release.
As it turns out, everyone was willing. I will admit to
specifying that I was going to be supervising, and keeping it to
'boys'. Some of the parents probably didn't think about the
fact that, being taught how to use Google to find one thing
meant you'd be able to use it to find pretty much anything. I'm
all right with that, though.
One interesting thing is I had several parents ask if they could
ask me questions about internet safety. I explained to them
that the number one safety tip (of any type) is to get your kids
to agree with you on their needs and goals. Other than that, a
Google search turns up 13 million answers. However - yes, I told
them they could ask.
[quote author=db105 link=topic=349.msg3792#msg3792
date=1518721626]
I assume the boys in your class have already read Harry
Potter...
[/quote]
You know what happens when you assume, Daniel.
While many of my kids aren't at BCA because of religious
reasons, there are still some, and Harry Potter did set off some
religious nuts because of the 'suffer not a witch to live' from
Exodus (interestingly, Harry himself is okay, since the original
term refers spefically to female sorceror's, not male).
Because this class is specifically avoiding sci-fi and fantasy,
I won't have much excuse to bring up Harry Potter, but I am
going to make time to discuss books the boys have read, so maybe
it'll come up then.
#Post#: 3800--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: db105 Date: February 15, 2018, 3:22 pm
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What a pity. No Ender's Game, then. So many great book for boys
are SF&F.
Oh well, there are still so many great books. What about Holes,
by Louis Sachar? That one is really good.
Then there's all the adventure classics. Call of the Wild,
Treasure Island, Captains Courageous... Or some Verne: a couple
of little known but very enjoyable books of his are "Two Years'
Vacation", and "Dick Sands, A Captain at Fifteen"
For some Japanese culture, Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian
Hearn (although this has some very light fantasy components, and
it's the first part of a trilogy... still, it's so good...).
The Lord of the Flies, if you want a classic.
The War of the Buttons by Louis Pergaud...
So many goodies to choose from...
#Post#: 3806--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: Jack Date: February 15, 2018, 5:16 pm
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[quote author=db105 link=topic=349.msg3800#msg3800
date=1518729757]
What a pity. No Ender's Game, then. So many great book for boys
are SF&F.
[/quote]
Remember that I've done seminars for several years now on
reading for boys that focused on sci-fi and fantasy, so I chose
to do something different.
I already have my entire agenda, if not the exact syllabus
mapped out. I'll see if I can find the list and share it.
#Post#: 3821--------------------------------------------------
Re: Teaching
By: David M. Katz Date: February 16, 2018, 3:47 pm
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Will you be providing a summer reading list?
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