Education » otoh

Body-Part-Verbing

Posted by Tim at 22:07 on 2009/06/02

Jun 022009

I am on my feet a lot when I teach, moving around the room, answering questions [or not -- read the instructions!], giving advice and demonstrations. This week we’re giving final exams. The last ones are tomorrow. It’s going reasonably well so far. My two least well-behaved classes had their tests on Monday. [Buh-Bye....]

Anyway, I’m on my feet while kids are taking their exams, too, but to keep from being a distraction I usually stand at the back of the room. I walk around a little to monitor their progress and pick up their work when it’s finished. This feels more tiring than teaching. Sometimes I doodle to keep from getting bored.

Yesterday I wrote this:

mind-numbing

Because, seriously, my brain was on situational Procaine*.

I’d rather, I thought, be doing something mind-blowing. To some of my students, though, the test is probably nerve-wracking. Maybe even stomach-churning. [Is that better, worse, or the same as gut-wrenching?] I had an eye-popping list started by this point. Not exactly spine-tingling excitement, but it was keeping me from taking a bone-jarring header into a concrete wall.

And that kept me entertained for a while. Until I saw some of the scores. That was heart-rending.

*On two different sources that I checked “Novocaine” redirects to “Procaine.” I never knew….

Nine Circles

Posted by Tim at 20:46 on 2009/05/26

May 262009

Ms. Cornelius over at A Shrewdness of Apes has written “When teaching school is like… a divine comedy.” It’s way better than anything I have today. Go on over and take a look.

YoS

Posted by Tim at 21:05 on 2009/05/21

May 212009

What one of my colleagues refers to as the Year of Suck, an especially difficult and frustrating school year, is coming to a close. Senior exams are finished and graduation is ~~tomorrow~~ Doh! — graduation is next Friday. See how tired I am? [for most of them]. We have another week with underclassmen before their final exams begin. Trying to keep them focused and on task is rather like herding [big, obnoxious, self-centered, rude] cats [with an exaggerated sense of importance and entitlement (but I'm not bitter)]. I am SO ready for this year to be over, but I refuse to give in to the temptation stop teaching and coast for the last few days.

But… I’m just so damn tired.

I Read Good

Posted by Tim at 20:31 on 2009/04/28

Apr 282009

At the request of an English teacher friend I’ve signed up on Goodreads. There’s a link over there in my sidebar to my “currently-reading” list. I recently finished Letter Perfect [which I mentioned back here].

Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet From A to Z by David Sacks

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I like this book a lot. It’s a bit repetitive, but that let’s each chapter stand on its own. (You wouldn’t read them out of order though, would you?) So much of why English words are spelled and pronounced the way they are just makes more sense to me in light of how our alphabet developed. This was a good companion to The Adventure of English.

View all my reviews.

Archi-Torture

Posted by Tim at 23:03 on 2009/04/16

Apr 162009

Lately this exchange has been happening a lot in my classroom:

Student: “Mr. V.”
Me: “Yes?”
Student: “I have a question.”
Me: “I assumed that’s why you called my name.”
Student: “Huh?”
Me: “What’s your question?”

Today they were working on identifying the parts of a house. Some of them were on WebMD when looking up shingles.

Some of them thought they should look on WebMD for flue too.

I’m afraid to look at what they found for stud.

Teenager Audio Test

Posted by Tim at 18:28 on 2009/04/03

Apr 032009

Well someone thinks I’m young! Either that or their claim that this sound can only be heard by young people is bogus. And that can’t be right….

Created by Train Horns

If an Observer is Run Over by a Train and Nobody is There to Hear it....

Posted by Tim at 16:50 on 2009/03/16

Mar 162009

I was recently directed to the blog ZERO out of FIVE – But you get an ‘A’ for Effort, self-described as,

Since high school I have always answered every question on every test, even if that meant making something up. I always hoped for, but never received sympathy marks. This blog is my collection of tests from other people that tried the same.

Reading back through the archives I found this post — one of the funniest (and truest) student answers I have seen:

A train is blowing it’s [sic] whistle while traveling at a speed of 22.0 m/s. The speed of sound is 343 m/s. Observer A is directly in front of the train, while observer B is directly behind it. Find the whistle frequency heard by A and that heard by B.

The student deduced from the fact that Observer A is directly in front of the train that:

Observer A is dead.

Court of Play

Posted by Tim at 21:00 on 2009/03/04

Mar 042009

Citing the dismal statistic, “Only one-third of Americans can name the three branches of government, but two-thirds can name a judge on American Idol,” Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is leading the development of an online interactive civic education project: Our Courts. The site is up and already has resources for middle school students and teachers. Games are in development and are scheduled to be available later this year.

For the record:

executive
legislative
judicial

Simon
Paula
some other guy

I have never been a fan of the show….

As They Struggle with the Undertaking of Simple Thought

Posted by Tim at 17:57 on 2009/01/16

Jan 162009

When doctors don’t know the cause of your ailment they may refer to it as idiopathic. It’s sort of a polite way of saying, “It’s just you.”

When I see the word idiopathic I think there should be another word, idiopathy. If sympathy may be summed up as, “I feel your pain,” then idiopathy may be summed up as, “I feel your stupidity.” [Alternatively, "I feel you're stupid."]

I’ve been fairly swimming in idiopathy this week — it was semester exam week. And I’ve decided that idiopathy sometimes just isn’t enough to express how I feel when, for example, a student shows up for an exam without a pencil. We have moved into idiopathetic territory at that point.

As a teacher I am a soldier in the war against ignorance. Unfortunately, while education is effective against ignorance, some other cure [if one exists] must be found for stupidity.

Soon please….

The Doctor Say He's Comin', but You Gotta Pay Him Cash

Posted by Tim at 21:26 on 2009/01/13

Jan 132009

Two snails were traveling south.

A turtle was traveling west.

Two snails were traveling south.
A turtle was traveling west.

Two snails were traveling south.
A turtle was traveling west.

Two snails were traveling south.
A turtle was traveling west.
Soon they approached each other.

Two snails were traveling south.
A turtle was traveling west.
They got closer.

Two snails were traveling south.
A turtle was traveling west.
Closer still.

Two snails were traveling south.
A turtle was traveling west.
Just inches apart.

Two snails were traveling south.
A turtle was traveling west.
And then…

…calamity!

One of the snails was directly in the path of the turtle.

It was inevitable, perhaps.

Maybe the turtle just couldn’t stop.

At any rate, it didn’t stop.

The turtle ran over one of the snails.

And kept going.

West.

“What was that?” asked the violated snail.

While the turtle kept going west.

“I don’t know,” replied the other snail. “It all happened so fast!”