Summer Bloggers

That's the name of the kidsblog.org blog that I set up for any interested students. A purely optional activity that I put in place to encourage summer writing, so far over 60% of my kids have signed up for their first "real" blog. They seem pretty enthusiastic, and who can argue with that?

Here are a few excerpts that show the kind of writing they are doing all on their own:

Well hello, I see you are reading my blog. Are you this interested in what I have to say? Well then go ahead, keep reading because, I HAVE A LOT TO SAY (most of the time). Let me just start out with me and my interview with myself. ~Lili


I can’t believe I have a blog! I feel so special! I have also come up with some ideas to make the blog(s) better! I think we should hold competitions, just like the SOLSC and Alphabiographies. ~Chris


Yesterday, today, tomorrow, and possibly Thursday have been and will be the best days of American Studies for this whole year. We have been watching the movie Glory! ~Jay


Just wanted to know who is ready to get on with summer!!! To take a nice long break from school, and kick around doing nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am!!!! Right now, I’m having a mental breakdown, and I NEED a break. ~Bridget


This is sooooooo cool! I just love this! I have always wanted to be part of a blog, but I haven’t until now! Is that just like everyone else? I just can’t wait to really get started. ~Maeve


Being stuck like glue onto a song isn’t a very good thing. Are you stuck like glue onto a song? Well, I am. And coincidentally, the song title is stuck like glue!  ~Joann


Take 5s are one of my favorite chocolate bar, if you’ve never tried one it’s like chocolate covered pretzels in a bar. Anyways when I was six my family went Hershey park and they sometimes give out free samples so I got to try a take 5 before it was even out yet. So when I go to Hershey park tomorrow I’ll try to get a take 5. What’s your favorite candy bar? ~Helen

It should be an interesting summer!

The Century Club

Today marks the 100th day since my students started their Slice of Life challenge back on March 1. I have five kids who have never missed a day since then, including one boy who called his mom from a soccer tournament in Philadelphia and dictated his post.

Here's what one student had to say about her accomplishment:

WOOHOO!!! It has been now 100 days of posting CONSTANTLY on SOL!!!
I feel proud now.......
Has it really been 100 days of posting on SOL?
Time does go quickly..
Anyways, I wonder if anyone else have posted for 100 days....
I would like to thank MS. S for making the SOL challenge, and I HOPE THAT YOU KEEP DOING IT TO THE FUTURE 6th GRADERS!!!
YOU ROCK!!!

Thank you, Silvia. (I'm sure she meant "for" the future 6th graders...)

Number Sense

A couple of weeks ago I was in meeting where the topic of a particular student's number sense came up. He can identify coins, the math teacher said, but he has no idea about value. I am not a math teacher, although I do love math, and I like to show off my own math skills anytime I have the chance. For example after-school homework club:

Me: What's wrong?
Student: I can't figure this out.
Me: Can I help?
Student (with doubt and a dab of disdain): I'm in advanced math...
Me: Yeah, I think I can probably give you a hand.

A few minutes later...

Student: You should be a math teacher!

And so it goes, but, as I also like to tell the students, I have been in sixth grade for an awfully time, and it would be pretty sad if I didn't know the curriculum by now.

So this discussion about the student and money threw me for a loop. Not having children of my own, I never considered how you teach monetary value. I'm guessing an allowance and shopping opportunities, but I was surprised again yesterday when one of my homeroom students came up to my desk.

"Can I go to my locker?" he whispered.

"Why?" I inquired.

"My mom gave me an envelope with 12,000 dollars in it," he told me.

"What!? She did not! Why would she do that?"

"It's for the thing," he said quietly.

"What thing? You do not have 12,000 dollars in your locker..." I started, but then I realized the quickest way to get to the bottom of all this was for him to go get it.

He returned a few minutes later looking sheepish. "It wasn't 12,000 dollars," he said.

I was not surprised.

"It was only eleven thousand two hundred," he continued.

"Let me see that," I said. "This says 112.00 dollars!" I told him.

"Oooooh," he answered apologetically.

"What's it for?"

"Math summer school," he whispered.

"Good," I nodded. "Good."

Stay in Touch

Yesterday, I stood in a large crowd downtown while a man to my left carried on a loud phone conversation. Where are you? By the theater? I can see the theater. Are you near the guy in the chef's coat? Oh, you're past him? Which way are you going? What side of the street are you on? Wait there-- I'm coming to get you. No. I see you. Do you have a thing in your hair? I'm waving. Do you see me? Come on over. Bye.

By the end, I was as anxious to see his friend as he was, maybe even more so because of how curious I was about the thing in her hair. Fortunately, it wasn't long at all before she and her pink silk flower walked past me, her arms outstretched, her hand still clutching her phone, and soon I tuned out their face to face conversation, trying to remember how we ever connected before we had our mobile phones.

This morning I heard a little story on the Writer's Almanac about Maxine Kumin and her best friend Anne Sexton. Back in the early 60s, these poets were so close that they had extra phone lines installed in their houses so that they would never have to hang up on each other. I'm sure at the time it was considered a bit extreme, but they were definitely on the right track. Visionary, even.

The Post-Alphabiography Post Syndrome Post

They say it only takes 30 days to develop a lasting habit. Could be. I'll tell you what, tonight all I can think of are possible alphbiography topics: W is for Weeding, X is for X-men, P is for PostHunt (F is for Fink-- you know who you are), and 2 is for Could There Really Be Over 2 Weeks Left?

A is for Alphabiography, Again

Today is the last day of the challenge I issued to my students back at the end of April. It started out as twenty-six posts for the month of May, one for each letter of the alphabet, but we expanded it to numbers for the kids who wanted to continue posting every single day, so there ended up being 35 possible topics, and those of us who did them all are on our last post today.

I am very proud of my students for all the great writing they have done this month. Most of them really stepped up to the challenge. Last week as part of another assignment, one of the kids was interviewing me. "So, how did you come up with the alphabiographies?" he asked.

I explained that I had adapted other teachers' ideas that I'd read about on the internet, and I told him that one of my objectives was for the students to build writing fluency. He looked puzzled. "You know," I said, "the ability to write more easily-- longer, faster?"

"Ooooohh," he seemed surprised. "Because I've really noticed that in myself lately and was wondering how it happened."

Life Lesson: It's not rocket surgery: skills improve with practice.

1 is for Just One of Those Things

Every year since 2001, our sixth grade team has taken a trip in June to go dolphin watching. It's about three hours away, so we charter buses, spend a couple of hours at the beach, and then board a really big boat for a 2-hour cruise skirting the capes of Delaware in search of marine mammals. Next it's back on the bus, and a few hours later we're home. It's usually a nice day and a pleasant way to end the year. It also offers experiences that many of our students have never had: the beach, the boat, or both.

This year will be an exception to the tradition. Our school system has adopted a stricter set of guidelines for planning field trips, and the charter company we use could not produce the paper work we needed to have the trip approved. I don't want to judge either the new rules or the guy who owns the charter boat; I believe everyone involved wants what's right and what's safe-- it just didn't work out for the kids this year.

Life Lessons:

1) Better safe than sorry...
2) A person's word and a handshake ought to mean something.