Background Knowledge

I read a story to my sixth graders today that was called "Rabies" which details the misadventures of sixth grader Jack Henry, an autobiographical character created by Jack Gantos. Like most of Gantos's writing, it is funny in a realistic and self-deprecating way. Jack Gantos was in sixth grade around 1962, though, and it takes a little background knowledge building to help kids relate to his story nearly 60 years after it took place. 

We have to start with rabies itself; many students do not know what it is. This year, when I told them it was caused by a virus, I figured we'd have a little less ground to cover, considering we have been living in a pandemic caused by a virus for the last 18 months. "But rabies is not airborne like COVID," I assured them.

"COVID is in the air?" asked a student in alarm.

"IT can be," I said. "That's why we wear masks."

"I already had it," another student reported, and her comment started a chain reaction. It turned out that over a third of the class had already had a positive case of the virus. Thankfully, the symptoms they reported sounded short-term and very mild, more like a reaction to the vaccine than anything else.

"That's why I don't really care about my mask," one boy admitted candidly. It was true that I often had to remind him to cover his nose.

"But your mask is more to block any virus you might have from getting out," I explained. "My mask protects you, in case I have COVID, and yours protects me. We know now that it is possible to get it again, and maybe spread it."

He pulled his mask up and so did a few other kids. I wondered what else they might not know.

Run the Day or the Day Runs You

I told my very chatty students that they would have to finish the notes before they went to lunch. With that warning, I let them talk, circulated through the room, and answered questions. When the bell rang, I dismissed the kids who had shown me their work, which was only about a third of the class. 

The reaction from the others was mixed. Some rushed to finish, others took their time, and at least one tried to sneak out. A couple were mad, and one told me how very, very hungry she was. "I know!" I agreed, "It's my lunch time, too."

Their miscalculation was understandable: today was one of the "anchor days" we have on five-day weeks to balance the block schedule. With all the fall holidays and other planned interruptions in instruction, the days when kids have all their classes have been sporadic so far this year. 

This particular group usually leaves my room for another class, but on anchor days they go straight to lunch. It was leverage that I grasped immediately, but it took a while for the kids.

"We have to go to science!" I heard one student whisper to another. "Do you think Ms. M will give us lunch detention?"

"This is lunch!" her friend hissed.

"Right!" I confirmed. "You already have lunch detention. Now get those notes done!"

Foreshadowing

Were those tiny little snow flakes falling almost imperceptibly this morning? 

You bet your keen sixth grade sense of observation they were. "Go ahead!" I shouted over the din of joy. "Take two minutes and look at the snow."

Within 90 seconds they were back to their seats, satisfied that although snow season might be here, that day off we all dream of this time of year was not going to be today.

Breaking Brains

Since our school implemented in-person block scheduling for the first time this year, I have been on the lookout for good five minute brain breaks for sixth graders. I've written lately about my mindfulness yoga challenges, but I thought it wise to branch out, so yesterday when I saw the game Whatchamadrawit at a discount store I added it to my cart. 

Today, I opened the deck of wacky drawing challenge cards, and gave the kids three minutes to draw and post their work of art for the sweet little reward of a Jolly Rancher. My first period group had to sketch their version of an animal with a fish head, elephant body, and spider legs. Their products were remarkably recognizable and cute, but it was the kid that drew the elephant ears behind the fish's head that bowled me over with her visual problem solving. 

The next group to do it was my class with many English language learners. They were super excited for the challenge until we pulled a card that read A princess sitting in an apple tree playing the banjo. "What is a banjo???" cried several students in dismay. Others searched up an image, and I pivoted to project a picture of a banjo on our screen before stating the timer. 

When the three minutes were up, we had a nice collection of cartoon trees,  basic apple shapes, and simple figures with crowns and giant lollipops on their laps. We all got the point across, and some of us? Learned a new vocabulary word. 

Maybe this little brain break has broader applications.

Bending the Rules

Despite the reported Christmas tree shortage, I had no plans to get my tree until next weekend. "I refuse to put up my Christmas Tree in November!" I told Heidi when she asked me why.

And yet, there we were running errands this afternoon, and everywhere we went, they were all Christmased up. Still, my plan to purchase a tree next weekend was firm, although I did want to go to Home Depot to see about some new outdoor lights. Once we there, the wreathes and the swags caught our eyes. "They were all sold out of these by the time we were shopping last year, remember?" I reminded Heidi. With some evergreenery in our cart we headed inside to check out the lights. A lot of things were sold out all ready, and finding nothing we needed, we pushed our cart through the big sliding glass door and out to the garden center. There were no outdoor lights that I had to have, but there were quite a few Christmas Trees, and they seemed to be reasonably priced.

"We don't have to put it up until next weekend," I said to Heidi, "and it's not like anybody's going to get any fresher trees." With that, we selected a nice 7 1/2 foot tree and plopped it on top of our cart. A fresh cut and some plastic mesh later we rolled through the outside cashier station and came away with a tree, a wreathe, and a window swag for less than we paid for our tree last year.

"Can I help you put that on your car?" offered a tall young man in an orange apron.

"Sure!" we agreed, and he grabbed an enormous roll of plastic wrap and followed us into the parking garage. What followed was the most curious method of securing cargo I've ever seen. He pulled a length from the roll, opened the passenger side door and tied it to the handle on the ceiling. Then he passed the roll over the tree and to me, where I handed it through the car and back to him. We literally Saran wrapped the tree to the top of our car.

And, aside from the damage to the environment that any single-use plastic inflicts, we made it home without incident. The tree is on the deck, where it will remain until we turn the page on our calendar.

Enjoying the Journey

The dogs were a little anxious this morning as we packed up our beach house and loaded the car to go home. It was pretty cold and windy, so instead of heading down to the beach for one last walk along the water we sat in the sunny living room and basked a little in the remaining warmth of our vacation. When at last it was time to go, we all trooped down the steps one last time and crossed the small parking lot to our cars. As I opened the back door for Lucy, Rosie trotted over and waited her turn to hop (or be lifted) into our back seat. 

"She did ride down here with us," Heidi noted, and it was true: Bill and Rosie road-tripped with us on Saturday because the rest of his family could not come down until Sunday.

"Do you want us to take Rosie back to Arlington?" we laughed, and with three travelers and a fully loaded car, it just made sense for Bill and Emily to take us up on the offer. And so the dogs curled up together in the backseat, Rosies chin resting on Lucy's shoulder. All the way home they snoozed and sighed an occasional satisfied sigh, almost as if they were still on holiday.

Good Clean Fun Allowed

For many years, the beach town where we are staying had the reputation as the party town of the area. Groups of young people would band together to rent beach houses and spend days roasting by the ocean and nights roasted at the bars on the strip. A few years ago, the town government passed a number of ordinances aimed at making this place a bit more family friendly. Regulations regarding the size of groups, parking, and noise have gone a long way toward taming this 

Of course, it's difficult to accurately gauge in November the level of carousing for a summer destination; not surprisingly, it's been awfully quiet around here in the week we've spent. Even so, activity and traffic have picked up over the last couple of days as the holiday weekend has approached. And tonight, as we were playing Trivial Pursuit, we heard a great ruckus outside. Several loud and excited young voices were shouting at each other on the street in front of our rental house. 

Finally, my brother stepped out on the balcony to see what was going on. He returned a moment later with the threat assessment. "They are playing tag," he reported. A little while later, the voices moved off in another direction, and we were left to enjoy our peaceful little stretch of the beach.