Personalized Non-Learning

It is a trick I learned from a colleague a few years ago. 

Whenever we give standardized exams, students may not use any electronic devices until the test session is over. That policy leaves lots kids with not much to do. Of course, we wish they would read, but even with hundreds of volumes at their fingertips, the number of students who actually pick up a book these days is in the low single digits. (But that is a lament for another day.)

To occupy their extra time, I usually print out a variety of high-interest coloring pages and puzzles. It's mystifying to me, but word searches are always wildly popular, and here is where that colleague's tip pays off. Make-your-own puzzle sites are easy to find, and so, once students settle into their task, I create a word search with the names of everyone in the room. 

It only takes a few minutes, and it's so worth the quiet smile of delight they give me every time they look at the list of words and realize the significance.

Draining

Do something you don't really feel like doing, just because you can! encouraged the calendar square. 

I was sitting next to the sixth-grade girl I am mentoring this year down in the cafeteria after school. The monthly theme for our group of female teachers and students was self-care, and our activities included DIY spa treatments and a New Year's resolution bingo card. For inspiration, the organizers had provided a January Happiness calendar, and it was that day's advice I was reading.

"That sounds like a good idea," I said to her. 

She snorted.

"I don't feel like going to the gym," I confessed, "but now maybe I will. How about you?"

"No-uh!" she answered definitively. "Why would I do something I don't want to?"

"It's a good habit to make yourself do stuff you know you should," I explained. "Are you going to do it?"

"Nope," she said.

I sighed and looked at my watch. Me neither, I thought.

Brain Thaw

We had a fun little drawing activity for our brain break yesterday. Students viewed a short how-to-draw-a-cute-ice-cream-cone video, followed the simple directions, and were invited to share their work by posting to our LMS course. Most kids enjoyed creating the playful image as directed, but there were a few who chafed at the prescription, too. 

One student, in particular, created an impressive pencil drawing of a very realistic scoop of ice cream in one of those handmade waffle cones. Both the ice cream and the cone were textured and well-shaded, and there were certainly no shiny eyes or sprinkles.

"That's really good!" I told him as I circulated throughout the room.

"What kind ice cream is it, though?" asked the student next to him with a sniff. "It's gray."

"It's dust-flavored," he laughed without missing a beat.

Change is Funny that Way

One of my students had a schedule change from one section of my English to another. Based on the personalities and work habits of the kids in his new class, I am confident it will be a good move for him. Even so, I could see he was a bit nervous when he came in this morning. 

I had changed all the seats, so everybody was distracted finding their new table when suddenly I heard someone say, "Wait! Are you in this class now?"

There was a silence and I saw the usually gregarious student blush a little as many turned their attention toward him. 

"Or were you always in here?" the other kid asked in confusion. 

The new guy and I made eye contact and exchanged an eye roll.

"Yes," I said to the class. "He's always been in here. I don't know what you're talking about!" I finished with exaggerated confusion.

"Really?" responded some.

"No!" others cried.

"Oh yes!" I insisted, as I stood by the student whose schedule had changed, the two of us laughing. 

Soon everyone was in on the joke, and the group settled down, ready to get to work with their new classmate.

No Skin in the Game

I'm not sure how much of the Golden Globe award ceremony I'll watch tonight.  I am interested in the results, but less so in the pageantry. In so far as the winners of these awards set up the Academy Award races, the Globes have my attention, but I can read about it tomorrow.

Likewise, the Bills and the Dolphins game tonight. Oh, I want the Bills to win. I want their first playoff game to be at home, mostly for all my friends and family who are Bills fans. Even so? I don't need to see it happen. 

I'm following the action. 

From a distance.

Rule Breaker

When he found out that I had once lived in Saudi Arabia, my neighbor was interested. "Maybe you can tell me this," he said. "Is there really any reason for me to visit Saudi Arabia considering the only city I really want to see is banned for me?"

I gasped. "You want to go to Mecca?" I asked with the internalized shock of nearly 50 years of being a former expat resident of the Kingdom.  "That's not allowed!" 

"Exactly!" he laughed. "That's why I want to go!"

Losers and Winners

I am not an advocate of all the many standardized tests and practice tests that we are required by our district to administer throughout the year. For example, the assessment my students took yesterday and today was forty hard questions based on very dense reading passages. Taking on average over an hour and a half to complete, it is also designed so that the kids get about half of the answers wrong, which seems a little soul-crushing to me. 

But as long as I could ignore the glazed eyes, heavy sighs, and frequent bathroom breaks, it sure was nice to get all that grading and planning done as they struggled through.