Friday was a fun day: the last day of school before Christmas holidays. Treats out the wazoo, everybody in a good mood, movies in the gym for the kids (N.B. though: Santa Paws is too scary for kindergartners – the the evil foster mom with the incinerator freaked them out), and no expectations for the…
Category: School Snippets
Kids Are Great
Perhaps it’s time to talk about some kids other than mine. So, a week late… let’s talk about the school play, “A Night at the Wax Museum”. It was worth writing about, although the words will never do it justice. It was a cute play, created by my colleague Mr. A and his actors, about…
School Snippets #6: Halloween
I’m sheepish to say that I haven’t put much effort into Halloween since I’ve been an adult. Even more shamefully, there have been two years out of the last three where I didn’t even manage to get a real pumpkin for jack-o-lantern purposes (I left it so late that there were none left – seriously!)….
School Snippets #5
I’ve been helped to understand a significant truth. I’ve noticed the craze of “silly bands” – as a teacher, I can’t avoid them. For those of you who are not between the ages of six and twelve, they’re stretchy bracelets that form different shapes when relaxed, in all different colours. (Like the 2010 version of…
School Snippets #4
The staff at our school is working on making kids better mathematicians by teaching them to reflect on their processes. In one Grade 1 class, the teacher gave the children a simple exercise: you have 8 goldfish to distribute into 3 bowls. Draw them in the bowls. The children had to say how they knew…
Thanks-giving
Last week I talked with my Grade 2 class about Thanksgiving and the things we’re grateful for. I was rather disappointed. My school is populated mostly with children who are well-fed, well-dressed, and very well looked after. These kids were like, “Um, je dis merci pour mon Nintendo DSI…” So I told them about how…
BANG Movie Review: Easy A, + Random School Snippet
When I saw the trailer for Easy A, I was intrigued. I thought it looked like a smart comedy – and it was. Rotten Tomatoes agrees: it’s at 86% today. It’s about a girl who, partly due to peer pressure and partly due to her soft spot for the downtrodden, acquires a reputation as a…
School Snippets #2
OOOPS. Just found out that one of my Grade 2 students, whom I thought was a girl, is actually a boy. And I’m wondering why I’m such a dummy, why I was so sure he was a girl. I mean, on the first day, I actually thought to myself, Wow, what a strange name for…
School Snippet #1
There is far too much to think about right now, so I’m going to leave it all responsibly for another time. For now, I’d like to indulge in one li’l thought I had last week whilst teaching (French) questions e.g., “Quel est ton film préféré?” I observed and surmised that Grade Four is a very…