DRAGONS

Hannah, my illiterate 7th grader, has a unique reading style. Rather than try to sound out words (because, let's face it, that takes too much time and energy), she just makes them up with no regard for context....or the English language. A sentence that reads, "The rocks are weathered by erosion," will, in her words, turn into, "The riskadecks are warning by exercises." This tendency was especially problematic the other day when she was reading aloud to the class--instead of the word "During," she came up with "Dragons." I couldn't help but laugh along with the class--perhaps not very professional of me, but she didn't seem hurt by the laughter. Now every time I see the word "during" in my reading I can't help but think of "dragons." I hope that never goes away, it never fails to make me laugh out loud.

The weather at the beginning of this past week was BEAUTIFUL and I actually got to see the sun rise like 3 mornings in a row. Of course, now it's back to rain, though the temperatures are still pretty agreeable.

I finally saw the high school girls' basketball teams play. The JV girls were actually, surprisingly, extremely painful to watch, and I even thought about leaving. I like to think that my JV team was more competent. Then the varsity girls played, which wasn't really anything special. The game was somewhat close, but no real great standout players or teamwork. Plus I've heard the girls on that team are real biotches, so I couldn't really watch them without thinking of that. However, the next night I did go to the Junior high boys games. The B team is pretty bad, but the varsity boys are impressive, and very fun to watch. AND I got to sit with some of my favorite 7th graders, and watch the awkward 7th grade "couples" as they sit next to each other and don't say a single word to one another.

The Shakespeare unit in freshman English is already proving to be very interesting. The first assignment was a group project to make an informational poster about Shakespeare in a class period. The boys and girls were divided up, and the girls' group included the 3 ESL students and 3 girls who I've never seen lift a finger to do their work. The ESL students had prepared facts and questions to put on the poster, and were ready to buckle down; the other 3 spent the first 10 minutes talking and laughing about how Shakespeare may have been gay. Finally they came together and actually produced a decently interactive poster. The ESL girls made up all of the questions and found the answers, and therefore provided the "educational" aspect. The one question the other 3 contributed, which occupied the largest space on the poster, was, "What was Shakespeare's sexuality?" The answer on the inside said, "You'll never know, tee-hee." Despite my slight frustration at how the work was distributed for that project, I still thought that was kinda funny.

Freshman English quote of the week:

The class discussion focused on how Romeo and Juliet were from parents who hated each other, and didn't want them to marry. Savannah raised her hand and said, "I know exactly what type of person my mom wouldn't want me to marry: BLACK CHIC!"