My students are like animals- they can smell weakness. I am sick. They know it and try to take advantage. So I have to work even harder than I do on healthy days. I have to show them they can't get away with anything.
Today they were being particularly crazy after lunch. I won't go into detail as to how I punished the kids who weren't behaving, but they were miserable. And the rest of the class got to play Catch Phrase. I've decided this game is the answer for kids who have trouble expressing themselves verbally. It was fascinating to watch them play. My honor roll students gave a steady stream of clues. My average kids kept messing up and using one of the words in the phrase, or resorted to gestures. My low kids just said, "Um... Um..." and couldn't really get out any clues. So I think that Catch Phrase will be a regular part of my classroom now. How fun is that? My friends and I love that game; we play almost every year at our annual pre-Thanksgiving dinner party. I remember one year, my friend was dating this girl who gave the clue, "It's a colloquialism..." and I thought, "He needs to break up with her." And he did. But not because of that.
One more random thought- I'm reading this great book called The Language of God by Francis Collins. He's the head of the Human Genome Project, and apparently this book is going to show me how faith and science work together and don't contradict each other. I'm pretty excited about it. Right now I'm reading about how he went from atheist to Christian thanks to C.S. Lewis. Although he is not the greatest writer, it's a story worth reading. And I can't wait to see what I learn next.
Today they were being particularly crazy after lunch. I won't go into detail as to how I punished the kids who weren't behaving, but they were miserable. And the rest of the class got to play Catch Phrase. I've decided this game is the answer for kids who have trouble expressing themselves verbally. It was fascinating to watch them play. My honor roll students gave a steady stream of clues. My average kids kept messing up and using one of the words in the phrase, or resorted to gestures. My low kids just said, "Um... Um..." and couldn't really get out any clues. So I think that Catch Phrase will be a regular part of my classroom now. How fun is that? My friends and I love that game; we play almost every year at our annual pre-Thanksgiving dinner party. I remember one year, my friend was dating this girl who gave the clue, "It's a colloquialism..." and I thought, "He needs to break up with her." And he did. But not because of that.
One more random thought- I'm reading this great book called The Language of God by Francis Collins. He's the head of the Human Genome Project, and apparently this book is going to show me how faith and science work together and don't contradict each other. I'm pretty excited about it. Right now I'm reading about how he went from atheist to Christian thanks to C.S. Lewis. Although he is not the greatest writer, it's a story worth reading. And I can't wait to see what I learn next.
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