Hmmm.. I have a moment to breathe and blog, but what about? Life is rolling along. I went to a boy's varsity baseball game today. They lost the game but kept their pride. The catcher (one of my students) hit a great line drive that started a real rally in the 6th, but to no avail. I was proud of them. I teach most of the infield and one outfielder, so games are fun.
But that's not really worth blogging about ...
I finished the midterms. Overall they did well--maybe too well. Whenever the class average gets too high I worry that I'm making class too easy.
So, basically all my thoughts are high school related, which is not interesting to the majority of my readership.
As far as books go: I'm still reading Camus' The Plague and enjoying it. I'm still stalled on Nicholas and Alexandra because Rasputin is giving me the creeps. I'm reading a book about Old West tall tales, part of which I'll probably work into my class. I'm reading Animal Farm with my freshmen. I'll be reading To Kill A Mockingbird with my upperclassmen next quarter. I'm also starting a book called The Devil in the White City about the Chicago World's Fair (I forgot which year). I have even more books piled up than are listed on the left. Maybe I'll update that list. Maybe I won't.
Any good books to recommend? Any good memories from high school English that I might recreate with my classes?
Spring has sprung. Senioritis will be reaching epidemic levels when Monday rolls around.
9 years ago
4 comments:
mmmm, TKAM - GREAT book! re-read it last year.
you can never go wrong with playing your favorite songs in class and having the students discuss/pick apart the lyrics. i did this zillions of times in all of my classrooms over the years. and that teaching method was inspired by my 10th grade English teacher, Mr. Kelly, who played "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" about 6 times, and our job was to try to figure out the lyrics simply by listening, and write them down. (No idea how that tied into English other than listening skills, um, but it was memorable and fun!)
Seriously, music can never go wrong in the classroom.
I can only say, don't do Beowulf. I enjoyed The Great Gatsby in freshman courses at LSU.
Ooooh! Gatsby! That's a great idea for Am Lit someday. I'm going to have to read it and see if it would pass muster at this little ol' Baptist school...
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