All Hot and Bothered

We're gettin' all political up in Ms. P's class this week. We're starting persuasive essays. The only problem is EVERYONE keeps catching the flu. 

But that is a(whole)nother tale. I've spent my last few days brainstorming what hot topics will get them talking. What do they care about enough to generate an essay that's chock full of their personality? What will make them spirited enough to cause spontaneous researching?

Here are the 12 topics they can choose from with mentor essays for them to peruse:

1) Are standardized tests valuable?

2) Should adults be able to ban books from school libraries?

3) Should those charged with animal cruelty face harsher penalties than they do presently? (a current local debate)

4) Should the United States continue to fully fund NASA?

5) Is spanking an appropriate punishment for children?

6) Should fast food restaurants have to post nutritional information for their meals on the menu?

7) Is graffiti art? Should graffiti artists be harshly penalized?

8) Some cities have proposed bans on sagging pants. Is this fair?

9) Does having a Facebook account negatively or positively affect your academic life?

10) How should Major League Baseball deal with steroid use, particularly with respect to the Hall of Fame?

11) Do adults praise and encourage your generation too much? Does this affect your ability to accept criticism?

12) Does texting affect your academic life? How?

Just in case, I posted this on the board....

"The views stated in these essays do not necessarily reflect the the views of Ms. P or our school district."

A girl has to cover all her bases.

Now it's your turn to answer the questions:

1) Which one of these 12 issues is most interesting to you?

2) Which one of these do you care the least about?

Teachers: Cat Hoarders or Villains?

Today's assignment: Students were to freewrite for half a page on any topic, as long as they included their spelling words. 

Freewriting may sound like a bit of a cop-out on my part, but you have no idea how much they beg me to do this. They love being able to write in any mode on any topic, and of course the results always surprise me. 

Like today's featured piece. The student CLAIMS that her piece is purely fiction, but I have my...ahem...doubts.  Decide for yourself....

"The leisure time people have is mostly there (sic) sacred time to do what they want. As I sit in class, I wonder what my crazy teacher does in her free time. I receive papers from her. I see her everyday and eat lunch with her. I picture her in a library or a house filled with cats. 

She could be a thief or a villain. But that’s impossible because she flinches when a pencil hits the ground. I look to the ceiling imagining what she would do -

 read books, write books, talk to her mom, call her seemingly limited amount of friends. As I review the options waving in my head, I realize I might just have had too many protein bars this morning for breakfast. My teacher roams the room taking up the test, and I just drop the subject. I guess I will never know what she does."

Six degrees of Kevin Baconce

I’ve learned a lot about my dialect while teaching. For instance, I once dictated a sentence to my 7^th graders that included the word “literally”. I got back all sorts of bloggy fodder. Leaderally. Leeterully. Leeduruhlly. Reinventing the wheel, I tell you. But today, one student took the cake.

During our class spelling bee, I asked each student to fold a clean sheet of paper “hotdog style” and write his guess for each word in one column. Then, he was to write the correct spelling the remaining column.

I called out…..

va·can·cy 

n. pl. va·can·cies 

1. The condition of being vacant or unoccupied.

2. An empty or unoccupied space.

3. A position, office, or place of accommodation that is unfilled or unoccupied.

4. Emptiness of mind; inanity.

And I received…..

BACONCE.

In his defense, it was first period, and he is the child who often bums a granola bar off me. Furthermore, he’s known to go to great lengths to convince his classmates to bring socks to donate to the homeless after a donut party was offered to the class with the largest contribution. Perhaps he was hungry?

One strategy I often teach them in class is – If you can’t go over it, go around it. If you know spelling isn’t your strong suit, there are always synonyms for those tricky words. 

So a note to Mister Baconce: If you ever own a hotel, sweet spelling-challenged dear, may I suggest you avoid a Vacancy sign altogether? Perhaps, you might look into “Empty Beds,” “More Cockroaches than Clients,” or “We’re Desperate,” signs. GO AROUND IT.

Spellbound,

Ms. P