Intellectual Wasteland

Remember how a while back I blogged about education being a fashion wasteland? Well, that's not the only one.

This Monday the 4th grade language arts teachers had to attend a training on small group guided reading. Awesome, I thought. I get a break from the kids, and I can learn something new about a topic we didn't have in middle school.

Unfortunately, I was needlessly optimistic. Because it was all too clear, just a few minutes into the day that the woman conducting the "training" didn't need to be a trainer. You'll see in just a minute that she doesn't need to be a teacher either.

On at least one occasion she used the word REINERATE.

Maybe this is some cool, new mashup of the words incinerate and reincarnate. Maybe we were going to burn up all our old knowledge and then let our new knowledge rise from the ashes like a glorious phoenix about to...

Nah, I think she meant REITERATE but isn't very smart.

Yep, that explains it.

A little later she was modeling a small group guided reading lesson where she was teaching main idea.  She told her "students" that main idea was a combination of the characters, setting, and what happened in the story.

Um, no. That would be a summary of what happened. Main idea is the most important idea in a NON-FICTION text.

After the second incident, I was finished. Done. Thanks for comin' out.

Boys Who Prance

Let me get straight to the point on this one. I have a student. Who is a 9 year old boy.

And he prances when he walks.

Actually, maybe it's not so much a prance. Because a prance is more a walk where you pick your feet up in a feminine, dancer sort of way.

It's not a skip, either. It's a hybrid, really.

He walks like a rooster with his chest puffed out, his arms behind him like he's about to take off in flight, and legs moving as if he is about to chasse across the room.

It is hard not to stare sometimes.

Ironically, he is one of the boys with a girlfriend.

I love it.
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And in only quasi-related news, this post reminded me of my all-time favorite YouTube video.

I call him "Awesome Apple Bottom Ginger Kid Succumbs to Flo Rida Madness"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azhgVB5uXlo

P.O.S.

This past week sucked. My classes haven't been good since the beginning. There was no honeymoon period for this group. They are worse than middle school kids in terms of behavior and it's starting to wear me thin because it is continually worsening.

Like the kid I sent to the office yesterday. He tried to take a book away from his table partner and when he didn't get his way he called the other kid a "piece of shit." I expect that type of thing from a middle schooler. But a 9 year old? Oh, that's right, he watched Southpark.

Then again, I recall my Mom's week at her school, which brings a whole new meaning to the title of this post.

She found an actual P.O.S. in the hallway. More precisely, a trail of poo from a 4th grade classroom all the way to the bathroom.

And as bad as my kids are, they have yet to "drop a load" in the hall.

Knock on wood.