Matching Tracksuits

fun in fours

Month: March 2021

Comforting the Boy

Wednesday 31 March 2021

The Boy and I are finishing up the classic Where the Red Fern Grows. I remember my fifth-grade teacher reading that to us, and I knew how it ends: both Old Dan and Little Ann, the protagonist’s beloved hounds, die. We reached that part today, and it brought the Boy to tears.

“I’m just remembering Bida and Nana,” he said. “I miss them. I want them back.” He sobbed for a while as I comforted him, continually talking about memories he had with them.

After a while, when he was calming down, I asked the Girl to bring in a box of tissues.

“What?” she asked.

“A tissue box.”

“What?!” she asked again, incredulously.

“A tissue box!”

“Oh, I thought you said ‘a fishy box.'”

And like that, the tears turned to laugher.

Assessing the Testimony

Tuesday 30 March 2021

Kids today worked on the various witnesses in the Robinson trial from To Kill a Mockingbird. I’ll be having the local criminal defense attorney who speaks with students every year meet with us via Google Meet when we come back from spring break, so we’re spending a couple of days getting ready for the session.

It always strikes me when students sketch out Heck Tate’s testimony about Mayella how their drawings look simultaneously silly and horrifying.

Spring Monday

Monday 29 March 2021

Palm Sunday 2021

Sunday 28 March 2021

Polish Mass this year; nothing last year. No after-Mass social gathering again this year. But one thing stayed the same:

Closing Dinner

Saturday 27 March 2021

When K closes on a house, we splurge a little and have a special dinner. Tonight, it was crab cakes and crab legs.

The best thing about crab legs (other than the taste) -- they're fun to eat as well.

Friday Evening

Friday 26 March 2021

The Boy has decided he needs to do more conditioning to improve his soccer game. Tonight, he ran a series of interval training exercises that we kind of made up as we went along. Then he decided he wanted to make up his own.

He struggles a bit this year in soccer. He’s one of the youngest on the team, and as a result, he’s less aggressive/experienced than others and a bit slower than many of them. To his credit, he’s not giving up, though he wanted to at first. The thing is, he actually likes playing soccer, and that makes all the difference.

In the evening, I took the dog for a walk and discovered our neighbor had started his weekend backyard fires. Perhaps I’ll go over for a visit tomorrow night.

Late March Thursday

Thursday 25 March 2021

Today, we ran one of the students' favorite activities: a Socratic seminar. There are few things fourteen-year-olds love more than arguing, and a Socratic seminar (obviously altered for Covid safety) is the perfect way to wind up a week. Today's discussion: who was the most morally upright of the minor characters in To Kill a Mockingbird.

After school, we got to hang around a bit because of a tornado shelter-in-place order.

The few kids who were still around sat in the hallway and made silly poses.

The last time we had a shelter-in-place order, the whole area got flooded.

The journey home was dark.

Spring at School

Wednesday 24 March 2021

Visiting Coach

Tuesday 23 March 2021

The girls went to watch their coach’s other team play — a college men’s team.

“They jump so high!” was the common comment. “And the net is higher!”

At one point, they were discussing the other team with coach M. “I liked number 10,” one girl said.

“Really?” coach asked incredulously. “He was terrible.”

“I’m talking about looks, coach,” she clarified.

“I was not part of the conversation,” the Girl clarified when I related it to K.

(I also didn’t take the pictures…)

 

In Which the Teacher Screws Up

Monday 22 March 2021

Last Thursday, the kids had an e-learning day as the whole district took a day off for teachers to get vaccinated. I gave the students the following work:

So many issues with this. First of all, the time I was supposed to be online (and therefore the time students were expecting me) was 9:00-9:30. When I got online at 9:30, everyone was leaving. How did I look at the school schedule and think I was supposed to be online during math teachers’ time? Oh well — it was no big deal.

The real problem, though — did you notice that fourth point? “Read chapters 13-16 by Wednesday.” But on Wednesday to have them read by Monday. So when I began class today ready to work with chapters 13-16 of To Kill a Mockingbird, a substantial number of students hadn’t done the reading.

“You said on Classroom to have it done by Wednesday,” a sweet and honest girl said. She offered me her Chromebook with the assignment pulled up: “See?”

I stood there, looking at the clear evidence I’d screwed up, wondering what happened (I just mixed up the chapters — it should have been chapters 17-20 for Wednesday), and wondering if there was any way to salvage the day.

“Reading day.”

“Seriously?” they asked incredulously.

What else was I to do?