Monday, November 22, 2004
Today I learned to power of thank you.

I accidently came up with this thing that is working (for now). Instead of saying, "Please move to the corner", I have been saying "Thank you for moving to the corner." Then, when they argue, I repeat, "Thanks." So they are like, "But I-" and I say, "Thanks." And they sputter, "You never send-" to which I reply, "Thanks. Thanks a lot." until they finally go. It's funny.

In more disheartening news-- don't you love it when the kids ask questions at the end of a long unit that prove they didn't understand a thing that has occurred in the last month? We have just finished "Anne Frank" and are watching the movie. One hour into it a student raised his hand high, his brow furrowed, and asked, "Why are they up there? Why don't they just leave?" Sad enough. But then a fellow student replied, "They outta food." Double sad. To which the first student brightened and exclaimed, "Oh, yeah! That's right."

What? Last year when I taught Anne Frank, you may remember, my students thought that Anne was killed by Osama Bin Ladin or something. What am I doing wrong?

Next I am teaching evaluative writing. At least I won't have to constantly try to teach compassion. In the movie, they just talked about how children would come home to find their parents gone, never to be seen again. I asked the class, "Can you imagine that? Isn't that terrible?" And a student just replied, "Anne needs chapstick. And she has a big nose."

Please, please just let me take a nap. ¶ 11:17 AM