Nov 1

I've heard of something about blog every day for the month of November or some-such-nonsense. Of course, I can't walk away from a challenge. I need to find the actual name of the challenge, so I can fully participate.

So, here is the first post for November. And it's a funny school story.

You've heard of the novel (and major motion picture) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? Well, little did I know that it was part of a series...and it's not the first book. (Sorry, Mom...must have read the cliff notes on this assigned reading!) It's actually the second book. So, my students and I decided to use some of our free book order money to order the entire collection. The order arrived Monday. Tuesday afternoon we busted open our new novels and I started reading #1: The Magician's Nephew. (Please keep in mind that I've never read ANY of these books--teachers should always preview everything!) It's a fascinating novel, actually, but probably entirely too difficult for 7 and 8 year olds.

Here's the scene:
We read chapter one. It's good. The kids are enthralled. They can't take their sweet little eyes off me. When we come to the end of chapter one, they BEG me to read chapter two.

We read chapter two. It's even better. However, they get a little antsy. By antsy, I mean they are starting to count the ceiling tiles, picking dirt off the class rug, counting the leaves on the tree right outside of our window. But there are one or two who are still watching me.
Then Digory and his Uncle get into a rather heated discussion (the characters in the story). I notice that the students start to settle back down.
The argument escalates. The children return their attention to me.
The argument reaches a pivotal moment. The room is silent.
Digory says to his uncle, "If I was a man, I'd punch you!"
My room ERUPTS. My kids are falling all over themselves laughing and hooting.
I hear things like "Little boys shouldn't say that to a man!" "His uncle's gonna knock him out!" I'm trying not to get tickled at their response until I hear "Yeah...sometimes I feel like that, too."
That's when the teacher looses control of herself. Sometimes, you have to laugh with them or you'll go crazy yourself.

Today we read chapters 3 and 4. They can't get enough of this. C.S. Lewis is a fantastic author and uses some pretty amazing techniques to keep his audience engaged with the text. I can't believe that 7 and 8 year olds are so enthralled with this story line...it's very advanced. I'll keep reading it as long as they'll listen.

PS: I'm going to start a teacher blog...does anyone have any ideas how to protect it so the identity of my students are protected, but the parents have access? I'll definitely send home a permission slip to post stories about the children. I'm hoping it will be a place for parents to talk with one another through comments, etc, and for me to post questions for my students to answer, as well as just give the parents a small glimpse into their child's day. I'd love any ideas or suggestions or leads to other teacher blogs. Thanks!