Thursday, November 1, 2007

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!

7 comments:

Colleen @AMadisonMom said...

Here you go...
http://nablopomo.ning.com/

Quick! Sign up!

Colleen @AMadisonMom said...

I believe that you can make the new blog password protected.

Checking.....

Yes... the screen with the tabs for "posting, settings, template."

Click "settings"... then all the way to the left click "permissions". Then on the part labeled "blog readers" click "only people I choose". That should work to make it private.

Christina said...

Yay! Glad you're doing the NaBloPoMom thing, too! Looks like Colleen's already got you all hooked up. A teachers blog sounds like a great idea, too.

Your students are a hoot! I read and enjoyed all C.S. Lewis' novels. But I am impressed that your kids are grasping it at such a young age! I bet it has something to do with a great teacher. :o)

Kyla said...

Yay for NaBloPoMo! I'm going to have so much to read this month!

I love that series. I got it for Christmas last year and ready through half of the books and then got distracted, but this winter I'm going to finish them up. I think BubTar is just about old enough to enjoy having them read to him. He's reading easy chapter books now, but those are bit higher than what he can handle on his own.

Stacy said...

We have teh series, too, but I haven't read it yet. My mother-in-law read the series to my hubby as a child and he is looking forward to making those same memories with our children. We just have to wait until they are old enough to understand it.

Arizaphale said...

Hooray for NaBloPoMo!!! Great story about the classroom. The Magician's Nephew was my fave of that series. I read them all when I was about 7 or 8 the first time and then again in my teens. There's so many levels to them.
Cool idea for a teacher blog!! I wouldn't invite my students to read mine as I mostly whinge about them :-). Got to get it off the chest somehow!! :-D
But your idea sounds great. Would love to hear how it goes. Maybe I could get some ideas of how to interact with my secondary students. You go girl!! Must finish that post about maths for you too....

Laura McIntyre said...

I love the whole cs lewis series and cannot wait to read them to my kids. Good luck with Nablopomo