Groundhog Day!
Is a big, big deal here. See, the movie with Bill Murray was filmed here. And, in typical small town fashion, we squeeze every single drop of interestingness from that small moment of fame. Tomorrow will find a reenactment of the whole Punxatawny scene on our square and there have been showings of the movie in our theatre all weekend. It seems a silly thing to make such a big deal of, but if it makes people happy…
Sorry my posts have been so sporadic, but the busyness around here has actually increased. Can you believe it? Because I didn’t have nearly enough to do, I signed on at the kids’ school to take over the position of computer teacher for the 5th-8th graders. It’s a volunteer position – helping the kids get through this book that teaches about databases, spreadsheets, word processing and other basic computer info. The problem? The book is dull as old, dry library paste. Sure, it’s walking them through basic skills like making a table in Word, using spreadsheet formulas, etc. But there are big problems. One is that we just have the books – not the supplemental material that they’re supposed to have. So, when it says “Open Lesson 19″ in the instructions, there is no lesson 19 to open. So I have to quickly figure out if there’s a work-around or whether they should just skip the lesson. Then, the book will tell them to do something like “set tabs” or “create a table”, but it doesn’t tell them how. Not how they might want them to do it, not different other ways to do it. So I have to quickly read them and figure out how to do what they’re supposed to do without looking too inept.
The first class is just the 5th graders and they’re a simple class to handle. They don’t chatter or socialize or anything. Just do teh work. Then the 6th-8th graders come in. And they are the stereotypical middle school kids. Being all social and loud and completely not caring about what the classwork is because it has no significance to them. Like, seriously. Why would they need to know how to format a table? Booooring. And, honestly? I totally don’t blame them one bit.
How to resolve this? I came up with an idea. How better to make a subject/lesson relevant to kids than to make it about them? After looking at what they’d learned and thinking about how to implement it, I decided that we’d make a yearbook. They haven’t had one at the school before so this is perfect. On Friday, I talked with the kids and shared my idea and got a pretty good response. I told them they had to finish the book before they could participate because, boring as it is, it’s still the assigned material. A handful of kids are already done and giving them something to work on will, I hope, cut down on the mindless chatter and foolishness going on. Plus, suddenly the other kids are actually WORKING to get through their books. So I may have hit on something here. We’ve got 3 months to put it together and if they focus, I think we can do it. Thankfully I have my scrapping background, so I can help them power through it if need be. It’s all basically making scrapbook pages anyway, so we’re good. Today I had the kids who were done choose what sections they want to work on, gave them some basic guidelines and told them to go to town. Tomorrow, I’ll take team pictures of the basketball team and cheerleaders and set up some times for volleyball team pix and class pix. I basically gave the kids carte blanche to take pictures however they want and bring them in, so I think we’ll have a lot of good candids. My main focus is to be sure that all the kids are represented, so it’s not just the popular ones. I’m very, very excited to see how the kids step up and own this. It’ll be very exciting for them, I hope!
Will’s got his first real cold, too. He’s had an ucky cough for a couple days now, but the doctor said it’s good. Other than the cough, he’s fine, so I think it’s just a cold. Henry came home after school with one of those grody noses and chapped face from all the wiping. Hopefully some vitamin C & my own magical brew will clear him up. Cuz Momma needs those kids in school. And he has Friday off, so I’ve already lost one day.
Okey-doke. I’m wicked tired. Time to prep for bed. I’ll try not to take so long next time.
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Di
