Have No Fear, Blog Ideas Here

I am teaching middle schoolers this summer......fifth graders who, through a lot of fault of their own, find themselves in summer school.

I was concerned that being older and more mature, middle schoolers wouldn't say those little cute things that fourth graders say, and I would lose my source for those cute blog ideas I get from fourth graders.

Have no fear. Blog ideas here. In one short week:


Summers school students tend to suffer from all the worst academic behaviors that students can have. One of them is the tendency to NEVER raise their hand in class. I had a student hurt themself while raising their hand. I heard their hand smack their desk and saw them wince in pain and cry out, "Oww! Ow. That hurt." Maybe with more experience..........


Me: "I want you to be able to know for yourself and be able to tell someone else what you learned in school today. What did you learn in school today, Sam?"
Sam: (spoken with a dazed look): "My parents go into the bathroom a lot."


Summer school students also tend to lack experience answering questions in class. Case in point:
Me: "Abel, make a sentence with the word although."
Abel: (after quite a long wait time as I patiently waited for his response): "My older cousin is one year old."


Me: "Abel, I have warned you many times to keep working. I will have to make you do your work during recess if you don't quit playing around in class. Do you want to lose your recesses?"
Abel: (looking up somewhat confused): "Yeah. that sounds great." (The entire class breaks out into nervous laughter)
Abel: "What's everybody laughing for?"
Me: "What do you think I just asked you?"
Abel: "You asked me if I wanted pizza for lunch."