Patience running thin.

Hello,

I got a little upset with our congress this afternoon.  They made a law that didn't quite jive with previous laws and when I asked about it, I immediately got differing opinions.  They didn't know either.  I got on them, because a lot of people in our class have lost elections, so when the winners don't do their jobs well, it feels like a slap in the face to the kids who have lost.

I also wasn't so happy with their homework. I haven't made these last two weeks overly difficult on them, so the slide on the effort in their homework just isn't acceptable.  Tonight's writing minimum is five sentences.  If we can't do that, I'll up it to seven.  We can and will do better.

The winning fairy tale unit team, I forgot their team name, got to cash in on their reward today.  We started watching The Princess Bride at lunch time.  Students not on the winning team can also watch, if they scored above 80% on their test.  Students scoring below 80 can earn a viewing of the second showing after the holiday break if they can show that they learned the material from the test.  It should take four or five lunch times to show the entire movie.

I'm thinking of starting an entire classic movie reward system.  It gets the kids out of the cafeteria for a change.  It should motivate some of them to get their work done and learn the material that they are supposed to.  It also gives me an excuse to show them some quality movies that I can then reference in class.  The Wizard of Oz is on deck, along with a movie based on a Roald Dahl book.  I think that I"ll go with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the old version).

We got in our last computer lab session before the break for writing.  We will continue to get in there as much as we can for a variety of subjects.

No homework club tomorrow.  Sorry for the inconvenience of the late notice.  I still don't know my hoop schedule for Jan - Feb, but will let you know the homework club plans as soon as I can.

Have a great night.

Mr. Shea