Thursday, November 15, 2007

Stalling

Hi, it's Thursday and the weekend is going to be very busy, so there will be short posts for a few days. Possibly just photos even.

This week was the cut-off for kids turning in their shots info. And of course, tons of kids haven't gotten them. Which means that half the grade was 'quarantined' in the auditorium for most of the week.

Really? In the middle of November? Because the kids haven't been contagious or susceptible for the past two months? And now we're supposed to be in full test prep mode, and literally half the classes are absent for two or three days? REALLY?!

GRRR.

It is highly annoying, because all of us teachers are basically stalling and trying to figure out how to deal with having so few kids. Bless my kids, they still worked for me, even if there were only six people. We reviewed some grammar and some predictions, and then we did some fun games too. One was identifying famous landmarks. They worked together very busily, but oh, it was so sad. They know *nothing*. One group insisted that the Arc de Triomphe was the Great Wall of China, while another group thought it was in Mexico. Another group labeled Big Ben as the Eiffel Tower. And Paris is in the country of Europe, of course. Oh, and Stonehenge is in Japan, in case you were wondering.

Sigh.

But that's exactly why I had them do the activity, so they would learn some new things! And hopefully retain some geographic knowledge.

Interestingly, every group correctly labeled the Sydney Opera House, and do you know why? Because I showed them my Australia pictures from the summer. So you see? They do learn! And remember! Hurrah!

In sum, teach your children geography, please!

3 comments:

Mimi said...

Sidenote: So impressed that you're keeping up with Nablopomo and teaching...you're a better woman than me.

We videotaped our fifth graders answers to questions about the government last year. Many of them thought that George Bush's brother was our VP. They routinely convused George BUSH, George WASHINGTON and George CLOONEY. Some of them couldn't name the seven continents. We laughed, but I think that was so we didn't cry...

Anonymous said...

I remember elementary school when half of the class was sick or couldn't get to school due to heavy snow.

It made it so much harder to be serious.

17 (really 15) more years said...

UGH- kids not knowing geography is one of my pet peeves. Nothing aggravates the crap out of me more when a kid doesn't know the Atlantic Ocean is on the EAST coast.