I am so glad it is ISTEP time, whew; I need a little break from 6th grade. I had to down play my excitement though, because my son is not a happy camper right now. I empathize; I have had many years of the ole standardized testing under my belt. It is not fun! My son and I tried to come up with a top ten list of why these types of tests are so awful…and here it is…drum roll please:
10. Don’t like the word TEST!
9. Teachers wig out!
8. The nightmares you have before the test.
7. The nightmares you have during the test.
6. Hates the big stop sign at the bottom of each test.
5. To afraid to look around for fear you will be accused of cheating.
4. The quiet…THE UNBEARABLE QUIET!!
3. You may never want use, look at, or hear about a number- two pencil again (this actually happened to me).
2. The anxiety that comes over you when you feel you can not completely erase a mistake.
1. THE MATH STOR Y PROBLEMS!!!!
Ok, now go sharpen your pencils!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
6th Grade Revisited - The Nursery Rhyme
“Ring around a rosie a pocket full of posies. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!”
This is a nursery rhyme I sung many many times as a very small child. This week, my son came home to tell me exactly what this nursery rhyme meant. According to our 6th grade teacher, this is its meaning:
Ring around the rosie – The red pustules a person develops in the beginning stages of the “Bubonic Plague.”
Pocket full of posies – Refers to the flowers placed around the infected person in order protect others from getting infected.
Ashes, ashes – Imitates the sneezing sound which comes from the infected person.
We all fall down – Describing the many who died from the disease.
I am not sure if what the teacher said is true or not, but it has got me wondering. After my son dropped this bombshell on me, I spent the rest of the night questioning all nursing rhymes. Do they all have hidden meanings? Did Humpty Dumpty signify a real person and not just some egg? Who was Miss Muffet’s scary spider…a serial killer perhaps?
Can you picture this? Discovery channel uncovers the mysteries behind all childhood nursery rhymes, with host Geraldo Rivera. I’d watch it!
This is a nursery rhyme I sung many many times as a very small child. This week, my son came home to tell me exactly what this nursery rhyme meant. According to our 6th grade teacher, this is its meaning:
Ring around the rosie – The red pustules a person develops in the beginning stages of the “Bubonic Plague.”
Pocket full of posies – Refers to the flowers placed around the infected person in order protect others from getting infected.
Ashes, ashes – Imitates the sneezing sound which comes from the infected person.
We all fall down – Describing the many who died from the disease.
I am not sure if what the teacher said is true or not, but it has got me wondering. After my son dropped this bombshell on me, I spent the rest of the night questioning all nursing rhymes. Do they all have hidden meanings? Did Humpty Dumpty signify a real person and not just some egg? Who was Miss Muffet’s scary spider…a serial killer perhaps?
Can you picture this? Discovery channel uncovers the mysteries behind all childhood nursery rhymes, with host Geraldo Rivera. I’d watch it!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
6th Grade Revisited - The Vegetable...er Fruit?
Sorry for the respite. I have been working on some articles for publishing! But, I AM BACK!!!
Well I’ve reached the halfway point in my second go-a-round at 6th grade. So far, the second time around is much sweeter than the first. Math still sucks though, I could re-do 6th grade twenty times and still hate math. But oh well, I will continue to trudge through that crazy perpendicular field.
Initially, 6th grade was kind of stressing me out. I was eating a DQ waffle bowl sundae dipped in chocolate (with the caramel and nuts on the side…IT HAS TO BE ON THE SIDE) just about every night. Had to stop though, because of my bum thyroid, Plus I do not want to pass along my horrible stress-related-bad-eating habits to my son.
Our next big project: Choose an unusual vegetable and write an essay about it. I choose the beet, my son picked to write about the eggplant. Turns out vegetables are complicated, mainly because it is hard to determine whether they are actually classified as fruits. The more we studied both these edible plants, the more we kept getting confused. Is it a veggie or a fruit, fruit or a veggie? Something about how the seeds have to have this, and the plant has to flower a certain way…blah, blah, blah…Finally we decided we did not care because they were nasty and we weren’t going to eat them anyway.
Just because we aren't going to eat them doesn't mean you don't have to, I have learned these veggies (or whatever) have wonderful medicinal properties. Here are some recipes:
Beet Salad - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beet-Salad-238644
Eggplant Parmesan - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Grilled-Eggplant-Parmesan-106955
Well I’ve reached the halfway point in my second go-a-round at 6th grade. So far, the second time around is much sweeter than the first. Math still sucks though, I could re-do 6th grade twenty times and still hate math. But oh well, I will continue to trudge through that crazy perpendicular field.
Initially, 6th grade was kind of stressing me out. I was eating a DQ waffle bowl sundae dipped in chocolate (with the caramel and nuts on the side…IT HAS TO BE ON THE SIDE) just about every night. Had to stop though, because of my bum thyroid, Plus I do not want to pass along my horrible stress-related-bad-eating habits to my son.
Our next big project: Choose an unusual vegetable and write an essay about it. I choose the beet, my son picked to write about the eggplant. Turns out vegetables are complicated, mainly because it is hard to determine whether they are actually classified as fruits. The more we studied both these edible plants, the more we kept getting confused. Is it a veggie or a fruit, fruit or a veggie? Something about how the seeds have to have this, and the plant has to flower a certain way…blah, blah, blah…Finally we decided we did not care because they were nasty and we weren’t going to eat them anyway.
Just because we aren't going to eat them doesn't mean you don't have to, I have learned these veggies (or whatever) have wonderful medicinal properties. Here are some recipes:
Beet Salad - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beet-Salad-238644
Eggplant Parmesan - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Grilled-Eggplant-Parmesan-106955
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