The double doors to the hallway were closed and locked. They always are after school, to reduce the chance of students wandering around. As I walked up, a young student was coming up from the other side, which was odd. I opened the doors. He motioned as if he were going to walk through. “Who […]
Category Archives: Default
Click to Delete
Tue, 5 Jan 2021, 08:21 PM (-06:00)
There are many ways Google Classroom has been a game changer for teachers with remote students. On the other hand, after using it for almost two semesters, I can say that the Google approach to app development — build the bare minimum set of features to impress first-time users — leads to horrors. (Horrors, I […]
Too Many Steps
Sat, 2 Jan 2021, 07:21 PM (-06:00)
“That’s too many steps, Mr. Hasan,” Daniel said. This complaint occurs regularly. After four things, someone will speak out. Too many numbers. Too many variables. Too many equations. Too many steps. It’s as if math is the only subject that requires them to remember things. Or maybe the only subject where it’s reasonable to complain. […]
3 Breads
Fri, 1 Jan 2021, 08:47 PM (-06:00)
We lamented our lack of corn bread. Our New Year’s dinner was black-eyed peas and cabbage — a mighty tasty product of the fair and industrious Trudy. But we skipped the corn bread. “No corn bread this year,” Trudy said. “We would have just slathered it in butter and eaten it. You would have been […]
Pair Work
Thu, 31 Dec 2020, 06:56 PM (-06:00)
1. No more pair work In normal years, my classroom is organized as pairs of students sitting at two-person tables. Sixteen tables, each with an A-P letter boldly written on a piece of paper taped to the tabletop aforemost (the taping having been performed by some eager student/assistance at the beginning of the year, a trick […]
Just Ask
Wed, 30 Dec 2020, 07:59 PM (-06:00)
1. The check-in questions At the beginning of the year, all the students were remote — either online or working on “paper packets”. The online kids had several ways they could officially get marked present. (Attendance is a very big deal for some not-so-obvious reasons, as some of you undoubtedly know.) For my classes, the […]
Recent In Retrospect
Wed, 30 Dec 2020, 02:10 PM (-06:00)
1. Then He would go to the library from time to time. It was at the end of a hall and around a corner, downstairs from the high school main office. (His brother will undoubtedly remember this better and have a more accurate recollection of where the library was.) Who knows how he found time […]
Yes, Coffee
Tue, 29 Dec 2020, 08:28 PM (-06:00)
She asked me if I had seen Jupiter and Saturn. They had been gazing skyward. The warming winters being what they are, I imagined them standing in their furrowed field in shirt sleeves in amaze at the star-strewn sky. Ours was cloudy, so my envy had to settle on an approximate conjunction the night before. […]
Just In Case
Tue, 29 Dec 2020, 02:36 PM (-06:00)
Just in case it’s wasn’t obvious to you, either… I know, right? What a coincidence.
Avatar Fail
Tue, 29 Dec 2020, 02:21 PM (-06:00)
Did she ask about it? I don’t remember. She was standing at my desk in the front of the room, and somehow we started talking about my Google avatar. “It’s kinda me,” I said. “Do you know what he’s doing?” She stared at it for a moment. “No.” “Saturday Night Fever?” I asked. “That help?” […]