Can I?

As an English teacher I always made a point of trolling my students on the "can I/may I" question. Someone would ask, "Can I go to the bathroom?" and I would respond, usually, with something along the lines of, "I don't know. Have you consulted your doctor?" or "I hope so, or one day you are going to explode!"

I think this pic really says it all though, especially after a student shared with me a pic that stopped short of the teacher's reply to the student's rather cogent argument. The end, is a just criticism of how we fund education.

Booktube

Why didn't anyone ever tell me about this? I was just reading this article on Booktube in the New York Times. I didn't know this was a thing. Maybe it could be used for book reports or for recommending books to students.

The Power of Student Driven Learning: Shelley Wright

I saw this talk recently on TED Talks.  Kinds are amazing and sometimes the best we can do is to get the heck out of their way.


 

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Seed folks by Paul Fleischman

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Seed folks by Paul Fleischman: I have to say that I loved this book. It is a series of monologues from different people involved in creating and maintaining a commun...

Poetry Project

It's that time of year again: time to make them busy with independent projects. And one of my favorites is the Poetry Project.

Here is a link to the poetry project I am setting my students to this year: Poetry Project.
While I was looking around on the Internet, I found this page from Joyce Sidman's website. I may try these either later this year, or next year. Poetry Ideas.

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: I don’t want to say that this is just another YA dystopian novel with a female main character. In a way, of course, it is. And after rea...

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Paper Towns by John Green

Mr. B's Bookshelf: Paper Towns by John Green: This book was a real roller coaster for me. I identified a great deal with Quentin, the narrator and main character of the novel. He is ...