The Casualities of English

I had two major casualties today.  The first was in my Grade 4 science class where we have been learning about animals.  Last year we did a lot of work on the different animal groups, i.e. mammals, reptiles, bird etc.  So one of the ways that we differentiated one group from another was whether they were exothermic or endothermic.  This word was a little complicated however, so I simplified it to be "keep their temperature" or "doesn't keep their temperature".  I was able to do this because the kids in Grade 3 weren't really reading from the book very much.

This year however, they're doing a lot of comprehension tasks so they've had to run into the terms warm-blooded and cold-blooded.  I hate these terms and it was really through gritted teeth that I taught it to them.  We practiced many times what these terms really mean, so hopefully they won't get confused.  So, anyway, the first casualty was the truth.

The second casualty was unfortunately, a child.  I had just given the current Grade 3s an English test, so I decided to take them outside to play while I marked them.  I was kind of distracted by marking the tests, but I did notice that the kids were off in the other side of the yard throwing something into the air.  I thought it was a ball that they'd found somewhere.  No.  It turns out that they were throwing rocks into the air just so that they could look at them as they came down.  Unfortunately, one of the girls curiosity got the better of her and it came down on the back of her head.  There wasn't a lot of blood but there was enough.

All the kids were brought back inside to have the principal interrogate them as to what they were doing.  Each of the kids were given a chance to explain their case then there was some kind of punishment doled out.  I'm not sure what it was, but it was certainly a lot stronger than the traditional "black point" that we generally give as he had nearly all six of the kids who were involved crying.

I was pretty glad when the class ended.

- Daniel.

P.S. The photos are from Amanda's class where she got them to make pictures out of leaves.  Her day was a little more cruisey than mine.