Prior to assigning your darling students a research project on an obscurely small and specific tribe of Native Americans that requires them to cite at least 3 different BOOK sources, please check to make sure that 3 books have even been written on that particular tribe. It would make my job A LOT easier. Parents just can't understand why I don't have 3 books on the Weminuche or the Wampanoag on my shelf. Is there a reason why you, as a group, seem to avoid assigning the tribes on which I actually HAVE materials, such as the Cherokee, Navajo, and Iroquois? Just curious.
Thank you for your consideration of my complaint. I know you can't ALL really be in cahoots to make my Tuesday horrible.
I had a similar complaint tonight. Maddie had a list of words that she was suppose to look up in the dictionary and write their meanings. So, Maddie can't find the word 'finally'. To a 4th grader, this is a difficult problem. I explain that she should try finding a smaller word in the word and look that up. So, we looked up 'final'. At the end of the entry it mentions that 'finally' is an adverb. That's not good enough for Maddie. She says, "But the teacher wants a meaning!" I took care of what she should write down. But I also wanted to tell Mrs. Hannah that perhaps she should actually do the assignment herself and discover what issues the students would run into. I think you would agree...
I spent many many many many many many hours working on children's book talks for my kidlit class. (Did I mention it took a long time.) They were amazing multi-media, streaming audio, powerpoint presentations.
Then I went to turn them in and noticed, while uploading, that *gasp* of the three books, one of them had to be non-fiction!
(OH NO!!! I DID THREE NOVELS!!! THE LIBRARY IS CLOSED!!! THE ONLY NON-FICTION I HAVE I ALREADY USED FOR REVIEWS ON ANOTHER ASSIGNMENT!!! SCREAMING!!! PANIC ATTACKING!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!)
I could not think of a single non-fiction book that I had read that I hadn't already used for other papers. I had no means of getting another one! The world was coming to an end!
UNTIL I REMEMBERED MY SISTER!!! (Bless you Minders!)
She used to love a book on the lives of the presidents. I was able to download an audio version offline. I was able to get another presentation produced and uploaded prior to the due time!
Phew.
Never again will I put that much work into something without first making sure that I REALLY know what I am supposed to be doing.
If you want to see the presentations they are available here:
I went to bed at 3 am last night. (Cause I went to the Twilight midnight premier with Sarah B, Jenn B, and Kurt.)
Apparently I crashed when I got to bed, and woke up with my head in a really weird position. Now I can't turn my head to the left without intense sharp nauseating pain in my lower skull and neck.
It is now 8 pm...12 hours later...and I still can't look left. This makes it difficult to drive.
It also made me realize that I have some odd mannerisms. For example, when my bangs get into my eyes, I flick them out quickly with a head toss. This subconscious motion has literally brought tears to my eyes several times today.
And now, I am off to take more advil and go to bed...praying that I can turn left tomorrow...since I am babysitting some adorable boys, and this could give them an unfair advantage!
This has happened to me several times. What really helps is an ice pack on it. That's the only thing that gave me any relief until it went away. I'm sorry you have to deal with it - it really stinks! :(
