Vocabulary Test #1

I ask one of my students to use "eccentric" correctly in a sentence. She hesitates, stutters, and replies: "You become eccentric around someone you love." I have always thought of eccentric meaning "crazy," so I was intrigued by her sentence. I said, "ok, J. Back it up for me...what does eccentric mean to you in that sentence?" She said, "Well, if you have a crush on a boy - which I don't!! - but you, Ms. Evans, you're an attractive lady, if you have a boy, you feel changed around him, or peculiar - you feel eccentric." "Ok, J. Got it. Love it." Adventures in oral vocabulary exams, week one.

Also, I figured out that third hour is totally lost and they have no clue what is going on in the first 25 pages of "Fahrenheit 451," even though I've been talking them through it. Reading comprehension, much? Narrative flow chart, here we come!

And, because I know you all wish you were in high school again, just so you could have me as your English teacher, I "made" my students look and de Kooning paintings and listen to Cat Power and Sleater-Kinney to describe tone. It was awesome. As my mentor says, "Another happy day in happy-land!"

Now, why am I so tired?