it’s her birthday tomorrow

Major difference between Mexicans and me? Birthdays. I just don’t get birthdays. They are not ma thang. However, it appears that birthdays are definitely Mexicans thang. This I have had to learn – as if the one scene in Independence Day that included Mexico, also included a birthday party and a piñata, wasn’t enough information. So, tomorrow is Mrs. Kay’s birthday. Which means that we have to start celebrating today! If you haven’t worked it out yet, that means we are going out to celebrate. Therefore you get a bullet point post today (and probably tomorrow as well. In fact, Friday night is the school’s Christmas party for the teachers and the admin, so don’t hold your breath waiting for a post then either. Ah, it is all fun and frolics in the life of a teacher!).

• English exam
• Review for science
• rehearsal for the Christmas assembly
• Spanish
• History
• music
• basketball tournament – if Hector, Azereth, Francisco, or Richardo is reading this – how did the tournament go?
• secret friend

Yes, it’s that time of year again, when we pull the names out from the sticks of destiny (yes, the sticks of destiny Mrs. Kay, not the sticks of death), and you find a new friend. This year, we have decided to do the secret friend between the two sixth grades. The rules are the same, a small present on Monday and Wednesday. A big present (about $10) on Thursday. The idea of a secret friend is not to be giving a present to your friend, it is giving a present to a new friend, a secret friend. Of course, the nice thing is that you get a present from someone else, someone you don’t know.

Mrs. Kay’s Interesting Fact Of The Day: Charles Wilson Peale, a portrait painter who painted George Washington 7 times, was also the man who made his dentures: Elk teeth mounted on a lead base. (Dentures, for those of you who are not sure, are false teeth!)

Homework:

• Exam: Spanish
• Something to read: when the exam finishes, what else are you going to do?
• Maths: Pair of compasses, ruler and protractor
• Voluntary Writing Assignment: Best Christmas (for Friday)
• Laptops: charged
• Read: 20 minutes

marked the exams!

I got a phone call from Professor Rene yesterday (Friday), and he was asking if the beard was still there! Yes it is. Except, it had grown so long that, while eating an iced doughnut (that’s a donut to you) , I ended up with a collection of food in my beard. For anyone who has read Roald Dahl’s The Twits (and why haven’t you?) they will know that this is the most disgusting thing about beards. So, today I went out and bought a trimmer for my beard – so that I am neatly groomed for school! Unfortunately, I haven’t worked out the settings, and I trimmed my beard a bit too close. It now looks like it did in week three. Never mind, I still have a beard. And yes, I will be keeping it for the foreseeable future. It is Mrs. Kay’s birthday on Thursday (you knew that didn’t you?), Christmas is also coming – so it’s a cheap birthday/Christmas present for Mrs. Kay. Now I’ll just have to convince her to buy me a camera :^) Anyway, a picture of my beard.

It has been a really good Saturday. We had a long lie in this morning, as the kids had nothing to do. We then went out to buy my beard trimmer, and stopped off for tacos at my favourite taco stand – Sergio’s, which is just off Las Palmas, near Instituto México. When I got home I watched some rugby, Australia v Wales, trimmed my beard, and settled down to mark the maths exams.

Let’s do the bad news first: no one, in either group, scored 10. However, there was a 9.9 in both groups! In fact, in both groups, there were six students who scored 9.0 and above. Well done to them! Overall I was very happy with the results. It was a hard exam and most people did very well. There were some people who made silly mistakes [in 6A 7 (SEVEN) students forgot (FORGOT) that the area of a triangle is half (HALF) the area of a parallelogram], and there were others who made mistakes because of confusion. But, overall, I am a happy maths teacher.

Now, long time readers of this blog will know that I have, over the years, had extra sections added to this blog:

• Interesting fact of the day
• English word of the day
• Favourite moment of the day

So far, this year I haven’t added a new section. However, Mrs. Kay told me an interesting fact on Thursday night, a fact that I did not know before. It appears that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was so vain that he had his uniforms sewn (yes, sewn) onto his body, so that they would not crease. This probably led to his death. For those of you who remember, the Archduke was assassinated, and his death provoked the start of The First World War. Now, Mrs. Kay states that when he was shot, his life could have been saved. However, because his uniform was sewn (yes SEWN) onto his body, the doctors couldn’t get to treat the wound quickly enough. Thus he died, the world was plunged into war. Of course, the result of The First World War led to the rise of Hitler, and therefore The Second World War, and all the atrocities that occurred there. Amazing. One vain man’s actions could cause the death of so many people. However, Mrs. Kay remembered where she had discovered this fact, in a book. As everyone knows, Mrs Kay has a huuuuuge library (why haven’t you emailed her and asked for a copy of a book?), and so she quickly found the book and started spouting “interesting facts“. Therefore, the blog will now have a new section:

Mrs. Kay’s Interesting Fact Of The Day

Every day, she will send me an interesting fact and, when I write that day’s blog entry, I will also add that to my post. Hurray! So, here goes:

Mrs. Kay’s Interesting Fact Of The Day: Every year, the Yellow River in China drags enough yellow chalk sediment from the deserts to build a wall 91 cm. thick, and 91 cm. tall, that would extend around the earth 23 times!

Homework:

• READING LOG: Do not forget to bring your Reading Log in to school on Monday.
• Laptops: charged
• Read: 20 minutes
• Homework Diary: signed

going for ten

I’m a great believer in targets. I believe that you should always set yourself targets, and those targets should be attainable. Oh, I don’t mean you should aim low. No, you should always aim high. However, you shouldn’t aim beyond your reach, because you are already setting yourself up to fail. This leads to, maybe, not trying your hardest because you don’t believe in yourself. No, set yourself a target, set yourself a good target, and then achieve that target.

The exams are coming up again, and this is a moment to set yourself a target, a target that is possible. I know this sounds scary, but the target you set should always be ten. Don’t settle for less. Aim for a ten! I write the exams, and I promise you, I want you to all get tens. I don’t write “trick questions”, I don’t try to ‘catch you out”, I write an exam that sets out to question you on everything we have studied this year. I realise that, because I don’t teach both groups, it has been difficult to make sure that everything I have covered, has been covered by 6B. But this time, I’m in 6B. A ten, in maths, should be achievable. A ten, in maths, should be the target. Aim for perfection!

Of course, it’s been a very packed session. We’ve had six weeks work, and the exam at Cumbres to prepare for. This means that the exam will be a “biggy”. But I realise that, I know that. Thanks to Mrs. Kay, I’ve already spent some extra time in 6B, preparing for the exam. I thought that 6A would miss me, however they didn’t want me to come back :^(. I did come back, and we also studied for the maths exam! Tomorrow, we shall finish off doing the review – in both classrooms.

There was just enough time to squeeze in some geography. I’m enjoying the geography at the moment because we are studying Russia. The great thing about Russia is that you can’t really understand it, without knowing the history. Which means we get to do my favourite subject, history! And, as a heads-up to 6A, if you thought Ivan the Terrible was terrible, you thought that The Retreat from Moscow was horrible. You haven’t heard about Rasputin yet!

Homework:

• Maths: Study for that exam!
• Protractor: for measuring angles.
• Writing Assignment: 6A Book Report (for Friday. Remember there is a maths exam Friday, therefore get the report written NOW!)
• Writing Assignment: 6B The Best Christmas Ever. (for Friday. Remember there is a maths exam Friday, therefore get it written NOW!)
• Laptops: charged
• Read: 20 minutes
• Homework Diary: signed

we’re free!!!

I know this is unbelievable but, since last Tuesday, when Miss Monica asked Mrs. Kay to think about taking the job, we haven’t had any free time. The last week has been a whirlwind of planning, dealing with kids (our own), planning, dealing with kids (private students), planning, and a bit of planning. Knowing what is coming the rest of the week – we have students in our flat, after school on W*dnesd*y and Thursday, then we have our own kids on Friday – we had targeted tonight as our “free time”. We managed to share some non-contact time at school, where we planned tomorrow’s lessons. This means that we actually have some time to ourselves between now and tomorrow morning, where we don’t have to do any work for school.

So, I’m cooking a curry. We’ll watch some cooking shows from England, while I prepare onion bhajiis, chicken tikka masala, chicken jalfrezi, and some pilau rice. YUM! Then I think we might open a bottle of wine (on a school night), settle down, and eat ourselves into fatness! At that point, we will probably fall asleep in front of the computer screen, watching Forbrydelsen (extra points if you know what I’m talking about).

That said, I don’t have much time to write a blog post – at the moment I’m pre-soaking the rice in iced water, Jose Manuel knows what I’m doing – so this will be a quick sprint through everything that happened today. Bullet point post ahead:

• maths with 6A. Names of quadrilaterals and a quick revision of area.
• maths with 6B. Back through square roots and approximation of square roots. Then a quick revision of area.
• dress rehearsal for the Christmas Assembly. I thought that 6A were very good and I was really happy with their efforts. And 6B rocked! Riverdance was never going to be easy, but I thought that they gave it a very good attempt. It was the first time I have seen it and I really liked it. Well done 6B. Keep it up! We’ll have the best sixth grade presentation yet!
• meeting with Miss Christina (you remember Miss Christina? The computer teacher from waaaay back). There is some talk of putting homeworks on the computer. I’m not totally sure how this is going to work but, this was a preliminary meeting.
• Alberto was in today and his Reading Log total means that he gets in to The 200+ Club. Yay!
• The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time. Mrs Kay has initiated a “class reader”, a book that everyone reads in the class. She has put this on everyone’s laptop, and they have started to read it in class. This is a brilliant idea. It means that all the students get to experience a book together. She has picked a book that no one has read, so no one knows what is going to happen, or what it is about. And now, the sixth grade are reading altogether. It sounds very exciting, and I must admit, I have dusted off my copy of the book and am now reading it again, so I can join in too.
• geography. Catherine the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great. Not very original in their thinking those Russians with their nicknames and stuff.

Right, food to cook.

Homework:

• Maths: Reteaching 8-2
• Writing Assignment:  6A Book Report (for Friday. Remember there is a maths exam Friday, therefore get the report written NOW!)
• Writing Assignment:  6B The Best Christmas Ever. (for Friday. Remember there is a maths exam Friday, therefore get it written NOW!)
• Read: 20 minutes
• Homework Diary: signed

but what about your beard?

There was a complaint from my class today, that I hadn’t posted a “BeardWatch” photo. This I found rather strange considering that they can see my beard. I would have expected the complaint to come more from people who can’t see my beard. However, I am easily persuaded, so:

I am quite happy with it – the growth that is. It still itches and irritates me. However, the beard is for our wedding photos, and that is more important. Yesterday I had to trim the moustache part of the beard. I will take that as a sign that it is now fully grown in around the front of my face, it is just the sides I have to worry about!

After having said yesterday that lessons don’t always go to plan, it was obvious that today it would all go wrong again. Except, it didn’t really go wrong. It went very well, thank you for asking. The maths lesson that I taught was not the lesson I had planned – in fact, after an hour, Diana asked me if this was today’s lesson. I think she had already guessed that we were doing something different. However, it was a very useful lesson. I think that by the end of it the class had a much better understanding of percents, and how to manipulate them in problems. This will come in very handy when we have to do “sales tax”. Of course, life is mainly “swings and roundabouts”. Where we used up an hour in the maths lesson not moving forward, we went through two lessons’ work in the English class. In fact, we were on such a roll, I had to go next door to check where the other sixth grade were. As they were two topics behind us in the Grammar book, I decided to call a halt to that, and we went to the spelling book – where we are two topics behind 6B!

A spelling test! How will Secret Agent 003½ escape the swinging pendulum of doom (doom, doom, doom, doom…..)? By using ancient techniques taught to him in a Tibetan monastery that I am forbidden to repeat on here. However, on a serious note: Secret Agent 003½ is so named because he is half of 007! This is a fact that had escaped the whole of my class. But, one thing that had not escaped notice was the fact that 003½ is male! Andrea pointed this out to me today, and I am really glad she did so. Although 003½ managed to escape from the pendulum, he has not managed to escape from the evil Dr. Evil’s hideout. Thus, 003½’s contact, Agent Cinnamon, will pass the task of saving the governor onto Secret Agent 004½, who might be female.

The day ended with Enrique, Andrea, and Hector designing a new method of train transport – the MagnaTrain. Look out for it in the future!

Homework:

• Maths: answer the following questions

1. 35% off $4.72
2. 12% off $129.42
3. 40% off $58.00
4. 33% off $52.13
5. 85% off $25.30

• Grammar: Workbook page: 36
• Questionnaires: completed and returned
• Laptops: Charged
• Writing Assignment: Design An Alien (for Friday)
• Read: 20 minutes
• Homework Diary: signed

busy, busy, busy

This has been a really hard week. I seem to have had things to do, places to go, people to meet, and exams to teach. All this on top of the usual school week. I am desperately trying to claw back some “me time“. Actually, I am desperately trying to claw back some “us time“. In other words, all you are getting today is another bullet point post.

• computer lesson
• dance rehearsal for Thriller
• science exam
• return the English exam
• maths lesson
• Spanish lesson
• PE
• Wallace and Gromit

I took some photos during the PE Lesson, which you can find here. And a video, which looks like:

No classes tomorrow. I, though, will be in school tomorrow – a whole half hour earlier!! Yes, the teachers have to be in school at 7am tomorrow for a meeting, and then we are off on our course. Don’t forget your costumes for Monday (hopefully food related). There will be a parade at 8am to which the parent’s are invited to come watch.

Homework:

• Costume: food related
• Reading Log: signed
• Read: 20 minutes each day

chickens – hatch – never – before – count – they – your

I’ve got my ticket to the Noche Lounge thingy. maria has got her ticket. We shall be at the Noche Lounge thingy on Friday night!

Twenty out of twenty one homework diaries signed. Nineteen out of twenty one homeworks completed. I should have said absolutely nothing yesterday. I should have kept quiet, not made a fuss, and let the week progress as it progresses. However, I did say something, and now I have to live with the high from yesterday, and the dip down today.

I spent most of last night, after writing the blog, working on the presentation for Christmas. 6A are doing Thriller. So, I decided to re-record the song (just in case Quincey Jones didn’t get it right the first time). From there, I spent the next couple of hours watching every single video on youtube, that offered instructions on how to dance to the song. Eventually, I found the one I liked the most. It wasn’t the easiest, but it definitely wasn’t the hardest. It was the most effective one, and one I could teach. maria downloaded it and dumped it onto my phone, so I can now stand in the middle of the playground and watch it. I’m not saying that the song has totally taken over my life, but I did find myself counting out the steps in the shower last night!

It was with some trepidation that I introduced the video to the students. I knew that we had spent 30 minutes yesterday, trying to learn the first ten seconds, and here was I, trashing all their work and starting over again. They were brilliant. The people who made this video:

[yourtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAqrbYfuBv0]

Also made six other videos, breaking the dance into six parts. I showed the parts, one at a time. We watched them, and then did them, and then did them, and then did them. At the end of the 30 minutes we put them all together and danced through the whole routine twice! Oh, I’m not saying that we are anywhere ready to go out on to the playground just yet – I think we still need the comfort of the SmartBoard – but when you consider how happy I was yesterday with just 10 seconds prepared, this is brilliant! The whole routine lasts just over a minute, which means we repeat it three times. That gives me a chance to make sure that everyone, is at some stage, at the front – I reckon three rows of seven, four boys, three girls – and we just move them around!

In other news, we also did some maths: division of fractions. Except, you cannot divide by a fraction. You change the sign and turn the second fraction upside down (you multiply by the reciprocal). In English we looked at Grammar, and studied possessive nouns.

At going home time, we stayed in the classroom instead of coming out when we were called. I say we in these moments because I am part of 6A, however I should point out I was the person waiting on the pavement for students to turn up! Good news for Naomi, if you are reading this, there is no Grammar homework. However, if you get the chance, watch the video, learn the steps, get well soon, and prepare to dance to Thriller!

Homework:

• Maths: Reteaching 4-5 Nos: 1-4, 12-15 Practice 4-5 Nos: 1-5, 11-22
• Writing Assignment: Book Report
• Read: 20 minutes
• Homework Diary: signed
• Laptops: charged

the day after the day before

I’m not going to apologise again this week, but yet again I failed to post yesterday – you probably noticed. I had everything ready, I was full of good intentions, and then it turned out that Daniela was at a book fair at UABC. We went to pick her her, one thing led to another, and here I am writing again on a Saturday. Hey, ho.

And on the fourteenth day (of the tenth month which is named after the number eight), the back notice board finally gets something put on it.

The laptops are slowing down. This is because they are not laptops, they are notebooks. They don’t have the processing power of a laptop, and nowhere near the power of a desktop computer. As far as I can tell, most students have taken to downloading as much stuff as possible on to their notebooks. When they open them, they open all of these programmes and the computers freeze. They are not designed for this. Also, with multiple downloads comes multiple risks. So, a bit of time was spent this morning discussing notebook care. I still believe that the one thing everyone should download is AdAware from Lavasoft. It will clear out a lot of rubbish that computers pick up. Also, when you uninstall a programme, you cannot just “put it in the trash“, you have to run remove programme from the control panel.

From there is was on to the DNA models. Everyone got to stand at the front of the class and show off their models. I have uploaded the pictures to here, and you can see them all – or you can click on the link in the sidebar. If you just want to see the models without having to look at the pictures of all the students:

Then it was time for the maths pop quiz. Hurray! Two students achieved a 10, well done them. A couple of students managed to score a 9.7, and five students picked up a 9.2. The annoying thing? The mistakes were fairly simple mistakes. Too often answers weren’t simplified, too often addition was done instead of subtraction. Most of the students can do these questions, most of them, with a little more concentration, could be getting a 10. What I have to instil into these students is a desire to achieve their best. They should be producing work which is a true representation of their abilities.

After art we showed our DNA models to 6B and they showed their models to us, 6A. We then had a discussion about the graduation party. Yes, we are already having discussions about the graduation party! This got a little bit heated, as some students really don’t want one of the options. I understand that sometimes the majority choice wins, however it seems a shame to choose something that will eventually lead to students not having the best memories of their graduation party. And, to be honest, it is all about the students. It is their graduation.

After recess, in the Spanish lesson, the students started to write/prepare/rehearse their radio programme. Normally I get invited to the final presentation – which is nice – if it happens I promise there will be some pictures and maybe a video or two. It was then time for The Wall Of Accomplishment treat. We haven’t really had any fun activity in the sixth grade this year. I am asked by the administration, every week, to do something fun. As I tend to feel that most of my lessons are fun (hahahahaha), I tend to feel that I have that covered. Also, as the Junior High exams loom large on the horizon, I try to get through as much stuff as possible. But, I had promised. So, to celebrate our achievement, we watched Babe. The story of a pig who was won at a fair and was destined to be eaten by Christmas. However, he wanted more. He wanted to achieve a lot more. So he became a sheep-pig!

Right, I have to go watch the Rugby World Cup semi-finals (and dream that England are playing in them). And then I have to mentally prepare myself for The Steel City Derby on Sunday. Yes, tomorrow my beloved Sheffield United (The Mighty Blades) take on that other team from Sheffield, Sheffield W*dnesd*y. Now, if that goes wrong, I might not be in on Monday! Back to growing a beard!

Homework:

• Reading Log: signed
• Read: 20 minutes

let’s set new targets

The value of the month is accomplishment. After yesterday’s day of exasperation, plus a desire to not lose all my hair, I decided on a new approach. Obviously I have been focusing on the negative waaaaaaaaay too much. What I need to do is focus on the positive, focus on the good things, focus on avoiding a stress related heart attack. So, with this in mind, meet the blackboard: The Wall Of Accomplishment.

My plan, because I do have a plan, is to focus on what we do accomplish as a group. To point out that so many students do get their homework signed, that so many students do do their homework. And, as part of my belief that we all start with a 10, I’m giving the whole class a 10 in conduct and a 10 in speaking English. We are also slow to get ready between lessons, after a discussion with the class, we decided that a good target would be 2 minutes. So, between me saying “get your big fat book, notebook, colours, clean underwear” and the class being ready for me to start teaching, they now have two minutes. We’ll start with a 10 and we will lose points every time we fail to accomplish our target. And, to celebrate our success? (Assuming it happens?) We’ll wait and see. I don’t think there will be iPhones involved.

An odd start to the day, Spanish. This confused me no end as I always teach first lesson, except on Thursdays. In other words, I’ve spent the whole of today thinking it was Thursday. Not that this thought affected the way I teach, it just made me feel that I’d lost a day somewhere, and we might be a bit behind in my lesson plans. However, the non-contact time gave me a chance to start uploading the grades into the computer. This can be a slow and laborious task, full of fear. As you move your eyes from the book with the grades, to the keyboard, to the screen – there is a chance to make so many mistakes, and it freaks me out. What if I put the wrong grade in the wrong place. Oddly enough, I’m not worried about giving someone a low grade. If a student gets a low grade, they complain immediately and the mistake gets cleared up. It is actually giving a student a false high grade, because that can take ages to trace down. Anyway, the grades are entered.

Maths. Changing fractions into decimals. After spending ten minutes explaining that 4/25 cannot possibly be a whole number, it is a tiny fraction, a very small part of a whole, I asked what 7/25 might be as a decimal. “7.25?” “25.7?” But, but, but these have whole number parts, I explained. “Ohhhhhhh, is it 2.57?” There are days that I doubt my ability to communicate. There are days that I doubt my ability to teach. It was one of those moments when you have to walk out the door, take a deep breath, walk back, and do your job. The good news, we all understood by the end. Good job, well done! Just took two hours to teach a one hour lesson. Hey, ho!

English was the new spelling list. However, as we had spent so much time on the maths lesson, there was very little time left to do anything except have our “trial” spelling test.

The IT guy (shall we call him Professor Jared) did some work behind the scenes and (dah-dar) got Google Earth working on the SmartBoard. Brilliant! We had a 3D tour of Rome. We got to see Le Tour Eiffel. We got to see The Colosseum up close and personal – does everyone know that Mr. Kay has actually visited The Colosseum? That’d be the same week that he had an audience with John Paul II and shared a meal with Mother Teresa. [Is that enough name dropping for one blog post?] Anyway, the joy of messing about using Google Earth as an educational teaching aid  meant that Enrique did not get to show his rocks. I’m sorry. So, we’ll save that for tomorrow. Oh, one thing we did do, while messing about using Google Earth as an educational tool, we also went on Google Maps. I don’t know if you have ever used Google Maps but they have a street view. If you go to my mum’s house, in Norfolk, and then move up the street. There is a picture of my mum. She’s waving at the Google car, because she’s nice like that. You can see her here. I love my mum. She has no idea what Google is (Why would you need a search engine? I have a full set of encyclopaedias.) but will quite happily wave at cars as they go through her village. <a href=" Ludham, Great Yarmouth, NR29, UK

Ludham, Great Yarmouth, NR29, UK

1.536027141776277 52.71087106751404 0 -0.2718428348395179 0 1077.240279084942 relativeToGround relativeToSeaFloor normal http://maps.gstatic.com/intl/en_ALL/mapfiles/kml/pal3/icon60.png highlight 1.3 http://maps.gstatic.com/intl/en_ALL/mapfiles/kml/pal3/icon52.png 1.535464,52.710017,0 ” target=”_blank”>here. [And it is a beautiful village, if you have Google Earth go look at Ludham, Norfolk, UK.]

Right, I have to go. I am cooking Yorkshire Puddings tonight and I need to get started on those.

Homework:

• Maths: Practice 3-9 Nos: 1, 3, 5, 7-17
• Spelling: page:21 write spellings out 3 times in notebook
• Laptops: charged
• Writing Assignment: The Race (for Friday)
• Art: Empty (clean) milk carton and old magazines.
• Read: 20 minutes
• Homework Diary: signed

now we’re cooking with gas

Wednesday’s English exam was a total success. Two students scored 10, another twelve students got more than 9.0. In other words, fourteen out of twenty students managed to score over 9.0. I would call that fairly successful. I am also in the middle of marking the Science exams. So far there have already been two scores of 10, a 9.8, and two scores of 9.6. However, the thing that is most impressive? You can see the hard work that has gone into the studying. Whereas, in the maths exam, there was a certain amount of sloppiness and careless mistakes, now I can see the effort that the students have put into this exam. The answers demonstrate a learning of the topics, and an understanding of the subject. Facts have been reproduced perfectly, and where it is an open ended question, the students have written answers that show they know (and understand) what they are writing about. This is sixth grade work. This is what the students are capable of doing. This is why I was so disappointed on Tuesday. I felt that the students had let themselves down, not performed as well as they could. Suddenly, I see students with their books in the playground before morning line up, testing each other, helping each other learn. Now I get the feeling that students are aiming high, they are trying to get 10. At one point, in today’s exam, a student walked up to my desk to hand in his exam, and as usual I asked, “Are you sure?” And then, unusually, the student replied, “No.” He took his paper back, went and sat down again, and worked for another five minutes on hos exam. This is the correct attitude. The desire to get a 10, to achieve perfection. This is what the sixth grade should be like. I am a happy man.

There was a computing lesson. There was a Science exam. We went through yesterday’s English exam. We had a maths lesson. There was a review for tomorrow’s History exam. There was a PE lesson. We read from the English book. A good day all round I’d say. Now I’ve got to get on and finish marking these Science exams – if you’ll excuse me.
Homework:

• History: exam tomorrow
• Read: bring a book into school
• Late Entry: school starts at 8:45am