Couch 46: How's tricks?

Rts - wizard of oz scared the crap out of me as well!

Healed, what does your H's cousin teach at Houghton?

Chemistry

Whole groups: Crucible (not actually a novel); Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (also not a novel); Gatsby; Catcher in the Rye; The Awakening; As I Lay Dying (occasionally); Scarlet Letter; How to Teach Literature Like a Professor

Small groups: Any of the above + The Things They Carried; In Cold Blood; The Poisonwood Bible; Grapes of Wrath; The Road; A Farewell to Arms; Song of Solomon; Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

There are more but I'm drawing a blank at this moment. AP Language & Comp is primarily a nonfiction course, so small groups or individually for novel reading is generally how I go; I use mostly nonfiction in the whole class mode.

More and more I'm teaching in small groups to allow for more student choice and variety (and fewer restrictions by the district).

OH I did remember loving to watch Gone with the Wind when I was a child. I had a crush on Clark Gable...was so disappointed when I was told he was dead. I always wanted to be Bonnie Blue...and have a daddy like Rhett (even though she died I still felt that way)

Love that movie, and the novel, both.

My sister had the same reaction when she watched Of Mice & Men on tv when she was about 13. Completely traumatized.

Those are two novels I absolutely LOVE to teach, but they are taught on a different grade level.

I love Steinbeck, but a bit too much of him in one sitting will have a person slitting their wrists. East of Eden is my absolute favorite of his works.

Thanks Chris, i'm suprised i have read most of those, but you have given me some to look for. I really like Tim O'Brien-Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato.

I hated W of O. I was not so afraid of the monkeys, but the woman who wanted to kill the dog terrified me. And how awful that she was trying to kill a girl's pet. And that the aunt and uncle might let the woman do it.
Horrible even to write about here.

One of my favorite novels. I'd love to torture my students with it, but they'd have a fit if I handed them a 1,000 page novel. I do have students choose it as their independent study novel though.

I was up until recently...

i need some advice...

I asked for 2 days off this month (2 weeks notice) each day a week apart.

My bosses response was that he was worried about getting all the work done and that he wanted to discuss it with me... ( i can't remember the wording but that he wants to know why I want off)...but not to take it as a definite no.

I was in too much of a mood to talk to him about it today... first off why should it make a difference to him whether I'm taking my mother to surgery or getting a pedicure... either I can have off or I can't.

here is my thinking about not telling him why I want off...
1. It feels like begging to me. Like if I can make it sound urgent enough or important enough he will say yes... but if not it will be no.
2. I feel like its unfair to him as well. If I need to be there, then he needs to just say no. I'm projecting here but I would feel bad telling someone in my situation no.

I liked the novel, but still can't do the movie. I can read almost anything, even if sad. I like most of Steinbeck too, although I found Mice and Men the saddest of them. I never watched the movie. I am not a huge movie watcher to begin with and sad or scary I can't separate from in movie form. Like All Quiet on the Western Front was too sad as a movie for me, but I reread the book. And Catch 22 is an all time favorite, but the movie, to me, was not funny, just sad.
The most void of hope thing I ever read was Long Days Journey Into Night - so then I went into and O'Neill phase and read all his stuff.

I wouldn't enjoy reading it as much as watching Clark Gable...

I have family in Rochester, North Chili actually. My mom's from Lockport originally with old roots in Honeoye Falls. I haven't been up there in ages.

Hey! Sounds good to me. I'm presently resisting the urge to reorganize the kitchen cabinets; I suspect that might be a bit noisy in the middle of the night.

North Chili!!! The town my college is in! Loved it there!!

I remember some people in my class having a spazz over Moby **** because of the length. It was one of the most boring novels on the planet.

My son had to read Moby **** over the summer for his 11th grade ap english class.... It was so boring to him... I would have him read it to me so we could both be in pain... what ever it took to get him to read it... He read every page.

ETA:I find is so funny that they monitor out **** but let you type asshole.

Small world, isn't it? My aunt and uncle own a fruit farm somewhere in that area that provides fruit to Wegmans, mostly apples and blueberries. My niece spent a few summers up there working on the farm and fell in love with New York. After she graduated from college here in Texas, she moved up to Rochester and worked as an audiologist there for several years. She's since moved to Minnesota, but we believe we've lost her entirely to Yankee life now.

I just realized what the problem was. When I looked at the post I was like What? Then I got it. Lesbians don't usually focus on synonyms for penis.
And penis itself is okay. Go figure.

Lol Chris..Us Yankees aren't so bad I live about three hours north of Rochester now.. I am a big for of the whole upstate Ny area!

that is so funny.... I can type penis but not ****.

This reminds me of the human sexuality class I took in college... we actually spent time saying the correct anatomy words out loud....

ETA: apparently most people in US (according to my professor in 1988) were more comfortable saying **** instead of penis. He thought it should be the other way around...so we had to practice saying it. That must be why I've always taught my kids the correct anatomy words ...no nicknames or euphanisms (spelled wrong i'm sure)

Yup. That's one I've never even tried to drag myself through.

Now, I have read Les Miserables which is 1500 pages and really liked it (well, most of it -- I admit to skimming through some chapters here and there--he gets bogged down in long lists of historical names and events that mean nothing to me). I only decided to attempt it because I am a huge fan of the musical (on stage) and I wanted to compare the two. Still prefer the musical, but having read the novel made me appreciate the history and understand some of the missing pieces in the musical. The movie was good; it especially did a nice job of filling in some of that history and those missing pieces, but I still prefer to see it live on stage.

Chris- have you ever heard of any High school classes probably AP teaching Ulysses.. Or any James Joyce for that matter? I took a Yeats and Joyce class in college and feel in Love with Joyce's writings, and was suprised I hadn't read any of his stuff until then!

Once I was putting together a list of novel options for my students and I did put Moby **** on the list. I was adding blurbs on the list to give them some vague idea of plot, etc., and our school network censors wouldn't let me run a search for it. Cracked me up.