my sixth period class had me ON THE FLOOR today. we were playing hotseat with mockingbird characters, and james was playing calpurnia. when casandra asked "calpurnia" if she would ever consider marrying atticus, if he asked her, james said, "yeah, baby, yeah. you know what they say: once you go white, you know you been licked right." i was on the floor, laughing, for a good, solid 3 minutes. my kids are so freakin funny. (btw, english teachers o' mine, hotseat is a great game. my kids totally get into it, so i'd recommend it as a good way to deepen reading comprehension)

on the other hand, some people on the staff here seem to not have a sense of humor AT ALL, especially about S-E-X. word has it that the preacher man is spreading the word to the students not to read those trashy books that the crazy english teacher is having them read. have i forced them to read the trashy books? HAVE I??? briefly, NO. all i've done is made them available for the students. i don't really see what's wrong with that. they're interested in reading, and - since getting them interested in reading is my JOB, i really have no issue with them reading whatever they want to read. it's really not that i don't understand his concern; however, since i read romances when i was in high school and i came out okay, i don't really see a problem with them doing the same. not a big deal. i'm bigger than this whole stupid debate. i'm just tired of him being all high and mighty about the reading practices of my students. AT LEAST THEY'RE READING!