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Education Examiner
Showing entries for Category: students

POSTED May 18, 7:52 PM

The phenomenon of "The National Examiners" is only five weeks old, but already I have discovered something about the writing process as it has been affected by my (almost) daily posts. Twice my Monday column for the DC Examiner has grown out of an off-handed post as an Examiner. In the case of tomorrow's column, my post on "The Lasts of High School" allowed me to write two very short paragraphs comparing my students' "lasts" and my own; by the end of the post I realized that my simplistic formulation (that they look forward and I look backward) was totally wrong. That was confirmed by Joshua's comment on his own "lasts" as a student.

So when I came to write the longer column this weekend, I incorporated the wisdom I had gained in rejecting my initial oversimplification. This sort of reassessment happens again and again as writers put their thoughts into words and realize they are---STOO-PID. Or worse. This time, I was able to save a lot of time while writing my column by realizing, through the first writing, that students are not as unidimensional as I had characterized them to be.

All of us are wistful as we experience our last classes and last interactions with peers. Students may pretend they are only jubilant upon graduation, but it's more complicated than that.

So writing as a way-to-think-things-through wins again. I've always known the process has multiple steps, but I never thought this Examiner site would facilitate my column writing. Now I know better.

Categories: blog , students , column , writing process

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What High School Students Think of Love

POSTED May 10, 7:57 AM

I was just reading the Spirituality Examiner's post on a college essay contest on "Modern Love." The underlying message about non-commitment and a fear of monogamy may seem "modern" to those who don't teach high school students (who... Read More

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Student Quote of the Day

POSTED May 9, 7:14 AM

The test all my students have been preparing for was yesterday, and I heard from a few of them last night via email. My favorite comment about the three-hour Advanced Placement test came from Katharine, an excellent student who will ace the exam: ... Read More

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Word of the Day

POSTED May 8, 9:10 PM

dilatory--tending or intended to cause delayThis word of the day is also a Shakespearean quote: I abhor this dilatory sloth. (Henry VIII) I have found students to be dilatory in the completion of their work, but I have also found that teachers are often... Read More

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The Test is OVA!

POSTED May 8, 12:05 PM

(The "OVA" is an in-joke for those of you who watch Iron Chef on the Food Network.)The Advanced Placement English Literature test is officially over for 2008 and several of my 148 students stopped by to tell me:"the second essay was impossible""the... Read More

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My Students Called It Last October

POSTED May 6, 10:18 PM

With Obama's big win in North Carolina, and the very close numbers in Indiana, I think my students were right last October when they said Obama will be the Democratic nominee. (Actually, they said "Hillary is Toast.") Of course, a senior class... Read More

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Sundays in the Life of a Teacher

POSTED May 4, 8:06 AM

That study from the Monthly Labor Board was correct: teachers work Sundays. My schedule today: Morning--marinade ribs with a dry rub for a BBQ (my son is visiting for the first time in months)correct final papers for my English 302 class at George Mason... Read More

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Read Me: The Two-Minute Book Review

POSTED May 2, 3:45 PM

Haruki Murakami is an author of bestsellers in Japan, and his novels are pretty popular in the States, as well. I am a huge fan of this quirky, magnificent novelist. Kafka at the Shore was published in 2006 after a number of other novels that hit it... Read More

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Leave No Grilled Cheese Behind

POSTED May 2, 5:40 AM

Yesterday was a day of "last" things. It was the last class before the AP test with many of my students, it was the last after school session where I cook and review simultaneously, and it was my last May 1 as a high school teacher. (Next... Read More

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An Untypical Day in the Life of a Teacher

POSTED April 30, 8:07 PM

I am knackered, pooped, exhausted--this may be my most difficult day in 33 years of teaching. What did I do?OK, let's start with my mild insanity, which I am the first to admit. I have decided this year--because it may be my last h.s. teaching year--to... Read More

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Erica Jacobs
Erica Jacobs is the Education columnist for the DC Examiner, and has taught high school and college for 33 years. She has been around the education block! Email her at ejacob1@gmu.edu.