It’s that time of year again when all the 5th graders at this school are set to go off to Science Camp next week. Ten kids to a cabin for a whole week of fun and hopefully some learning about the environmental science of nature.
The writing assignment for today’s class of 6th graders was to: “Write a letter to a 5th grader about your Science Camp Experience”
Seemed like a pretty straight forward assignment. No additional explanation needed right? Not so with these less than motivated 6th graders. This is the laziest bunch of kids I’ve run into in quite a while and I’ve still got two more days with this bunch.
Whine: “I don’t know any 5th graders!”
Reply: Then address it to: “Dear 5th Grader going to camp”
Whine: “I don’t remember anything about science camp!
Reply: Try and remember or ask your friends what they remember.
Whine: “I don’t get it!”
Reply: (…eye rolling look)
Whine: “Do we hafta?” and “Why do WE hafta do it?”
Reply: Yes and because your teacher said so!
Whine: “How many sentences does it have to be?”
Reply: If you want me to set a minimum limit then I’m going to say fifty! Do you WANT me to set a minimum limit? Na, I didn’t think so.
Whine: “How many paragraphs do we gotta do?”
(See previous reply)
Whine: “What do we write about?”
Reply: Write about what you did, what you liked, what you didn’t like, did anything unusual happen, did you go hiking, swimming, sing songs around a camp fire. Stuff like that!
Whine: “I didn’t go to camp last year. Do I still hafta write a letter?”
Reply: Yes! Either ask someone else what they remember or write about how it was to miss going to camp.
Now that I had pretty much covered all “How little can we get away with” questions, most were grudgingly complying with the exception of one wise ass boy.
WA-boy: “You said we could write about anything that happened at camp?”
Reply: Yep…
WA-boy: Well one kid in our cabin was sitting on his bed and playing with himself…
Reply: STOP!
(Everyone stopped)
WA-boy: But it’s TRUE. Just ask…
Reply: Nope, I don’t need to ask! Let’s just keep it to “camp” activities, ok?
3 comments:
Gotta love the whine and cheese party...
As a retired middle school teacher and one who is just starting to substitute, I can totally relate to this post. You handled it well.
That conversation sounded suspiciously similar to one I had with my 8th graders when we took a practice writing exam last week--sans the stories of a more personal view, thank goodness.
How skilled students can be in the art of whine and "what ifs" when avoiding work. :-)
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