Noisier classrooms and a Western Bonanza !

Our semester just ended at my junior high school. I had something occur that rarely happens.....I had a class in which no one failed. Most of my classes have several students, who through a combination of factors which include apathy, absences and a lack of effort, fail my class. Happily, there are way more students who earn A's and B's in my class ( which is considered tough by many students, in part because I have high standards, high expectations and sadly, for far too many of my students, my seventh grade class is their first real exposure to social studies.). Anyhow, as a reward for my F-less class, I allowed them "free seating". I knew this would lead to more noise and more difficulty in getting through our activities for the day. But, they earned it. I survived. The increased noise didn't kill me or send me home to drink heavily. And they seemed to enjoy it.

I went out garage selling this morning. One of my boys went with me. He was delighted to find a San Diego Padres T-shirt for a quarter. At the last garage sell we stopped at, there was a box of paperback western books, 98% of them Louis L'Amour novels. I poked through the box, saw a few titles that I don't recall reading, then asked their price. "You can have the whole box for $3.00," declared the lady who was selling stuff. "They were my uncles and he really liked to read westerns." My reply was, of course, "I'll take them!" and I handed her three Sacajawa 'gold' dollar coins. I counted them when I got home. There are 97 Louis L'Amour novels in that box, plus a couple misc. other books. A heck of a deal !

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