Man Crush Monday with The Outsiders

One of my favorite units to teach is The Outsiders.  It's such a timeless story.  It always baffles my students when they learn that it was written in the 1960's.  The characters are still relevant to their lives today, and they love every minute of the unit.  We watched the film and analyzed mood through color, in addition to comparing the book to the novel.  I thought that they would gripe about the age of the film.  I didn't expect my girls to go gaga over the likes of Matt Dillon and Ralph Macchio.  Boy was I wrong.   Apparently, they were so enthralled with the gentlemen that played their favorite characters, that both Dally Winston and Johnny Cade made the cut for Man Crush Monday.  (If you aren't familiar with #MCM, it's a tag on Instagram and Facebook.)  The boys still have it.

Because we were reading The Outsiders on Valentine's Day, we created conversation hearts for the characters.  These are a few that my advanced kidlets came up with. My example was "Sodapop, you make my heart fizz!"  What unit do you love teaching?  Do you teach The Outsiders?

Well, hello there!

Starting a new blog can be a daunting task.  You gently ease into a blank space on the world wide web, not knowing what to expect.  You start by writing to yourself, because in most cases, a new blog doesn't have any followers.  I decided to start a blog because there aren't many middle school language arts blogs out there--or if there are, I can't seem to find them.  I plan to journal the 'happenings' in my classroom and to reflect on my teaching experiences.  I hope to give some insight to what it's like teaching in a Florida school.  If you happened to find me on an internet search, I hope you'll decide to stay a while.  What types of things would you like to see?