Learning, Laughter, and Love in Middle School English

I have found timers to be so helpful in my classes. It's easy to tell students, "Five more minutes" and lose track of time.   There are some great online timers available that students seem to love.  I project them onto my screen, so all students can keep track of how much time they have left. My favorite is the Duck Race Timer !  What is unique about this timer is that you can select the number of ducks for the race.   In my class, all students know their roster number for both my cell phone caddy and their assigned computer.  So, when I use the duck timer, the student with the winning number gets a prize! Beware!  The students become glued to the screen the last thirty seconds.  They began to count down in unison. There's lots of laughing and cheering (who doesn't love laughing and cheering?).  You would think the winner won an Olympic event! I especially enjoy using the timer in my Read 180 class for our twenty minute rotations....

When I asked my students for feedback a few months ago, many said that they would like to be able to choose their own article on occasion.  This seemed like a reasonable request, so every four weeks they get to choose their own article. They LOVE it. Yesterday in class, one of my students turned in his Article of the Week on how the song "Baby Shark" has gone viral.   Anyhow, as I read his response to the article about the song, I became intrigued. I had never heard of the song, and apparently I am pretty out of it.  The song has been around for years, but a few years ago Pinkfong, a Korean children's entertainment brand,  created a  new version of the song on Youtube.  To date, it has 1.6 BILLION views!   I looked up from my student's paper and asked, "How many of you know the "Baby Shark" song?"  Some began singing, some began laughing, some began imitating a shark opening and closing its mouth, and they ALL begg...