John and Carmelita came bounding into class at break in a black suit (Blue's brother's style) and a purple dress. They are very jazzed at having just met President Obama at the Shangri La Hotel this morning. They arrived at 4:30 in the morning and waited two hours with other Embassy children and Secret Service guys to meet the man and First Lady. They were very excited about the event as it was not formal or stuffy at all. The secret service guys were verbally playing with them while they waited. John said he asked the secret service guys "wuz up" and talked about their grenades and asked if he could touch one. When President Obama came, he put his arms around them for a picture and said that they made a nice couple-they are 10 and that made them both get very animated, as a 10 year old will, at a suggestion that they are a couple. They both re-enacted the scene. He then gave President Obama a modern version of a high five. John is usually very quiet and shy. He felt that it was a great victory in many ways and now he thinks it was worth having to get a haircut. Carmelita mentioned chatting with Mrs. Obama and said a few times with stars in her eyes that President Obama is so nice.... They asked if they could just sit in SSR (Silent Sustained Reading) and dream away. I told them just make sure to hold up their book in case the principal comes strolling in. Everyone was also sucking on a lolly pop because we had answered the Library Week"Stories with Holes"challenge question correctly. It was an interesting dynamic in choosing whose answer to send to the library. We had answers from 3 out of 5 tables. Justin's table and Gerima's table had the same answer. Justin "the politician" tried to keep all the other entries from being handed in to me and read. He was lobbying each group and me that we had no need to hear the others because his was right. Kwon Jie "the scientist/mathematician" had an answer that agreed and also described the apparent discrepancy in the question. He is often happily alone or talking to any adult who will listen about the latest Discovery or Nova program he watched. After shushing Justin and getting everyone to sit down, I read out the two different answers and we voted. Justin was dismayed that even his own table voted against him! His popularity and alliances usually sway kids to vote for him no matter what. Kids gave their reason for voting for Kwon Jie's explanation, but wanted someone to help him with his English phrasing to make it closer to standard English. You can't keep a good man with a good idea down by trying to drown him out. Since his answer was correct, everyone sucked their way for 20 minutes reading their favorite book or old encyclopedia that is my alternative, if you forget a book. Many of the kids are hooked on reading the encyclopedia now.
Justin, who loves to collect science trivia facts, to his credit, discovered how to filter muddy water through a variety of different filters with the best result. This was a lab we were doing in preparation for a field trip tomorrow to a waste water treatment plant. He discovered that if you drip the water through slowly, it makes an amazing difference. His water was clear! In the next class, I told them about Justin's discovery and everyone followed his advice with much more success, except we had to rush to finish the water filter challenge, as a result. Teaching these 6th graders is fun. They are so interesting and interested in learning, sharing and challenging what they are told.
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