An English Teacher's Toolbox

kateann6:

positivelypersistentteach:

monasequeda:

buy a dictionary.

I need the blue one to wear to work on staff days unfortunately.  I hear that word thrown around way too much by co-workers.

These are two of the words I never allow students to say in my classroom. It was something we discussed on the first day and it took some time but now my students catch themselves mid-sentence and change to a different word. I told them they need to say what they mean and that if they want to call something dumb or ugly then those are the words they should use. Or, better yet they should go to a thesaurus and find an even stronger and more articulate way of saying that the assignment is stupid. 

I am actually very proud of my junior high students because they now catch each other about to say gay or retarded and say “don’t you mean…” Kids need to know that using these words in a derogatory fashion is not okay.