Contrast...

Last year when I participated in Project 365, the field across from the school was planted in wheat. This year the field was planted in corn, which now is done and needs to be cut down. It's actually an eyesore.

But, it looked pretty good this morning just after sunrise against the cloud-streaked sky.

Um...

Of the fifty-eight students I teach, only FOUR made an A on the first writing assignment. I decided to take the bull by the horns early on this year and attempt to correct some rampant problems.

So today we worked on identifying parts of speech...you know - nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, verbs and interjections - and their relationships. I shouldn't have to do this unit in eighth grade, but I do. We began with prepositions and conjunctions because every single child who comes to my class is under the impression that it is impossible to begin a sentence with 'because' - because some fourth grade teacher was too lazy to explain the difference between dependent and independent clauses. No offense to any fourth grade teachers, but I'm sick of it.

While listing the subordinate conjunctions, the word 'where' came up. A student raised his hand and asked, "Which one?"

Which one???

I had an inkling what he meant because I see it all the time, but I wanted to hear him ask the question. I looked at him quizzically.

"You know. W-H-E-R-E or W-E-R-E?"

W-H-E-R-E did this notion that the two words are interchangeable originate? It's beyond me, but it is a common error - more common than anyone would believe. We W-I-L-L learn the difference T-H-I-S year.