Sound it out...

Sounding out new words... it's a viable way to learn. Right? Well thank GOD no one walked into my classroom the other day when I was helping a student, loudly, pronounce "dictionary." Sound it out... D...I...C... right, DIC...

And did I mention the poor 2nd grader who was annoying me on his birthday because he wouldn't stop playing with his balloon? It was tied to his chair (my damned fault for allowing such foolishness) and after being distracted by it the 100th time I cut the damned thing off it's ribbon, opened the classroom door, and let it soar into the sky before closing the door and announcing that maybe now we could get busy paying attention. Poor thing didn't say another word the rest of the day. So it worked.

I SO need to be in a classroom with older kids.