Flossing at School

We are reading To Kill A Mockingbird in class right now, and because the majority of my students refuse to do any outside-of-class reading, we listen to Sissy Spacek read the novel quite a bit. It's so strange how a grouping of students can determine the entire personality of a class. For example, my first period kids love the novel. Not all of them, sure, but we've had some really great conversations about the text over the past couple weeks.

Period six has a lot to say too. Granted, period six has a lot to say about everything (they rarely stop talking), but the stuff they have to say about the novel is pretty on-point.

Period two doesn't necessarily love to read, but they do like to listen. Well... maybe "like" is too strong a word, but they'll do it without too much complaint. They like to be doing something else while they're listening though. I refuse to allow them to be on their phones. Some of them follow along in the text, quite a few of them draw, and today, three of them were flossing.

Months ago, I wrote a blog about Dental Disaster (a student in my second-period class) who only flosses when the dentist does it for him. At that point in time, I gave a floss pick (I keep them in my desk) to Dental Disaster, Mr. Joyful, B-ball Bam-Bam, Mr. Sneak-a-Seat, and Sushi for Breakfast. And they all flossed.

Today, months and months later, I sneaked a peek at Sushi for Breakfast and he was pulling a floss pick from his backpack. Dental Disaster turned around and saw what was happening. Sushi for Breakfast mouthed, "Do you want one?"

Dental Disaster nodded gleefully.

Sitting beside Sushi for Breakfast was B-ball Bam-Bam, who also wanted a floss pick. And so, as Atticus Finch interrogated Bob Ewell and tripped him up with the definition of "ambidextrous," my students cleaned their teeth. Now THAT was some serious multi-tasking!