the score doesn't matter

We were playing volleyball today and we are trying to teach the students to call out the score before they serve. It is the very first serve of the game and we remind the student, C., a seventh grader to tell the score.

Teacher: The score is 0 serving 0

C. gets ready to serve and then says, "Wait, which one are we?"

Money Matters

When trying to help a student with a math problem (20 X 5)..."If I give you 5 20's, how much money will you have?"

From the back of the room...."Duh! 89 dollars!"

Black Friday?

Asking my kids why the day after Thanksgiving was called Black Friday and here are a couple of the responses:

D., a ninth grader, "It's a holiday for Goths? I should know because I am one and I had a pretty good day that day."

G., a ninth grader, "A holiday for black people?"

B., an eighth grader, "Because thousands of people pack the stores and they get bruises from shoving?"

Impressive email

One of my students emailed all of her teachers to talk about the importance of an education. Perhaps she does not feel totally that way about English. Here is her email:

im sending this to all my teachers i havent been at school almost every monday and im sorry but today im really sick honestly and ive notice i have 2 Fs wich im freaking out about now and i wanna know by next time i come to class if u can give me all the assignments ive missed because honestly i know i need to start going to school everyday and i need to have a good eddication so if u could please id really appreciate that thanks!?

Hungry?

Sometimes, instead of just giving the students a page number I will give them a math problem to come up with the page themselves. Today in science I told the kids that I was going to give them a math problem.

G., a ninth grader, pipes up and says, "Give us Raman Noodles."

Stunned I just looked and said, "what?"

Again he says, "Give us Raman Noodles."

Confused I say, "G., I don't know what you mean-what do you mean 'Raman Noodles?"

He says, "You know, where you have letter instead of numbers."

The light goes on..."You mean Roman Numerals?"

G. says, "yeah, that's it."

It wasn't even close to lunch yet :-)

Thoughts from the week

I've been a little neglectful of my new hobby so here are some thoughts from this past week.

We made pin-hole constellations out of black construction paper. We put them on the overhead projector so we could see their constellations projected on the wall. J., an eighth grader, went last. His constellation (probably the best of the lot) was of the Mickey Mouse head. A couple of other kids snickered and J. got furious thinking they were laughing at him. We said, "J. that was very creative-good job." His response? With fists pumping in the air, "Just because it was creative doesn't mean it was!" Hmmm....

Another student upon hearing some kidding that he rode the short bus to school noted, "It's not a short bus, it's just missing some seats."

Aiming high

Somehow the conversation today turned towards retail stores. D., a ninth grader, made the comment that if he could earn a degree good enough to allow him to work in a store he was going to aim for Walmart.

Who says you can't dream big?

I've heard of a potty mouth but never...

I said something and one of my students burst out laughing...he apologized and said that he had a sewer mind. Explaining, he noted that he watched too much South Park and made everything dirty.

New Muscle Groups

Today, upon seeing another student struggle with carrying something, C. calls out, "You need to build up your forearm muscles....you're forearms are muscles, ya know."

Now that's one big muscle.

Random comment

This happened last week...the students were working on an independent assignment. I look over and D. is rubbing is head and looks frustrated. I ask if he is okay and he responds, "Uggh, I can't think because I'm right handed."

Jeez, I guess being right handed is more trouble than I thought.

Found treasures

I was digging through my notes and found some interesting quotes from students.

Seeing me approach, a student says about another, "If he says I called him an idiot-he’s lying." That is exactly what I was going to talk to him about.


Discussing The Civil War in US History I began by asking if the students knew what it was. One astute young man answered, "The civil war was when the whites and blacks fought for freedom…no wait, that was the Mexican-American War."


A random comment from D., "I can’t put lipstick on my forehead-my girlfriend may think I’m too sensitive" then a long pause before adding, "or too stupid." Hmm....I think I know which one...



D. on trying to explain why he was so tired after a three day weekend, "I had a car rollover but don’t tell my dad-he doesn’t know about it. Someone paid my bill but I don’t know who."

J. on why he will not but will fight another young man over a girl, "If he wants to fight, I’ll go toes. If he wants to fight him I’ll fight but I’m not going to make him."

The Evacuation

Yesterday we had an evacuation drill. Little W. was walking beside me to the college across the street that we use as our relocation site in such drills. When we sat down in the ampitheater there were junior high girls in the front of us dancing and screaming. There were junior high girls and boys behind us dancing and screaming. Little W looks at me and asks, "Have you ever felt like you were in attendance at a butthead convention?" I reply that I have not and he just shakes his head, "I feel like I'm at one now."

Walking back from the evacuation the PE teacher is yelling (half joking, but also to make a point) for the kids to stay on the sidewalk. Little W. says to me regarding the PE teacher, "Dude, she's crazy, huh?" I say that she is and he shakes his head and says "I guess we all have our issues, eh?"