But the same old shenanigans...
One of my kids came in late today. I'm going to try to describe the awesomeness of this student, but I don't think I can really do him justice. He's the kid who always automatically puts his hands up in the air when you say his name, or look at him. He loves digging for glass and wants to do it as his profession when he's older. According to another teacher, he also breeds beta fish, although I have not confirmed this fact. He wears the same zip-up hoodie every day. Navy blue sweatshirt for life. The other day I asked him if he just had the one blue zip-up or if he had an entire closet of them. He said, with pride, that it was the same one every day. He told me he used to wear a different one, but that he had changed it up this year. I admire his commitment to the sweatshirt and am jealous of, what must be, a 5 minute morning routine. When he walked in late today he gave me this weird long story about how his mom hadn't woken him up because she thought he was sick, I think he had been sick over the weekend? Anyway, I was trying to ask him what his 4th period was to make sure he knew if his lunch was changing. He literally stared at me for 2 minutes trying to remember what class he had 4th period. Mind you, it's the semester. He's had the same class for 5 MONTHS. He finally said "You know, when you get sick you just get stupid. Like, I got sick and now I'm just dumb forever."
One of the other boys was really into saying "BOOM, you're roasted!" every time he made a joke to another student. He didn't really seem to get the point of a roast. He came up to me and said "hey, I saw your cat on my fence." I told him I didn't have a cat and he said "well, I don't have a fence! BOOM, ROASTED!" Another student was getting super frustrated that he wasn't using the term roasted correctly and kept trying to explain it to him. Naturally, this just made all of us (if you know me, you know I had to join in) use the phrase as much as possible. He finally saw justice when I made a joke to a student and he was able to yell it out. Victory.
We've also had a random selection of musical requests during work time lately. The last few days they've been really into requesting The Jackson 5. Today a boy requested Respect and then, while it was playing, yelled out to me "this is my jam!". Another student came up to me and showed me a CD he found while cleaning his room yesterday. It was this sweet 80s multiplication CD. Just think 80s music about multiplication facts. Yeah, it was amazing. We were all feeling it.
I had a new student in one of my blocks today who already knew some of the other boys. One of his friends told me to act super mean and yell out "What do you think you're doing? Get out the window!" and to light something on fire. I chose not to go that route. They also yelled out to him that I'm the meanest teacher in the entire school, which in middle school lingo means you're not. I took it as a compliment.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Sunday, January 27, 2013
A Few Gems
The students in my class who are taking Spanish are clearly putting their new skills to good use. Yesterday I heard them saying to each other "Voy jamon!" (I go ham).
________
I was reading their discussion board posts and one of the kids wrote comments to some other students:
"Do you work for NASA? Because your response is out of this world."
"Do you take karate? Because your response is really kicking."
"This makes me want to tear up inside. So deep and just so wonderful. Amazing work young man."
__________
We had a student vs. staff basketball game at the assembly yesterday. Afterwards, one of my students told me that he really thought another teacher would be good at basketball, because she told them she sometimes listened to rap. That's logic my friends.
__________
On one of the discussion boards, the kids had to tell which book cover they preferred and identified them by number. This student completed the response, and then responded TO HIMSELF, with this:
number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9 number 9
____________
I am also, 100% over the phrase YOLO. In reading discussion board posts, it seems this kid isn't:
YOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLOYOLO
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
A Little This, A Little That
Today I overheard this:
"Oh, you can also use this as a boner. You know what a boner is, right?"
She was waving around a staple remover.
I finally asked her what she was talking about and she started explaining something about using it to flatten down papers. Yeah, it didn't make any sense to me either. I just stopped her and said she may want to make a different word choice.
The other day I looked at the board and it said "_______ is my hero" and was signed with my name. I know who did it, since he wrote his own name as my hero.
The boys with the tech decks just couldn't get it through their heads that I didn't want to see them anymore. The other day I took them and taped them to the white board. They haven't brought them since.
One of the tech deck boys raised his hand in the middle of class yesterday. We were TRYING to talk about WWI. He asked me if I was going to have kids and I said I didn't know and asked why he was asking me that in the middle of class. He said "I just want to be sort of like their best friend or uncle? I mean, I just really want to be important to their life. Like, you could name them after me if you want." Ummm, thanks?
We were on the bus on the way home from our last basketball game (after a 100% defeated season) and I was talking to the other coach about how our girls were so positive, even though all of us lost every game. Right after I said it, we could hear them from the back of the bus chanting "we're number 2!!". When they got off the bus they said "We are going to be SO good next year!". I just love those crazies.
I asked one of my students what would be on his dating profile when he was older. He said "That I'm 6 feet tall, 250 pounds and I LOVE cats." He's got a ways to go on the first two.
"Oh, you can also use this as a boner. You know what a boner is, right?"
She was waving around a staple remover.
I finally asked her what she was talking about and she started explaining something about using it to flatten down papers. Yeah, it didn't make any sense to me either. I just stopped her and said she may want to make a different word choice.
The other day I looked at the board and it said "_______ is my hero" and was signed with my name. I know who did it, since he wrote his own name as my hero.
The boys with the tech decks just couldn't get it through their heads that I didn't want to see them anymore. The other day I took them and taped them to the white board. They haven't brought them since.
One of the tech deck boys raised his hand in the middle of class yesterday. We were TRYING to talk about WWI. He asked me if I was going to have kids and I said I didn't know and asked why he was asking me that in the middle of class. He said "I just want to be sort of like their best friend or uncle? I mean, I just really want to be important to their life. Like, you could name them after me if you want." Ummm, thanks?
We were on the bus on the way home from our last basketball game (after a 100% defeated season) and I was talking to the other coach about how our girls were so positive, even though all of us lost every game. Right after I said it, we could hear them from the back of the bus chanting "we're number 2!!". When they got off the bus they said "We are going to be SO good next year!". I just love those crazies.
I asked one of my students what would be on his dating profile when he was older. He said "That I'm 6 feet tall, 250 pounds and I LOVE cats." He's got a ways to go on the first two.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Toys and Teens
This is a tech deck:
It has been ruining my life for several years now. There was a brief time when I thought they had gone out of style...but they're back. At least for two of my 8th graders. We've had several encounters between the boys, myself and the tech decks in the last few weeks.
1) When this group showed us their vocabulary video, part of it was the two of them, at Dairy Queen, playing with tech decks. I tried to imagine walking into DQ and seeing a kid filming other kids playing with tiny skateboards...
2) The 20th time I saw one of them with their tech deck out I said "Hey, you know what's SUPER cool about those tech decks?" He looked really excited and said "What?!" I said "It will fly SO far when I throw it out that window!". He quickly put it in his pocket. Later, the other student was playing with his. I asked the other boy to repeat what I told him. His version was, "She said it'll look really cool when she throws it out the window". He sadly put it in his pocket while saying "That WOULDN'T look cool."
3) Yesterday, I was planning in my classroom and a bunch of kids, including those two, were in the open space outside my room for math class. I heard a noise and looked up. It was one of the boys rolling his tech deck down my entire set of windows while staring at me. Don't worry, he didn't settle for just one time. He went for three. And I couldn't stop laughing.
I want to gather all of the tech decks in the world and run them over with my car.
Also, I love those two kids, even when they drive me crazy.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
The Kids are Back in Town
Now that we're back in action, the kids have fallen back into their normal hilarious antics.
Today a few kids were presenting their current events. The first girl told about an article she read about a giant squid, I won't bore you with the details. After she finished, half the class randomly started chanting "GIANT SQUID, GIANT SQUID!" and pounding on their desks.
While she was trying to present, I saw a kid on their laptop. I asked him to shut it and he shouted "I was winning, man! I mean, yeeeah homework..."
One student was reporting on an event and said the people in the mall "flew" but really meant fled. Later he said it again and then followed with "umm, crazy stuff happens in Oregon" to cover himself.
This article happened to be about a shooting in a mall. A student asked if there were mall cops there. Another student said "mall cops don't even have guns!" And another student replied "But they have the ILLUSION of a gun. The mind is the most powerful weapon."
They also presented their vocabulary projects. The videos they made are amazing and hilarious. This student made a video called "War Chicken" in which he filmed himself with various puppets. The plot was something similar to Star Wars. Here are a few stills of his video:
This is when they were flying off into the sunset. I can't really accurately show this, but it's clearly his hand holding a plastic helicopter up to his window.
Naturally followed by a T-Rex
He also had follow-up bios for all of the characters. It was awesome.
Today I caught these two kids passing a note. When I walked over to see what they were doing, the one who was holding the paper was like "oh, I'm just writing some notes on this...". Apparently I looked real stupid today because they thought that line would work. I did love when I went to get the note and another kid shouted out "stop flirting with her and do your work!".
People are always somewhat horrified when I tell them I teach middle school. But I think they fail to realize how completely awesome middle school kids are when they know you love them. Yesterday I got a pretty significant haircut. Almost every kid in my class came up to me to tell me they loved it or stopped me in the hall. 13 year old boys told me my "hair looks awesome". I think that says something about the kind of kids I work with every day. They are pretty fantastic and kind.
Today a few kids were presenting their current events. The first girl told about an article she read about a giant squid, I won't bore you with the details. After she finished, half the class randomly started chanting "GIANT SQUID, GIANT SQUID!" and pounding on their desks.
While she was trying to present, I saw a kid on their laptop. I asked him to shut it and he shouted "I was winning, man! I mean, yeeeah homework..."
One student was reporting on an event and said the people in the mall "flew" but really meant fled. Later he said it again and then followed with "umm, crazy stuff happens in Oregon" to cover himself.
This article happened to be about a shooting in a mall. A student asked if there were mall cops there. Another student said "mall cops don't even have guns!" And another student replied "But they have the ILLUSION of a gun. The mind is the most powerful weapon."
They also presented their vocabulary projects. The videos they made are amazing and hilarious. This student made a video called "War Chicken" in which he filmed himself with various puppets. The plot was something similar to Star Wars. Here are a few stills of his video:
This is when they were flying off into the sunset. I can't really accurately show this, but it's clearly his hand holding a plastic helicopter up to his window.
Naturally followed by a T-Rex
He also had follow-up bios for all of the characters. It was awesome.
Today I caught these two kids passing a note. When I walked over to see what they were doing, the one who was holding the paper was like "oh, I'm just writing some notes on this...". Apparently I looked real stupid today because they thought that line would work. I did love when I went to get the note and another kid shouted out "stop flirting with her and do your work!".
People are always somewhat horrified when I tell them I teach middle school. But I think they fail to realize how completely awesome middle school kids are when they know you love them. Yesterday I got a pretty significant haircut. Almost every kid in my class came up to me to tell me they loved it or stopped me in the hall. 13 year old boys told me my "hair looks awesome". I think that says something about the kind of kids I work with every day. They are pretty fantastic and kind.
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