...encouraging words...

Recently one of the clubs at school wrote notes of encouragement on Post-it notes and stuck them to all the lockers.  The day had an overall positive feel to it.

Of course throughout that day, and the next few, the little pieces of sticky paper found themselves in various other places around the building.

Yesterday I found this one.

...toilet talk...

It's getting close to the end of the school year.  As we anticipate that, it's kind of a bittersweet time in my hallway.  You see, I am taking a one-year leave-of-absence to serve in Uganda (check out my blog for that).  Another one of my coworkers is resigning to be a pastor.  It's kind of sad, feeling like our little family is breaking up.  I (and some of the other guys) have had both staff and students ask us how we are going to manage (especially those staying behind).

So we have been thinking that we should do something fun together before the end of the school year.  One of the guys and I were chatting about making a video of our crazy memories.  That might sound cheesy and lame, but if you knew us, you would realize it has the potential to be really funny.  Another teacher was talking to me about how we should go to a local driving range/mini-golf place and simply record ourselves in our natural state, and it is sure to be hysterical.  I encouraged him to make this suggestion to our friend who came up with the movie idea in the first place.  That teacher had just left my room to use the bathroom.

Immediately he left my room with his great idea swimming around in his thoughts, and headed to the staff bathroom.  He stood outside the door and pitched the idea.  Shortly after the door opened...and a different teacher from our hallway walked out!  It took a couple minutes for the two men to work out their confusion.  I heard things like, I didn't know you was talking to me!  and  I thought you seemed to be talking a little louder than normal for a typical hallway conversation.

Nevertheless, he seemed to think it was a good idea too...
Don't worry, if this video actually gets filmed, I'll be sure to share it.

...spelling...

We were talking about introductions and conclusions.
We had worked through an example together about McDonalds.
The attention grabber that we made up was about how many fast-food chains there are in the country.
When I wrote fast-food chains on the board, a student blurted out:  What?  Isn't that spelled with a z?

I let out a deep sigh.
Many students laughed.
He was totally serious.
The rapper 2 Chainz has confused this poor young man, and likely many others.

I went on to explain how some people/products change the spelling of a variety of words for a myriad of reasons.
Froot Loops for example...I wrote it on the board.  Of course, it is actually spelled f-r-u-i-t.  But that doesn't allow for matching between the two words, nor the ability to use pieces of cereal as the letter o. 

The students almost seemed offended that companies/people would mislead them up like this.

Well, if nothing else, count one more student, heck a class of 29 students, fully educated on the true spelling of chains and fruit.

...lockers...

At the beginning of the year a student...a senior...who has a locker outside of my classroom asked me for a favor.  She asked if she could write down her locker combination and leave in my room somewhere, just in case she forgot it sometime.  She warned me that on occasion, in the middle of the week, in the middle of the year, she might come to school and simply forget how to get into her locker. So, for the first week or two, I saw this student pop into my room on a regular basis to refresh her memory by checking her combination in its secret location.

Well, this past Tuesday, a week before Spring Break, she came for a visit...wondering if I still had the code stashed away.  It was there, waiting for her...ever-ready for that random day in the middle of a week, in the middle of the year.

A freshman came into my room after school today, claiming that she asked him to get her combination from me.  I wasn't sure it was a good idea to give it to a random freshman, so I told him that I needed her to ask.  Then I heard her from the hallway, nevermind, tell her I got it!

Just a few more weeks to go, and her locker days are over.  How many times do you think she will need a refresher?

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Another locker incident today:

During a passing period, I was standing at my door, as usual.  A student was slowly walking by me, and offered a slow, and somewhat awkward greeting.  I said hello back and suspiciously asked what was going on with her.

Then it became apparent that she was waiting for another student at her locker to catch up to her so they could walk to lunch together.

Awkward Student:  Hurry up!  I want to get to lunch!

Locker Student, hitting her locker, with arms full of books:  What the heck!  It won't open!

In the midst of hitting the locker again:  Oh...hahaha...this isn't even my locker...

She moved down a few to her right, and opened that locker with ease.  I couldn't help but laugh at her.

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With all this locker confusion, either we're doing a little time-travel back to the beginning of the year, or these students seriously need some time off!

...fast-food clowns...

We were working on the basics of writing outlines.  I had given students a skeleton of an outline that they had to fill in with the appropriate symbols.  Also, I had filled in some of the content, and they had to provide the rest in the empty spaces.
One topic was why people like or dislike various restaurants.  I had given them McDonalds as the first Roman Numeral that they needed to write about.  As students were busy filling in reasons why people might like McDonalds, one student needed a little help...From across the room, he asks, Miss O'Brien, what's the name of that clown at McDonalds?  Before I could tell him it was Ronald, another student quickly retorted with, Jeremy.  Hmmmm...Jeremy McDonald...it doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

...guacamole...

Yesterday I tried a new Mexican place nearby.  I enjoyed a nice torta al pastor, along with a side of guacamole & chips.  Guacamole is my favorite food...no really, it is.  And I was quite impressed with their recipe.

Because portions are huge, I couldn't finish all the chips & guac, so I brought it to work for my lunch today.

The chip-to-guac ratio wasn't totally perfect, so I had a few chips leftover.

After school I ate the last few chips before walking out the school doors.

On my way, I saw a couple students in the hallway.  We chatted for a moment, and the guy was sitting on the floor working on some homework.

I leaned over & picked up the words daughter cells on the worksheet, and nonchalantly offered:  Oh, genotypes and phenotypes?  (Yeah, subbing sometime last year during a lesson on the matter made me appear to be an expert for a moment.)

As I walked away, the girl said, you smell good!

The two students looked at each other for a moment, the she said, you smell like tortillas!

Really?  Anyone else had those two statements follow each other?  You smell good!  You smell like tortillas!

Never a dull day...

...intimidation...

I was pretending to be a chess coach again this week.  (Yes, again.)

What do you think is more intimidating at a Chess Meet?

1.  The home team displaying their two giant chess trophies on the table by the score sheets (close to two feet tall & one in the shape of a chess piece).

OR

2.  The away team walking in with a teammate who completes the Rubik's Cube at lightning speed.