Things my students said today... (moments of brilliance)

Today, my students met me with a level of amazement that I haven't seen for a while.  I used to want a Twitter feed called "stuff my students say".  Of course, that took a level of commitment and organization that I couldn't handle.  It also required a Twitter account.

The following are verbatim quotes from students - the first is a bit profane, but I think the profanity actually adds to the irony of the argument.


Student #1

Journal question:  What is one thing you would do to improve the American educational system & why?

Student (arguing outloud):  I'm not going to do this.  This is a stupid question, it's not entertaining and it isn't doing anything to help my education.  You complain that you don't do our work, maybe make the fucking work interesting.  I'm not doing this bullshit.



Later in the day, another group of students was doing a lesson in idioms and metaphors.. 

Explain the following idiom:  The girls were like two peas in a pod

Kid: Ms. Gandy, what's a pod?
Me:  It's the green thing that the peas come in.
Kid:  Oh - like the can?

(I then drew a picture)



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Working in the coal mines...

Ok, I'll be honest, I don't actually work in coal mines.  I think coal mines would be safer  :) On Friday, I went back to work after a month of recovery - actually about 2 weeks of recovery and two weeks of hanging out bored silly.  Now, I've been working for three days and it almost feels like three months.  I'm so tired! My day consists of teaching seven classes, five different titles to approximately 120 total students.  Other teachers reading this are thinking "well, 120 students in one day isn't that many, I have 250!"  This is true, I used to be in a "regular" school with hundreds of students under my wing.  Two years ago, I switched gears and now teach at a specialized school.  Normally, specialized implies gifted students, or those focused on arts, culinary programs, etc.  I WISH that was the case.  I work at a specialized school for students that haven't figured out that the rules of civilized society also apply to them.  My stud
Read more

Customer Service Fail

Image
I've had some "not great" customer service experiences in my life. Today may be the first all out fail.  So bad, that I feel it necessary to call them out for their terrible service. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you - Avis (the car rental agency). This morning, my husband texted to tell me that he'd accidentally left his keys (car, house, etc.) in his rental car, which he'd just returned to the Little Rock Airport.  He knew this because the Avis agent called him, but he was already on the plane and didn't get the message until he landed for his layover. He was having trouble with cell service, so he asked me to call. No problem.  Right? Wrong. I called about a dozen times, but was never able to get through.  I got service errors, busy signals, and a couple of times, it almost seemed like someone picked up the phone and then hung up on me.  I tried hunting for an online chat feature or an email address.  No luck.  I even tried the Avis online Lo
Read more

On teaching...

Ok, I always have thoughts on teaching.  I do it every day (mostly).  This week, I've gone through what is probably my 10th round of state proficiency tests.  I've never worked in a school where proficiencies come easy to the students.  There are a dozen schools in town where 80% of students or more are likely to pass/graduate/etc.  The graduation rate at Biltmore is less than 30%.  For every hundred kids that sit in my classroom, only 30 of them will graduate.  Another hand full will get a GED.  A few will go to college, a few more will join the military.  A few will pass through our doors and realize that they have NO INTEREST in ever coming back.  Some will stay for years. I think this has been one of the most disheartening weeks in my career, but at the same time one of the most hopeful.  For the past month, I've been teaching my students to pass the writing proficiency test.  Realistically, it's not hard to pass.  Follow the formula, write in complete sentenc
Read more