TAs and Sticky notes.

This is what happens when you leave a TA sitting at your desk without giving them a job to do:










It made me giggle to see all of the cute things she had written. She came up with some great puns! Some of the thing she had written: My stories are "permanent", I'm pretty "sharp", Let's "cut" to the point, and so many others! It was too funny. Now I have to decide if I should take them all down or leave them up for a while.

Play nice

Yesterday, I decided to play a game with my kids. I had this idea of a game that I had played before, but instead of writing it on the board, I turned it into a powerpoint. It was awesome! The kids had to use flyswatters and race each other to slap the right root word/example word/definition.

I wanted it to be fun, and to get the kids out of their seats moving around, which it did. However, I failed to take into account the exuberance, and competitiveness of teenagers. These kids committed to the game. I mean, they were really competitive, and it was so much fun to watch! It was loud and fun as they cheered each other on, each team trying to help their runner without giving the answer away to the other team. Everyone was having so much fun!

Until there were injuries. Yeah, I had students get injured in my class. Oops. I guess that is why I shouldn't have let the two football players play against each other. One of them totally body slammed the other into the whiteboard, which, as most whiteboards do, has a nice try right at waist level for the markers and erasers. The poor boy didn't know he needed a cup for English class, but he won and scored the point foe his team.

And then there was the girl who had the same thing happen, only I think she dented the tray with her hip. However, she was amazing! Even after having been dropped to the floor, and crawling back to her desk, making a huge deal about how "hurt" she was, she agreed to a rematch and played again. And lost.

So the lesson is, kids will play rough no matter what, even when they are playing nice.

Hello foot, meet mouth.

I had had a panic attack a few days ago (I don't recommend them; they aren't so fun) and had to take one of my anti-anxiety pills. Only problem. I forgot how strong it was. So I took it and went to bed. The next morning I could not wake up! I had to work, so I did manage to drag myself out of bed and get moving.

During my first hour class, I was really dragging. I kept making mistakes on the board: I would forget what i was saying, write the wrong thing on the board, etc. And they noticed. I tried to explain, but what came out was.

"Oh my gosh! I am so hung-over!"

There was a beat of silence, and then, as I realized what i had said, I tried to back peddle all to the great laughter and enjoyment of my students.

"Not hung over! No! I didn't get drunk last night! I don't drink! I mean, I guess I could, I am old enough, but I don't. I couldn't sleep and popped some pills...wait. I didn't mean that! I took one pill. I don't take drugs! It was a prescription. My prescription. Crap. I'm done. Forget everything I just said. Let's get back to work. I am so fired."

Hello foot! Meet mouth! Lesson learned: Keep you mouth shut when you don't know what is going to come out of it.