another week...

As per request of my lovely sister, I have decided that it is indeed time for another update.

Yesterday was unbelievable. The juniors were supposed to go on a college visit in the morning, so I wasn't going to have them for class. However, as a result of a light dusting of snow/sleet, it was decided that they would not be going. Logical conclusion: they will now go to class instead. So fifth period rolls around. A couple show up and ask "are we having class today?" My response: "Ummm, yes." Them: "Well, can I get my stuff then? The other teachers didn't have lesson plans." Me: "Why wouldn't we have class? You all started an activity yesterday, now you can finish it, I don't have to do anything!"

I then had to track down the rest of the class, most of whom were hanging out in the art room. I was heated.
"What are you DOING?"
"We didn't think we had class today...we weren't supposed to..."
Completely unbelievable. I was appalled. Man, I am getting angry just thinking about it.

Anyway, so the other day in the morning before classes started, one of the 8th grade boys went into the school store to change his shirt. Apparently one of the other boys closed the door on him, so it locked (I wasn't here for that part). I arrived to hear knocking from the inside of the door and Favorite Student going, "Someone's locked in there!" (I have suspicions that he's the one who closed the door...). I asked who it was, he claimed not to know. He was shaking the door handle "Who's in there? I hope you aren't close-trophobic!"

We also had a great time in 8th grade yesterday; I assigned them an article called "Alternative Energy" that was about a dairy farm that uses cow manure and biogas digesters (bacteria) to generate power for the farm. So we talked about poop all period. The boys were pretty into it. "So this digester tank...it's sort of like a big stomach?" I forget which one of them said that, but it was a great analogy.

They were also amazed when I told them that fossil fuels used to be plants and animals. "So you're saying that the gas in our cars used to be dinosaurs?" Yep...sort of...

"Which came first, the dinosaurs or Jesus?"
that one was from FS. Though he also asked what the temperature on the moon is, which I thought was a good question. I had to look it up. If you are curious, it gets hot enough to boil water there when the sun is shining on it, but in the dark it goes waaaaay below zero, like -170 degrees Celsius. That's because the moon doesn't have an atmosphere. Pretty cool, huh? :)

In other news, I went snowboarding last week on one of our snow days. It was my first time within the snowboarding/skiing arena (unless you count cross country skiing in gym class once in elementary school). And it was amazing. I love snowboarding. Though it was a little painful. I think I like it because it takes a lot of thinking. And it involves a lot of physics. I like physics. But not as much as I like chemistry. And this is the part where I stop talking...