Wanted: flavor

So Summer Academy is a lot of fun. The 8th grade boys are...just that...8th grade boys. Doing this for a second time (and by "this" I mean teaching 8th grade), I see now that it wasn't just the group I had last year...it's the nature of the beast. They are fun, but man, put 10 of them at two tables (I'm in a science room that has tables and not desks...) and then just try to get through your whole lesson plan without sixteen million interruptions.

The 8th grade girls are also 8th grade girls...adorable as ever and eager to do whatever I ask them to do.

10th grade is easy because there are just two girls and they are great. It's just that teaching a two person class can be difficult--while the 8th grade boys might get through half of the lesson, they'd be able to do two in the same amount of time.

And I have one ninth grade class...fun kids, but, like normal ninth graders, they'd rather socialize than do what I ask them to do...

A few highlights from the past few days include:
An 8th grade boy who reminds me of FS. Let's call him Flava Flav. Why? This is what he told me in class the other day when we were talking about homework and practicing and why they have homework...
"Yeah, that's true, because I'm good at dancing, and one time I stopped dancing for awhile, and then it was like...I lost my flavor...so then I had to start dancing again and practicing and then I got my flavor back."

He is going to be a trip and a half, and likely the source of many future stories. Like the following:
Ms. Greene told the 8th grade boys that they were NOT permitted to talk unless they raised their hands. This led Flava Flav (who talks almost as much as FS) to sit in class with his hand up...the whole time. When Ms. Greene called on him, his said, "oh, no, this is just in case I need to talk." An ounce of prevention...

Boy Crazy Girl (an 8th grader) is going to be fun as well. I told them the other day that I liked to read and she was like, "oh! What gender do you like?"
me: "Gender?"
BCG: "Like mystery or poetry..."

This was followed by a brief lesson in pronunciation.

Awesome.

:)

Day 1

Okay, I really need to go figure out what exactly I'm doing in class tomorrow, but first I need to give a quick update...

Today was the first day of summer academy...meaning that I got to meet all of the new kids. It was a good time, I was actually pretty excited about it, and I think it's going to be fun :)

Here are some highlights from the day. Usually I intentionally do not use kids' names, but for these stories I sort of need to...

For instance, there's the kid named "Mustafa," which makes Jonathan shiver and go "oooooo, say it again!"

Then there's the 9th grade class made up of five girls and one boy....Mario...whom the girls insist on calling "Maria"...

These next few quotes aren't from my class, but I thought they were worthy of posting anyway...yay for biology class and clearing up anatomical misconceptions...
"Do snakes poop out their mouth or do they have a butt??"
"Can a frog and an alligator have a baby?"
"How did dinosaurs have sex?"

That's all for now...

a couple of things...

I need to go to bed before I eat myself out of house and home.

Before I do that though, I have two things.

One is a sign I had to take a picture of the other day. It isn't so much a spelling and grammar violation so much as it made me say....huh? Then I had to think for awhile. Then I took a picture. If you can tell me how it makes sense, please do.Look closely. Can you read what the arrow says? Please explain.


Number two: check out my dumpster diving/trash picking skills...
There's even a bedframe to go with it. And Melissa and I only looked a little bit like weirdos carrying it down the street at 11pm. And we only saw one person we knew.


And C.
Today we visited some friends and their children in Meadville. The following was a brief exchange between me and three year old Sarah...

Sarah (patting her belly): I'm going to have baby rabbits.
Me: Oh really? (wondering where this is going...) Where are they now?
Sarah (very seriously): In my uterus.

Of course. Silly question.