on misspeaking and misunderstanding...

I let my chem kids make a notecard to use on the last test. As I was looking over one of them, I noticed that one of them must have been writing as I was talking about the "Law of Triads." He called it the "Love Triad."

Hah.

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Speaking of mis-speaking, I heard that one of the 10th graders was recently giving a presentation and kept referring to mathematicians as "mathemagicians." I suppose some math does require a lot of hand waving...

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As I was trying to get them to focus during math lab the other day, some of the 9th grade boys were having their own conversation...
FS: Seriously, do girls poop?
Clueless: I didn't know girls farted until I came to school here!

teehee...:)

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And one more that positively floored me today...Flava Flav was retaking a test he had failed. (This interaction helps me understand why he failed it...) I was letting him use his notes, and the interaction went something like this.

FF: Ms. Book, I can't find the answer for this question... "The pascal is the SI unit for ____________."
me (at my desk): That's in your notes right before the gas laws stuff, see the list that says "Three factors that affect gas pressure?"
FF: Yeah.
me: Look right above that.
FF: I don't see it.
me: Here (walking over to him, looking at his notes and pointing), read this.
FF: "Pressure- force per unit area
- units: pascals 1000 pascals = 1 kilopascal..."
me: Okay, stop. What are pascals the unit for?
FF: Pascals. They're the unit for pascals.
me: No. Read it again.
FF: Units?
me: No.
FF: Kilopascals?
me: Look, this is a bullet point. It says pressure is force per unit area, bullet point, units: pascals. What are pascals the unit for?
FF: Area?
me: We're talking about pressure! The bullet point is under pressure! What are pascals the unit for????

O.
M.
G.

Apparently he doesn't understand how bullet points work? All I know is that by the end of the interaction I had almost completely lost patience with him and was ready to strangle him with his binder. I don't know quite how that would work though...

While we're on this subject, the other thing that kills me is when a question says something like this:
7. Write how many electrons would be lost or gained from each of the following elements in order for the element to have an octet.
a. fluorine
b. phosphorus
c. magnesium
d. aluminum

As I'm checking homework, I notice one girl has written that the answer to 7 is b. When I question her on it, she claims to have not understood the question. Seriously kids. If you can read English, you can tell that this is a four part question and not multiple choice. Right? Or am I expecting too much of my seniors?

For the love...

A few quotes

I tend to forget that students tend to study the appearance of their teachers...


Girls Who Wants to Be My Best Friend: Miss Book! Your hair looks stunning today.
Me: Stunning? Hmm. Thanks.

Just give me a flat iron and a couple of bobby pins and apparently I can work miracles!



Clean Freak City Boy (so named because of his New Orleans behavior): You look like Ichabod Crane's sister.

I think he was trying to rip on me...this is how I know that we are finally friends...



The other day two of the junior girls were talking about dimples and comparing theirs, so I smiled to show off mine.
Basketball Star: Whoa! It looks like meteorites hit your face!

My grandmother did used to tell people that I was the granddaughter who had to clean her face with a Q-tip...



And here's a good one from our dear friend the Spanish teacher...
"We have the word Kitchen with the 11^th graders this week, which is cocina. The Cs sound like ssss but, they keep wanting to say “coCHina”, which means pig but is an offensive (not swear) term in Spanish countries! Well, just when I’m laughing each time they tell me you cook in the cochina, Mr. Gas-Ex mispronounces it by saying chocha… yeah… that means crotch… hmmm…?"

Candidates for the United States of Matter

Long time readers may remember the chapter challenge assignment for phases of matter that I posted about last year. This year's crop of projects was decent, but one stood out from the rest. It was developed by a group of three 8th grade boys, and while it doesn't always make scientific sense, they make up for it in creativity...enjoy :)

Candidates for the United States of Matter

My name is solid, just like a rock, I havea definite shape like a cinder block. I don't move much, I like to vibrate in place, I'm not interested in trying to keep up with the pace. My particles are packced close, cause I keep it real tight, that's why if you vote for me you'll be alright. When I change from a solid to a liquid I start to melt down, I lose my definite shape but I'm king of the town. I feel a little better cause i have room to move around, no more will my particles keep me bound!

My name is liquid, and I like to flow, I have no definite shape, so I'm ready to go. I have room to move around whenever I can, and I have definite volume, so I'm your man. I need to move, move, move, no time to stop, we need more matter like me, so let's vote, chop, chop. When I go from a liquid to a gas, I get super fast, and I can move even more freely so I can go full blast. From a liquid to solid I turn real hard, and show off my moves like stop the yard.

My name is gas and I'm the best, I can move more freely than all the rest. Though I have no definite volume, nor definite shape, I be stuntin' walkin' round in my brand new Bapes. You can vote for me, if you got style, so I can get the job done and make it all worthwhile. Did you know that liquid can become gas you might not know because it happens very fast? Vote for me or vote for me not, if you don't vote for me you'll be like a solid hard as a rock.

So you better vote for me or don't wast your time, those other candidates aren't worth a dime, and you better vote for me or I gonna get ya, son, so go tell all the others that I'm Number 1!

For the love...

Let me preface this post with the statement that I really am thankful for sanitation workers. I mean, really, how great is it that you can put out your garbage at night and have it be gone in the morning? Almost as good as the tooth fairy...except there's no money involved, just an empty can...

Let me also acknowledge that the world does not revolve around me, and I am aware of this.

That being said, as I was driving the three blocks to school today (I would walk but it's dark when I go home at 7:30 and people tell me I shouldn't...), I turned onto the street the school is on, which happens to be one way. When I reached the stop sign half a block from the school I realized that my plans were going to have to change...because there was a garbage truck blocking the road and facing the wrong way! I might have considered sitting behind the truck for half of a block, had it been travelling in a legal direction. Instead I had to go a few blocks down to a street that was going the direction I wanted to go and was not blocked by a large truck. A huge inconvenience, I know :-p

Seriously people. What if the truck had been a little further down the block, before the stop sign? Then I would have been totally trapped because I would have turned onto the one way street not knowing it was there. Geezlouise. It's fine with me if you use the one way streets inappropriately, just do it before anyone is trying to get to work. Thank you. I am done now.

As promised...part 1:

Here it is, in all its glory...the KKKake...


Look closely at the tree on the left...here's the close-up...

This is Halloween, this is Halloween...

I tried watching The Nightmare Before Christmas the other night and my VCR tapped out about halfway through, which was sort of depressing. It would play the sound but not the picture... I am going to let it rest and see if it will play the remainder of the movie later. Due to not really thinking, I own a DVD player, but when I went to buy a VCR I discovered that these antiquated appliances are no longer sold as entities in and of themselves! So rather than buy a DVD/VCR combo, we rescued an old player from the church. Actually it's probably a "VCP" because it does not have a "record" option...

Anyway, Halloween at school was a good time. I dressed in an awesome witch costume (stay tuned for pictures...I just realized that I didn't have them yet...), made a pumpkin throw up green foam, read the Dr. Seuss book "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" to my 8th graders and then made Oobleck (cornstarch and water with green food coloring) with them since we are studying phases of matter. Speaking of Halloween, I also had a pretty sweet toga/Spartan goddess costume going on for the school dance...I'll have to find a picture of that too.

A notable occurrence from last week happened on the day before Halloween. A local church brought in dinner for us, complete with a pretty amazing 3-D Halloween-themed cake. Let's list some appropriate things to put on a festive fall cake, keeping in mind the population served by the school (urban, low-income youth):
haunted house--yes
pumpkins--yes
ghosts--yes
witches--yes
fall leaves--yes
trees--yes
noose on a tree branch--NO!!!

The director of programs came looking for someone to tell and found me at my computer. She had been watching the decorating process and thought thought there was just piece of string entangled in the branches...but no...it was a noose. (as Jonathan said..."nothing says happy Halloween like a lynching!") We quickly snagged every staff member who walked by and sent them into the cafeteria to admire the cake the woman was still decorating, telling them to focus specifically on the trees...all of them came out shocked and half-laughing in disbelief. We all stood in the hallway debating on how to handle the situation unfolding before us since the kids would be filtering into the cafeteria soon. We decided that two things had to happen: a) we had to take a picture; and b) we had to remove it. In that order.

Finally the guy who is in charge of the afternoon activities was vocal enough to let the woman know it had to be removed. I was privileged enough to be there for the conversation:
Mike (seeing the cake for the first time and knowing what he was looking for): oh no! ....is that a noose?
Woman (still decorating cheerfully): It sure is!
Mike: Well, um, we might have a problem with that, I mean, some of the kids are a little sensitive...
Woman (apparently distracted by decorating): They're going to love it!
Mike: I mean, with the whole Jena 6 thing...

At that point I left because it was a little awkward, but I felt bad because the woman really had no idea what she was intimating by keeping the noose on the tree until he spelled it out for her. If you are lucky I may be able to dig up a picture of that as well...