Spelling and sex ed

I shouldn't make fun of bad spellers, but this did amuse me. We're talking about the sun in 8th grade science...so one of our vocabulary words the other day was "helio(s)-", since we're technically talking about "heliophysics." Basically, I'm trying to tell you that we've discussed the word and they've seen it written. So the other day I was amused when one of the 8th graders was doing some research online and I told her to Google "heliophysics." She typed: "hilio fisicst". Yikes.



The other amusing thing is sort of a two part story that happened with my 9th grade advisees. The conversation has been turning to sex frequently during advising this past week. My input into the conversation sounds something like this (prepare yourself): "Yes, you should go to the gynecologist if you're sexually active, or if you're not sexually active you should still go by the time you're 18 or so. Yes, they're going to do that. Yes, they're going to touch you there too. They're checking for cancer. No, it isn't that bad as long as you have a good doctor. Yes, your mom was telling the truth, that is how gay sex works. No, having sex with a gay person doesn't automatically give you HIV. HIV isn't something that just gay people have. " (I didn't realize when I took this job that I was also signing up to be the health teacher...)

Fast forward to yesterday when they were talking about sex again and if they were ever going to have sex, when it was okay to have sex, if sex was a good thing or a bad thing, etc. For some reason, I felt the need to jump into the conversation again--this time my input went something like this: "No, sex isn't bad. It all depends on the context. ...have you heard the saying, 'why buy the cow if the milk is free?'" After they repeated that to each other a number of times, one of them finally was asked, "what does that mean?" So then I explained. Then we walked across the street to the store--where they proceeded to ask the question of EVERY PERSON they saw. THAT was the amusing part for me...

Sometimes I feel like I'm teaching 1st grade...

Today is the first full school days we've had in TWO WEEKS due to a combination of snow and the President's Day weekend break. Ridiculous...

I gave an amazing speech in the 8th grade this morning... yesterday I brought down a box of poster making supplied for them--construction paper, scissors, markers, crayons, and a brand new box of glue sticks--so that they could work on an assignment I gave them. I told them I would leave the supplies down there in the 8th grade room as long as they cleaned up whatever they used. Needless to say, when I got to class this morning, there were craft supplies all over the table and floor. My comments to them went something like this:

"I try to do something nice for you and let you use all of these supplies, and you show me no kindness in return by leaving stuff all over the place! [pause to bend over and pick up a cap-less glue stick from the floor, which I then shook at them for emphasis] THIS is why we can't have nice things!"



I never did find the cap to the glue stick.

descriptions...

Wannabe Gangsta injured his knee in a basketball game last night, so he was walking a little funny today. As he walked across the classroom, the following exchange happened...

Single Kidney: Man, you walkin' like you got a stick up your...
me: Nose? like he has a stick up his nose?
Mr. Know it All (who comes up with the greatest descriptions and word combinations): You're walking like a rat's chewing on your butt crack!

Totally forgot about this one from 8th grade yesterday...

Single Kidney: How do we know all of this stuff about the moon? It's not like anyone's ever been there!

EDIT: Okay, maybe I remembered this wrong. I talked to SK about it this afternoon and he reminded me that we had been talking about the Moon and different planets and what they were made of and how far away the edge of the universe was---and THAT'S what he was saying no one had been to... So the "about the moon" part in the above quote probably didn't actually happen. Sorry. :-p haha!

reason #451

I haven't posted reasons I love my job lately. (note: the numbers on the reasons? totally random) Here are two encouragements I heard from students today that I REALLY needed...

In the bathroom this morning (yes, awkward, I kn0w)
student: Miss Book, are you doing worship today?
me: Yep!
student: I love when you do worship--I actually understand what you're saying!

And after I gave a presentation to the 10th grade religion/ethics class about the development of the scientific world during the Renaissance and the whole "religion vs science" idea... (I pretty much talked for 45-50 minutes straight, which sort of sucks for them, but I tried to break it up a little and make it as entertaining as possible)
student: I can't wait to have your class next year!

:)

overheard...

A few comments from today...

In environmental science senior seminar:
Ms. P: Now the water that you find underground is called "groundwater."
student: Wait. There's water underground? I thought that was where hell was...?
Ms. P: Well, that's like saying heaven is in outer space.
student: It isn't?

This led into a discussion of literal vs figurative...

-----
This one I overheard in the hallway. It was Pipe Cleaner Boy (the one who makes amazing works of art out of pipecleaners--they look like action figures) talking to his religion teacher.

PCB: I'm an adolescent! I have the attention span of a goldfish!

Scientific insults!

Single Kidney made the following comment today when we were talking about graviational potential energy. They were coming up with ways that mass and height might affect the GPE of an object, and we were comparing him and the Head of School both standing on the roof (since he is so small and the Head of School is a big man).

"If the Head of School were just a little bit bigger, he'd have his own gravitational pull!"

Part of me wanted to reprimand him for being disrespectful...but the other part of me was downright elated that he had obviously internalized and applied something we learned in class last week!