24 January 2003

I had my AP Psych students keep track of the things they forgot over the period of a week as an opportunity for extra credit. One of my students had the following entry:

I forgot to clean my room because I was reading the Bible when my parents asked me to do it.

We should all have such behavior problems with our own children...

22 January 2003

I can never tell. If a male student writes that he believes Napoleon hurt France because he took away women's rights, is that sucking up, or does he really believe that?
My AP Psych students had their midterm today. I had a student who didn't have a chance to finish the exam, and I was all prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, because he is not a native English speaker. Turns out HE FELL ASLEEP DURING THE TEST!!!!

21 January 2003

About Louis XVI: "He had a good head on his shoulders."



That one had me crackin' up for about 10 minutes.

15 January 2003

Those darn lower classes...

"Revolts of the 1830's and 1840's worked to a degree. What the pheasants and the middle class, the main groups revolting, wanted was a better government...."

How are they going to hold their protest placard?

13 January 2003

To be filed under "I love my students, but they can be so thoughtless..."

A student asked me to write a college recommendation for her. I told her I would, provided she give me this form they are required to fill out by the school and a stamped, addressed envelope. Months go by, nothing. I have her subschool send a note to her, nothing. Finally, I saw her today and she told me that she wasn't applying to that school after all, she'd applied somewhere else and gotten in and didn't need a recommendation after all. OK, so, cool, great, she got into college, but it would have been nice not to have to spend the time worrying about her recommendation if I didn't have to!!!

10 January 2003

There is absolutely NOTHING like trying to teach during the last period of the day on a Friday.

In a discussion about amnesia:

"I think amnesia is just really mean."
and in response....
"This is why we wear helmets, everyone!"
Went downstairs after first block class this morning to do a variety of errands: return some videos to the library, request that something be laminated, check my mailbox, and (the most important of the errands) get a cup of coffee.

On A days during second block I have my planning period. Another teacher uses my classroom, so I have to leave the room and go to the Social Studies workroom. It's no small feat getting me out of that classroom with everything I'm going to need for my planning period.

(yes, I have a point here)

I gathered everything I thought I might possibly need for the planning period, although I might have saved myself the trouble of carrying the binder, folder, three workbooks, purse, videos, coffee mug and bookbag to the workroom, since I've decided I'm going to only plan ahead, and I really only need my plan book and the textbook.

I organized myself in the workroom, and then went downstairs to do my errands. I purposely did NOT bring my keys with me, having said to myself, "Self, you don't need your keys for any of these things, leave them here."

The first three errands are carried off without a hitch. I am now seriously in need of a good cup of coffee (and I will not get that in the end, it's only a mediocre cup of coffee, but it's only the Faculty Lounge and not Starbucks). And of course, I need my damn keys to get into the Faculty Lounge. So I have to come all the way back upstairs, get my keys and go back downstairs to get my cup of coffee.

Now, I say "All the way", but it's really only a flight of stairs in each direction. Doesn't change the fact that I could have saved myself the trip!!!

This key thing is an interesting issue, though. We recently had the whole building "rekeyed". They tell us at the end of every year "Be sure to turn in your keys, we're going to rekey the building, you won't be able to use them next year" and we promptly get back the same set of keys in September. Now, granted, I've only been at this school for three and a half years, so in all honesty, I can't really say they say that every year. But every year in my experience here, they have said that.

But, they finally did it last year. So now we need keys for things we've never needed them for in the past. Now, I understand needing to have a lock on the copy room door. We don't kids in there messing with those highly expensive (and highly sensitive!) copy machines. Nooo, far better to have faculty members who don't know how to use copiers in there mucking around in the works, slamming important pieces of equipment to shreds and leaving jams for the next person.

Not that I'm bitter.

But I digress. I was discussing the key situation.

Since last year, we have had some additional rooms locked from the prying of students. The Faculty Lounge. The men's faculty bathroom on the second floor. Not the women's (we voted not to have a lock on it), just the men's. This has become quite a serious bone of contention in our school. It's comical, but the players are very serious in their stances.

At some point I should write an entry about the members of my department, because they are some of the most amazing, fascinating, intelligent and STRANGE people I know. They are wonderful to work with.

One player in what I have come to call "The Great Key Saga" is a man in my department. We'll call him Dean. Now, Dean drinks a lot of water during the day - he recycles 64 ounce gatorade bottles and fills them up several times during the day. This is not a man who wants to be fumbling with a key to get into the men's bathroom. In fact, he and just about every other man in my department voted against having a lock put in.

I'm so glad they listen when they ask for our opinions.

Apparently the administrator, we'll call him Bojangles, got a deal from a friend on locks and installation.

Whenever Dean and Bojangles meet in the hallway, it's like a shootout at the OK corral. They face each other from across the hallway, their fingers itching closer to a holster. One thing you have to understand about Dean: He is a very, very funny guy. He is an incredible teacher, but he's very funny, and it's hard to know when to take him seriously. I've learned this year that when it comes to his students, his teaching, and bathrooms, you MUST take him seriously. Bojangles seems to think that Dean is kidding about his objections to the bathroom locks.

He's not.

There was for a while an underground movement (well, ok, they're mostly above ground) to foil the lock in the men's bathroom. Someone put paper towels in the part where the bolt is supposed to slip in, so it can't. When those were taken away, someone tried using duct tape. That was also taken away. There have been threats to come in in the middle of the night with a drill.

Yes, this is what we talk about during lunch.

08 January 2003

LOOOOOVE technology.

Really.

Was typing a nice long blog, actually about TEACHING (I know, you're all thinking "Wait, she teaches? I didn't realize.") when yes, ok, it was my fault, but little did I know that merely by adjusting the way the frames were set on this computer, would I lose everything I'd typed....

Anyway, let me see if I can go back to what I was writing about.

Yes, I remember now. I was discussing a project my AP Psych students had been doing. We finished our unit on Learning (you know, Pavlov, dogs, drool?), and I gave them a project where they had to condition somebody or something (little brothers, animals) to complete some sort of behavior. The assignment is not original - I am sure every Psych teacher in the country does it, but it's quite a cool one. I think the students really enjoy doing it too. It's really interesting what they decide to try to do. One student conditioned her dog to be afraid of the dishwasher by making a loud noise whenever he went near it (apparently the dog likes their dishwasher), one student conditioned his dog to walk all the way around in a circle at a command from him (don't dogs do that anyway?)...interesting stuff. Some students conditioned their siblings to be quiet, for which I'm quite sure many parents are grateful.

What's interesting is that the students all had some really good analysis about why the conditioning did or did not work. It's really amazing to watch these AP kids work - those that are truly AP can produce some astonishing work.

Of course, then there are the students who tell me things (as one did yesterday afternoon) such as: "I think I'm going to start taking notes."

WHAT A CONCEPT!!!

07 January 2003



Which Buffy character are you most like?
(Click me!)

Which one am I most like? Why, Willow Rosenberg, of course.

06 January 2003

See, this is what I do when I'm procrastinating and not doing my work ... I visit my friends' blog, and then am sucked into her quiz site, and then I just can't leave, because the quizzes, see, they have to be taken. MUST BE TAKEN. Mmmmmm, quizzes...
I am 41% Evil Genius

I want to be evil. I do evil things. But given the opportunity, and a darn good reason I may turn to the good side. Besides I am probably a miserable evil genius.

Take the Evil Genius Test at fuali.com



take the which one of the trading spaces cast are you? quiz!



Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could be worse. I suppose. I could be Doug.
What a neat idea! Someone has decided to post Samuel Pepys' diary an entry a day (he started on January 1). What a neat insight into 17th century London. One question ... Samuel Pepys wrote for nearly 10 years - do you think this guy is going to keep posting entries for that long???

http://www.pepysdiary.com
Back after two weeks, and we had a two hour delay because of snow. Actually, it was a really civilized time to get up too - in school by 8:30, waking up at 6:30, very nice. I'm glad we're back, though. I didn't realize it until this morning once I started teaching, but I really missed it. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed having the two weeks off, but I really enjoy spending time with my students too. Ha!

So, the resolutions for the New Year - along with the usual exercise regularly, eat healthily, try not to spend too much money ...

Listen to my students
Be less sarcastic in the classroom
Stay caught up on my grading.

Let's see if that actually works.

Today's gem in a discussion about the patterns of the French Revolution: "Are you married?" When asked why he wanted to know that, the student replied that I had mentioned that I was reading history over the break, and that most married people didn't read history. Frankly, I don't want to know just what he thought married people did instead. Surprisingly, the one student whom I did not expect to come to my rescue said "Man, everybody reads history, even married people."

I'm sure that I turned quite a bright shade of red in response to that particular line of questioning.