Proud Mama Moments

I frequently joke that I have many kids: one ten-month old, and 80 teenagers. And while--clearly--it is a joke, there's some truth to the statement. When you have a student for a year, you become attached to even the most difficult in some way, shape, or form. You're proud of their accomplishments, you know more about them than you'd like to, you feel bad for them when they have bad days. My seniors were sophomores when I started, I've had them for the last three years, so all the feelings of having a student for one year multiply by three or four when you're a high school teacher.

My seniors are currently wrapping up senior projects. For senior projects students have to write a research paper, do a project, and present it to the judges. We're in the midst of presentations. Last night, I was a little worried about one of my kids presenting. When he was a sophomore, speech class was...a challenge. He'd get to giggling and not be able to stop, he'd become frustrated and say things he didn't really mean to say aloud. 

But last night. Oh my goodness, I had SUCH a proud mama moment, my heart was just full. He has come leaps and bounds since sophomore speech class! He appeared confident and poised; his vocabulary was great, he was conversational and answered questions from the judges easily. 

Even though senior projects make me pull my hair out. Even though I swear this class is making me go grey at 26. Even though every year I swear I'm done with senior projects FOREVER. This makes it worth it. Seeing the growth of one student. Being able to tell him how absolutely proud I am of him.

Every missing hair, every grey hair, every frustrated moment, every lecture about responsibility, this moment made it all worth it. 

Literary Terms Gone Wrong

I asked one of my kids where he was this morning after he got back at lunch time.

Student: "I was foreshadowing my mom."

Me: "It's called job shadowing, not foreshadowing..."

Student: "I know, I just thought you'd like that I used foreshadowing."

Mr. Grinch

Another one about my sophomores, because...of course.

As I think I've stated, we're currently reading Night which is about the holocaust. Today I had my kids work on a project where they made charts about who they feel holds the most responsibility for the holocaust. One of my kids was playing around and filled in the "Hitler" slice of her pie chart with a picture of Hitler, clever, but not exactly what we're doing. So I told her Hitler should be green, and a second student said, "Like the Grinch!"

She then proceeded to write what must be by this point the full length version of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Hitler."

Bonus points for creativity today.

R.E.M.

I feel like I always blog about my sophomores. It's not that my other classes aren't interesting and funny, it's just that my sophomores tend to catch me off guard and make me laugh, so I feel the need to share.

English II is currently reading Night by Elie Wiesel, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the book, it's about the Holocaust from the perspective of the author. It's a heavy book, obviously, the topic of the Holocaust is a dark one, then couple it with themes like religion, lack of faith, losing faith, and family? However, it's one of my favorites to do, because most kids have read other books from the same period, and there's so much you can do with historical tie-ins and such.

Anyhow, today we hit the part where the main character starts to say things indicating his loss of faith and struggle with religious identity.

Me: If I say R.E.M. is it going to mean anything to any of you?

Blank stares abound. A couple nods, a couple head shakes.

Student One: Yeah, it's a math term!

Me: *Blank stare* Uh....no?

Student Two: Oh, Student One, it's a band.

Me: They sing a song called "Losing my Religion" I thought it was fitting...but it's all good.

I'm 26. I feel like they should get my references more often. I swear, teaching high school makes a girl feel ancient.

Stay Fresh

Days before breaks are always fun.

Today, one of my juniors is looking at his shoe, he's honestly contemplating it pretty hard. "I wish they made something so shoes stayed fresh." 

Me: "Like the smell?"

Student: "What? No? They don't smell bad." He proceeds to sniff his shoe, then offers it to me and says, "Do they?"

Me: "I'm not smelling your shoe. What do you mean by fresh?"

Student: "I mean, like when your feet get hot in it, I just wish they had little fans in there."

I laugh, we go about our business. A couple minutes later he says, "Or a shoe air conditioner..."

In ten years when someone invents shoes with fans/air conditioners on the inside, it'll probably be my kid. I'm so proud.

Patience and the Need for Hearing Aids...

   Demonstrative speeches tend to be a little time consuming due to the setup and tear down aspects. Especially when it's a food related speech. Today my kids were a little off in addition to getting speeches ready. We had the first round playoff game last night for football and it went great, which means the kids are thinking about football, not English.

   One of my kids was trying to hurry every one up, even though he has already given his speech. But he was supposed to be helping his twin sister with hers; she would use him to demonstrate how to escape an attack.

Student: Hurry up, guys! Let's go, guys! Come on!

Me: Relax. Student, patience is a virtue.

Student: Well, she might, but not on purpose. We've practiced.

Me: (Long pause, where I just look at him in confusion.) Wait, what?

Student: Wait, what did you say?

Me: Patience is a virtue?

Student: Oh, I thought you said 'Paige is going to hurt you.'

These kids of mine...

Math in English Class?

   Sometimes when we have some free time, I let my kids work on homework. Today is one of those days. One of my sophomores was working on IXL and asked me a question. I said that even though I'm not good at math, I knew that squared and to the third weren't the same thing. My student replied, to the third is cubed. I just laughed and said exactly, I'm not good at math.

   Another student goes, "So the third is cubed. So November third is November cubed." Completely straight-faced.

   We all laughed. Sometimes, these kids of mine crack me up.