Sack of what?

In Washington State History, my students are hard at work (or hardly working depending on the kid) on their explorer biography project. Today's assignment was to show me their rough draft since it's due tomorrow. As I was checking I came upon my student who might possibly be the world's worst speller. Even knowing this, I found it absolutely impossible not to laugh at what was written on his paper. In an effort to spell Sacajawea, he wrote the following:

Sack-of-jewea

I kid you not this was what was on his paper. I started laughing, he started passing his paper around to show his friends so I wrote his spelling up on the board so we could all enjoy it together. It was a good thing.

Really? Really.

I appreciate a student's right to question their teacher. I actually even encourage it because I want students to learn to challenge things and formulate their own beliefs. I would say these two things are true of every single student in every class I've had so far except for one. We are not even three weeks into the 2nd semester and I've got one student who at least once a day tells me that I'm wrong...only to have herself proved wrong every time. Today was the last straw for me. Maybe it's the fact that she combines telling me I'm wrong without raising her hand. I might be more willing to hear her comments if she raised her hand first...or really I'd just pretend I didn't see her hand raised and never hear her comments ever again. I already moved her to the back of the room so her incorrect comments were from farther away. Sadly that did not make a difference. Here's how it went down today:

Teacher: "You find population density by dividing total population by total land area"

Student (w/o raised hand): "that's wrong, it's the other way around"

Teacher: (giving her the benefit of the doubt cause I was sick today and could have been off my game) "well I don't think so but why don't we just check"

Teacher: (after referencing the textbook, said with a serious frustrated tone) "actually you're wrong."

Student: (who responds this way EVERY time): "oh."

Now that may not have been the most diplomatic way of handling it BUT I didn't feel good and I am so over this.

That's What the Book Said

My newest pet peeve after having this bunch of students for one week:

"that's what it said in the book" in response to my telling them they had the wrong answer. That seems to be the general comeback of this group. As if saying "that's what it said the book" somehow makes a wrong answer right. As if I am going to say "oh ok, I am not familiar with what it says in the book." As if I don't basically know the book by heart now. My response to this is usually something like "show me where it said that" and it's amazing how no one can ever find their proof.

today M (the name has been changed to protect how much she bugs me) insisted that she couldn't find one of her definitions. "It wasn't in the chapter or the glossary" she said. I said "how much will you give me if I can find it in 2 seconds..." and then turned right to it (both in the chapter and the glossary mind you). she mumbled something as she walked away but I think she got the point.