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.

Parent Night

Yesterday evening was one of the highlights of my year: Parent Information Night a.k.a Back to School night. Last year this night was approached fear and trepidation because I felt the need to "prove myself" being a first year teacher who barely looks old enough to drive a car. This year I felt much more confident, especially last night since it was the second PIN of the year. I thought it best to reflect on my fourth PIN of my teaching career and share some highlights with my vast readership:

- first comment of the night was literally "yeah, my daughter told me you would be young" to which I laughed and then felt like I was going to be carded.

- I had the pleasure of having the mom I shall deem "stinky face" twice since I have her daughter for both Geography and Washington State. "stinky face" looked like she either wanted to barf or kill me, I am not sure which one. Both of her questions made it very clear she is going to be my helicopter parent of the semester.

- crackberry dad didn't put down his cell phone for the entire 15 mins. it took all of my strength not to make a joke about how cell phones are not allowed in the junior high. I didn't but now I wish I had.

- the mom of the kid who I have already kicked out twice for talking (in four days) chatted my ear off, I wonder where he gets it?

and for my favorite highlight: one of my co-workers, who shall remain nameless, mircowaved fish for dinner in the teachers lounge before PIN leaving the entire building smelling like...well you can imagine.

James Bond

Today's WSH daily activity was to design a WA state flag. Only rules were "it needs to be in color and it needs to connect to either Washington's past or present. As you can guess, I got a lost of flag's with apples and trees. Salmon galore and the occasional Space Needle. What I wasn't anticipating was the following that can really only be described through the conversation I had:

Student: "Here's my flag"

Me: Looking at the helicopter and mountain on fire "Can you explain this to me?"

Student: "Sure, that's James Bond and he's chasing that bad guy who set the mountain on fire."

Me: "and what does this have to do with Washington State?"

Student: "nothing."

Me: "ok. well. you can either take this assignment seriously and do it over OR you can turn this in and see what happens."

Student: "i think i'll do it over."

His second edition work of art had a train on it with the following in the smoke cloud: "Washington Is Cool."

Creativity is Key

Today students turned in their fifth portion of their Washington State History Settlement Project. The only criteria for today's assignment was that students had to write three different journal entries about the unfortunate deaths of members on their Oregon Trail journey. One creative student decided to forget about the value of historical accuracy and wrote the following:

"Recently Pocahontas and Sacajawea got into a huge fight over which way to go. Pocahontas wanted to go Southwest but Sacajawea wanted to go Northwest. They started arguing but then Sacajawea grabbed a knife and pinned Pocahontas and Mom tried to pull her off but she cut Mom. Older Brother came by and saw the gash on Mom's arm and saw Sacajawea on top of Pocahontas (which I think he loves) and shot Sacajawea. She died before dinner from the wound. We are now caring for her baby."

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Two student responses today that made me laugh:

Mrs. Haslam: "How many branches of government does the U.S. have?"
Student: "Two plus that really small one."
Mrs. Haslam to student: "Two plus that really small one? Can you name them?"
Student: "You know, Republican, Democrat and that small one"
Mrs. Haslam: "Not exactly."

Mrs. Haslam: "And the Kalahari Desert stretches through Southeastern Namibia"
Student #1: "Isn't that a food, Kalahari?'
Student #2: "it's Kalamari stupid."
Mrs. Haslam: "wow."