Funniest student comment of the week

Backstory: We're talking about weather - hurricanes in particular - as part of our unit on atmosphere and weather. The question comes up, "How do they name hurricanes?" I know the answer to this one! I am a real teacher! After I go through the spiel, explaining how hurricanes are named, a student raises her hand and says, (here's the comment)

"I heard you can tell if a hurricane is a boy or girl by looking at the eye."
Ok - you tell me....male or female??

Running late

We evidently had a power outage yesterday sometime. Mom mentioned it, but I didn't think anything about it when I went to bed last night. I slept very well - especially between the hours of 5:00 and 7:00. Unfortunately, I'm supposed to up during that time.

This morning, I wake up to a world filled with daylight. Not usually the case at 5:30 in the morning. I roll over and looked at my bedside clock - 8:10!!! No! I'm supposed to be at work by 7:40! I have a homeroom! My 2nd period class starts at 8:18 and it's a 20 minute trek to school. My mid-term test is scheduled, and I have the tests with me. Not good! I grab the phone, and call school - nothing but voicemail. NO - I need to talk to a person! I run to the kitchen where my cell phone is charging, and scroll to the number for my teaching assistant. As her phone rings (no answer) I glance at the battery operated clock on the wall. 7:10 What? I close my cell phone, and look at the the display. 7:10.

OK, so I'm not as late as I originally thought. Still late, but not disastrously so. I run back to the bedroom, throw on some clothes, brush my teeth, brush my hair (luckily, I slept really hard and didn't squirrel around too much in my sleep - my hair lays down fairly neatly), nab a chicken breast out of the fridge for lunch, grab my bag (with the mid-term tests in it) and fly out the door. I'm on the road by 7:20 - pretty good, huh?

I get to work on time! I look like hell, and probably don't smell much better, but I'm on on time.

Interesting thing - I feel as if I am sleep deprived today. That morning routine is much more important than I ever thought.

Note to self: reset alarm clock as soon as I get home today, and use my cell phone as a back-up alarm from now on.

Walk-hoppin' the dog

Dusty doesn't just walk - he walk-hops. It's a new verb, describing the action a 3-legged dog does when on a leash, goin' down the road. He's discovered the joys of walk-hoppin', and now looks expectantly at me whenever I come in from work. The first time we went for a walk-hop (I waited until his incision was completely healed before taking this on), he was very suspicious of my intentions, in that every other time he's been on a leash he's ended up at the vets - getting something cut off. I think I'd be a little wary, my own self. After only one walk-hop experience, however, he knows that the leash/harness means we're cruisin' down the hill.

Now, Dusty goes really fast for the first half of the walk-hop - he stays way ahead of me, at the very end of the leash length. Every now and then, he'll stop and look back at me as if to say, "hurry up - many things to sniff up ahead!" He pees on just about everything (more about style points later). Sometimes, he stops to roll around in an invisible something - interesting smelling to him alone. On the way back (which, by the way, is mostly uphill), Dusty goes a little more slowly. He tries to cover it up, acting as if he's being kind to an old lady and waiting for me to catch up with him. Actually, he's sneaking in a few rest periods on the uphills. By the time we get to the final 'big' hill of the driveway, I'm actually leading the way. Walk-hopping is hard work, evidently.

Peeing is an interesting endeavor for a 3-legged dog. I never knew that male dogs dressed right or left, but I think they must. When we're on the right side of the road (opposite of left, as opposed to correct or Republican), Dusty simply stops and pees. No leg to lift, no fuss. If we're on the left side of the road, he doesn't turn around to have easy access - he kinda torques his body around so that he can pee around his left hind leg. Hard to describe, but it looks a little uncomfortable. Sometimes, he actually lifts his back left leg to pee, doing a sort of doggie handstand for a few seconds. Very acrobatic! He also tries to scratch afterward, y'know how some dogs act like they're chuffing up some dirt to cover what they've just done? Well, Dusty tries to do this, with pretty comical effect. He ends up looking very silly and awkward. I laugh at him, and I think it hurts his feelings. He gets over it quickly though, and keeps trying to kick dirt over his business.

Walk-hoppin'...good stuff.

New year, new students, new headaches, old headaches

Well, here we are, 2 weeks in to the school year. My schedule is a little weird this year - I don't have a duty period (read: study hall/computer lab/hall walker), instead I have a resource class. This is a group of 8 students who need me to help them become more organized, finish projects, complete homework, choose a new car, develop career skills, learn geometry, settle disputes...get the picture? Sorta impossible to plan for this class. My schedule depends upon what other teachers are (or aren't) assigning. If a student has no homework/classwork/test/project looming over them, they have nothing to do in my resource class. UNLESS...I play the big, bad witch and make them work on other skills while they are in here. Yeah, they don't look kindly on that. So today, I'm updating my Blog during my resource class! One student is working on geometry homework (already helped him with that), two students are in the library, one student is in the office, and the other 5 are looking at car magazines. My assistant during this period has been a resource assistant for years. I asked her if this was normal for the beginning of the year, and she assures me that things will settle out once teachers start assigning more work and homework. We'll see.

Otherwise, this year is much the same as last year. I collaborate in 3 classes - 1 Earth Science, and 2 Biology. Now, I know about my own biology. Not too sure about anyone else's. I have 2 small group Earth Science classes, with mostly freshmen. I do have one student who failed my class last year, and is just thrilled to be with me again this year. She failed for several reasons, most important being she missed over 40 days of school last year. We've been in school for 9 days, and she's missed 2. She has a bad habit of missing test days, and she missed my first test last Friday. Not a good start...