Falling.

I occasionally (all the time) tease my students that I will throw them off the roof of the school, or throw things at them from the roof of the school (always to prove a physics point, I swear!).

On their most recent quiz, their answer to a question involving being dropped off the roof of the school needed to involve a  diagram. 

Apparently my students have mixed feelings about this. 

Some think it sounds fun.... 

and 

Some react with abject terror...

or

D&D.

The Dungeons and Dragons Club meets outside my room after school. 

Listening to them makes me happy. 

Iron Man.

Got a paper cut today and didn't notice, until I bled all over my mark sheet, a vectors practice sheet, and a poor student's lab. Rather than witness me bleed on anything else, one of my girls gave me an Iron Man bandage.

It's sad how much this brightened my day. 

#IronThumb

Rude.

Supervising a wake-a-thon tonight. Only doing a shift until 2 AM, so that's not too bad. 

Funny thing happened today...

A student of mine left his binder on the back counter of my room by accident yesterday, so I just left it there thinking he'd grab it today in block 4. 

He comes in and is happy because he thought he lost his math binder. Half way through class, he starts flipping through it, and says an unfortunately loud "what the hell?"

I go over to check it out, and on just about every page of the binder, someone has drawn a penis. Some are full page, some are more subtle. But every page for the first one has a penis, and then it goes to every second page, and at the end of the binder where his blank loose leaf is, there is about 1 every 6 pages or so. 

No idea who did it, because it definitely is not any of the students who actually sit in that corner. But whomever it was, that was commitment. Holy time consuming, and they had to make sure I didn't notice. 

So rude. And so funny. 

Still An Invalid...

Sort of. I can drive. I can (sort of) do stairs. I can wear certain pairs of shoes... I am on the way to being better!

Progress can sometimes be a very slow thing, whether it's a sprained ankle or the students in my classroom. We started a new semester last week, so it's been pretty busy lately. 

My classes consist of boys. Lots of boys. As one coworker described looking out over my block 2's, "that is a sea of dudes." Out of the 85 students I have in a day right now, 19 of them are girls. Just the way the cookie crumbles. 

Having such a massive gender divide in the class does funny things to the dynamic, but I have a lot of fun with boys. (Easier to handle than the semester long slumber party that was the class of 5 boys and 25 girls. Every time I turned around, hair was being braided). 

We've just finished with the getting aquatinted and doing review stage, and come up with the following class motto. I think it will be my motto for 2014 in general. 

Tree.

Busy at school. Winding down (or up?) before Chistmas break. One of my extracurricular groups is having a bake sale next week. Went to a conference at the University. Annnnd set up the class Christmas tree. 

Happy with my new tree topper. Beats J Biebs by a long shot. And see that kinda blank-ish spot in the middle? That's where my cane deer used to be. Yah used to be. One of my students ATE MY CANE DEER. It has been three days since I discovered his antlers on the floor. And I am still upset. 

PD.

Professional development and staff social today. Nice way to end the longest week ever.

Part of PD consisted of learning some archery from our teacher coaches. I took a picture of me almost hitting the pop can, because I was pretty sure it was the best shot I was going to make all day. Until I knocked the apple off a mannequin's head. Yea!

Interviews Pt 2.

Final round of interviews tonight. Overall good. Had a couple of parents upset over our schools assessment policy... Not a fun conversation to have. Most really good conferences though. 

Didn't get much work done because of the near constant line, but I did get to mark some quizzes. I inherited stickers from my mother when she retired, and I like to use them every now and then on quizzes. Have this page of frog stickers, which are kinda cute, but some are a bit questionable. Not sure if the one on the left is halfway from tadpole to frog, or what. 

But look! Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil! Cute all together... Strange on their own. 

Also checked out some of my current and former students competing in a computing science simulation competition today. Vying for a chance to represent Canada at an International championship in London, England. Three of my students from two years ago won, super exciting! 

Interviews Pt 1.

Parent teacher interviews... gaaaahhhhh

Went well tonight. Had a decent number of parents stop by. Which is nice, because the time goes fast, but less nice because I don't get work done even though I'm at school for an extra handful of hours. 

Second round tomorrow. Then sleep? Catching up on work? 

Also... This typo made me giggle. Maganeese... hee hee. Sign of being tired? I think so.

Relief.

He's going to be okay. Phew. Battered, bruised and sore, but he's going to be okay. Such a relief to hear. 

Being a teacher is such a strange thing. I don't have children myself, but at any given moment I have 100+ kids that I care about, hassle to be a better person, watch over, keep track of... And this is not including former students that I keep track of, hassle to be better ("it's not you he doesn't like... It's your work ethic" is a really common conversation). I find my self busy with supporting them in their extracurricular endeavors as well as in school... I go to plays and music shows and sporting events. I volunteer at awards nights and tournaments and after school clubs. 

Sometimes the stress and demands and pressures get to be so great (helloooo report cards and IPPs and parent meetings) on top of the raging sea of hormones, (and the rest of your friends not entirely understanding what it is you do and why you can't do something on a Tuesday night), you often wonder if its worth it. And then you get the hugs from returning students at awards, the excitement at a job well done in an unrelated subject, the need of a supportive adult to bounce ideas off... And yes. It is all worth it. 

Three Things.

Three things:

1. Happy Mole Day!

2. One of my students was struck in a crosswalk today at lunch outside of the school. They think he's going to be alright, but they took him to the hospital to be sure. Needless to say, it was very shocking, I spent the entire lunch hour outside, and I'm a bit off my game. This afternoons classes were not nearly as productive as the morning, because my block 3's were also pretty stunned.

3. Awards night tonight for last years achievements. Great to see all my kiddos who are now in university and doing other things! It's always nice to be reminded that there are some seriously awesome young people out there.

Busy.

That's right. I brought my marking home in a box. This is what it looks like when the machine scoring machine breaks on the day you give 90+ unit exams. Le sigh.

But on the plus side, friends over tonight to unwind and celebrate another's good job news! Wahoo!

'

Fireball.

This was me today... well, not literally, but I did this little demo three times today. It is great. The students usually give the nice sullen teenager attitude of "I've seen this soo many times", and then the explosion happens (I do it in the dark) and they get all "Holy sh*t!" because it is always louder than they expect.

And I began to make these today for a friend who is getting married soon, as they are quite nerdy. This is pre-etching, which will happen another time.

This is a Halloween display at one of my parents' neighbors. I am a bit confused about the headless skeleton on the left. I don't know if it is intentional, or if a high school student stole his skull.

Tests.

I gave a lot of tests today. 3 classes. 90+ students. Loooong day. Followed by extracurricular cooking club. I'm pooped.

You and me both kid... You and me both. 

Fall cookies.

Remember those sugar cookies I tried making ages ago??

Yah. Turns out the recipe STILL makes a lot of cookies. I'd forgotten about that. The 5 1/2 C of flour should have tipped me off.

Anyways, I wanted to make some cookies for my MUN meeting this week, and fall leaf shaped sugar cookies seemed like a good way to go. I even bought cute fall colored sprinkles at Bulk Barn.

Well,  I took some to the lake for Thanksgiving, some to school today, and I still have a large bag in my freezer. Yikes. But, they are as tasty as ever, and got good reviews everywhere (although, let's be honest, teenagers will be thankful for just about any treats that are free).

 

But actually. How cute are they?

Endings.

Well, yesterday was the last day of school (now just two weeks of exams) and I am bushed. Lots of fun surprises though.

The AP students threw a surprise going away party for myself and a coworker after school, which was super sweet! Can't post any of the pictures with students in them, but we had some fun. 

I am in serious need of some mental decompressing, as evidenced by this borderline too-saucy comment I wrote on  one of my students projects...

 

Almost summer...

Grad 2013.

Oh lordy. It's June! Holy cats.

Well, this past weekend was grad. And it was an excellent time. The students were so well behaved and so excited. It was so much fun pinning caps and gowns, and talking them through their nerves of walking across the stage. ("I'm gonna fall. I'm totally gonna trip and fall" ) 

The dresses were stunning, suits dapper, and I wish I could share pics!

Instead, this. Missed the cap throwing by about 30 seconds. 

Sweet.

My kids are so sweet. We had a MUN year end wrap up meeting today, and as a thank you they got me a card, an orchid, a steeping travel mug, and a gift certificate for David's Tea. The sweetest group of kids around. 

Reminder of why I love my job, even though it's ridiculously busy right now!!

Bets.

My students love their cell phones. And I mean LOVE their phones. Bordering on unhealthy obsession. Addiction.

It's a huge problem at school, and one with no clear solution. I mean, I could spend my entire day dealing with nothing but their cell phones. Not the hill I want to die on.

So, since it's such a problem, I bet my grade 10 class that I didn't think they could go the full 80 minutes without a phone being used. I didn't want to see a phone, iPod, nothing.

Needless to say, they didn't make the full 80 minutes before someone cracked. My grade 11's maintained it was because grade 10's have no self control, and proceeded to go the full 80 minutes with not a single cell phone sighting. If thy went to the bathroom, they left them behind.

Took my grade 10's three days to finally get it.

So, I owe my classes cupcakes.

They'll be happy. And I was happy. Got a couple phone-free days out of the deal.

Einsteinmas.

Today is Pi Day.

I have written about Pi Day before (check it out). You might not have known that today is also Albert Einstein's birthday.

A bit devastated I did not have time to make a pi(e) this year... maybe this weekend? Belated pi(e)?

Anyways, here are some pi songs to make you smile:

Pi Day (Waaaaaaay better than Rebecca Black's original)

and

Mathematical Pi (Best pi song ever.)