Some Things Never Change

Sometimes teachers still have a hard time taking students seriously. Sometimes students have a hard time taking each other seriously. And sometimes, students take a teacher seriously when they probably shouldn't. Here's a couple of recent examples.

The other day I had to regretfully inform my students that our library time had been canceled because the librarian was not at school that day. They were distressed and started asking questions about it. My personal favorite was the "where's the library?" question. My response? "Well, if you walk out the door and down the hall . . . " I didn't finish . . . the class was laughing too hard. And then I proceeded to answer the question the student really meant: "Where's the librarian?"

Another instance to illustrate this point happened yesterday morning. I was taking roll and things to start the day when I heard one of the boys in my class start to freak out. Hearing him isn't really an unusual occurrence. In fact, when I don't hear him I worry if he's feeling alright. Any way, he was yelling, "ew, ew, ew, ew, GROSS!!!" Apparently the girl sitting next to him had licked her hand and touched him . . . don't ask me why. But, he was horribly disgusted by this. Knowing the girl, I wouldn't be surprised if her hand wasn't even wet when she touched him, but he freaked out any way. Apparently, it hasn't changed that girls have cooties. And apparently, students don't take cooties seriously (or the kids who claim to have been infected) until it happens to them.

At my school, they have been installing projectors and audio enhancement systems in every classroom. It's been done piece by piece, leading to a lot of questions and conversations every time there's a new hole in the ceiling or a new piece of equipment installed. One day, we came to school to discover a projector hanging from the ceiling. One student came in and said, "Woah!!! What's that?!?!?!?!??!?!?" His classmate responded, "It's a projector, stupid!" I probably should have said something about not calling your classmate stupid . . . but I was trying to not let them see me laugh. After all, "ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer!"

Another day, we came in to find speakers and a small, round black box on the ceiling. On this particular day, I had a mentor from the district office observing in my classroom. She was talking with several students about their assignments and things. One student (who happened to be sitting right under this black box) asked what she was doing in our classroom. I told her that the lady had come because she had seen the surveillance tapes recorded from the security camera above her and had not been pleased with the students' behavior the day before. So, she came to check things out herself. The look of terror on her face was classic . . . and the rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet as far as she was concerned!

Yep . . . some things never change. And I think it's a good thing!