Classroom Smiles

I am falling behind in my posts. I feel a bit of writer's anxiety. Maybe it's the name of this blog that is intimidating me - laughs was a bit too ambitious of a term maybe? I should have called it "Classroom Smiles." Anyway, enough complaining. I guess I am just trying to explain that if this blog isn't always funny, well, it's not always supposed to be, but I do hope at least it makes you smile. OK, enough whining.

One thing that a student said to me that made me smile and chuckle was about loose-leaf paper, you know the paper that goes into 3 ring binders, the paper without fringes that sheets torn out of notebooks will have. Sometimes my colleagues tease me about my pet peeve about paper with fringes. I feel I need to explain. Fringes complicate and slow down the correcting process. When I have a stack of 100 papers to correct and the fringes get together, I can't whip through them like I can with a stack of loose leaf papers. Fringes can make an already tedious job even more frustrating, so I give students loose leaf when I have them do an assignment that I want to correct more quickly. Still, just like I always have one or two students forget to put their names on their papers, I always have one or two students give me paper with fringes. That's tolerable, at least, but I always wondered why they do that when I offer them loose-leaf paper to use. One student solved the mystery for me and made me chuckle when he told me he didn't really know that loose-leaf was a specific type of paper. He thought it was any sheet of paper that was "loose"!! Ha! Mystery solved! Now I know how Sherlock Holmes probably would feel after solving a puzzleing case (if he were real).

Anyway, Friday night was another dance. Mrs. Wise is an awesome dancer. I am glad she lets me be one of her back-up dancers. The kids and the Mr. K's did an awesome job with the dance to raise money for their charity. I just wish I could say they made a lot of money, but with having to pay the DJ, they needed at least 63 students to attend just to break even. I think there were at least 100 students there, so they raised some money. Mrs. Wise and I did our part to support the middle schooler's efforts and the high school's e-club's efforts. We went to the e-club's restaurant at the high school and enjoyed a nice dinner. The e-club created a restaurant at the high school also to raise money for a charity. I am grateful for these experiences for the students and the teachers who donate their time to help the students.

A Bunch of Animals

I was working on my computer during class, and something wasn't opening like it should, so I said "ARGGGG!" In response, one student said "Woof!" Another said, "Meow!" Another said "Moo!" I looked up, laughed, and thought, "I always knew you were a bunch of animals." I am grateful for students who can make me laugh when I am frustrated.

I am also grateful for some of the wacky advice they give me sometimes whether I ask for it or not. According to one 7th grade boy, the best way to catch a mouse (if you don't have cats) is to put a glass of soda outside the mouse's door. The mouse will drink the soda, and the carbonation will cause him to explode. This idea, in his mind, was a very good idea. When I asked him who was going to clean up all the mouse guts, he suggested that I get a cat to take care of the mess. Hmm! Could we have the answer to the age old problem of building a better mouse trap????? I don't know. I'm still wondering how to find the mouse's door.