Cousin It?

Long hair is the style for boys it seems in our middle school, and this week I learned that sometimes there's more going on behind the hair than I thought - nothing bad, just amusing. I have a student whose bangs were so long that he reminded me of the sheep dog on those old bugs bunny cartoons or "Cousin It" from that old TV show "The Adams Family". No one could see his eyes. He wore glasses, and I would often see him carefully combing his hair nicely into place over them.

Well one day he came to class with a haircut and no glasses. I almost didn't recognize him. I asked him if he had gotten contact lenses, and he said no. He told me he had lost his glasses. He had no idea where they were. Every day after that when he came to class with no glasses and he was squinting at the board up front, I would ask him if he looked for them yet. One time I even sagely suggested, "They're probably under your bed."

After a week of no glasses, I asked him again where his glasses were. I guess my inquiries finally broke him down, because he admitted to me - "I don't like to wear my glasses." Then I asked him if his glasses were the reason why he wore his hair so long before, and aha! The glasses were the reason for the long hair, very interesting! I wonder what all these other long-haired boys are hiding??? On second thought, maybe I don't.

Another interesting side note - a creative definition. I told a class that they were very boisterous, and one girl thought the word meant a class that was made up of more boys than girls. I hate to sound biased, but she could be right!

Getting Warmer?

The sun shines so brightly in my classroom windows and heats up the desks. Touching the sunny desktops almost feels like touching a hot iron. I am very lucky to have a room with windows. I was surprised today when I went out for bus duty and it wasn't as warm as I thought it was. It's still wonderful to have the hot sun in my room.

Speaking of hot, I realized this week that I need to watch how I say things with 7th grade students. We were graphing positive and negative numbers on a number line, and I told the students to tell me where to put a point using the "you're cold" or "you're getting warmer" directions from that old game. After I graphed my point, I asked if any other students would like to come up and try graphing a point with help from the class. A brave, smart, and mischievous boy volunteered. He walked up to the board and the first thing he said to the class was - "OK, now tell me when I'm HOT!"

I could tell by the smirk on his face, that he had something else in mind, so I quickly said, "Why don't we just tell you when you're closer or farther away from the point." After that class, I didn't use the warmer/colder game again. I learned my lesson . . . again.

In the hole

"Where's George (not real name) today?" I seem to ask on a daily, hourly basis about another missing student. It is flu season - same old, same old. Except this season instead of the same old responses - "I don't know" or "He's sick" or "She's at a band lesson." I got this response, "Oh, we threw him in the hole."

"Oh, really?" I replied. "Well, isn't he cold and hungry? Why don't you let him out?"

"No, he's fine. There's food and a television down in the hole."

"Oh, OK, I guess." It was a harmless and interesting metaphor - or so I thought at first.

The next week it was a different student in the hole, and the next week it was the one who created the whole myth in the hole. The myth creator told me the hole wasn't as nice as he originally thought it was, and he was glad to be back. "Well, I'm glad you are back too. Now let's fill in the 'holes' in your learning."

And then I fell into the hole. I got sick on a Saturday when my parents were visiting. I didn't say a word about being sick all day because we were going to a show that night. My parents were going to see my one-act play I wrote, starring them. I wasn't going to miss that for anything. By the end of the night, I was nauseous and had a fever of 101. I hate that darn hole! I felt as if I was going to die. I took my husband down with me, and he is mister "I-never-get-sick." I missed three days of school.

When I got back, I told my myth creating student that the hole is not a great place to be, and we need to fill it back up. He agreed whole-heartedly, but there are still more people getting sick, even those who had their flu shot.

Well, I guess one good thing about being sick is that it makes you appreciate being healthy again. Just like a cold winter really makes you appreciate sunshine and 40 degrees. Spring is coming. I can just feel it. I just hope once the snow is melted that the holes left behind aren't too difficult to fill.