Something in the Water

During 7th period today, as the full-time substitute (Ms. L, who I love, she's going to end up being one of my best friends) walked into my class exactly when I needed her.  I looked at her in desperation, as I was trying to review the rules of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers, and said, "Ms. L, did you know I taught a kindergarten class here?"  In that class, I have 8 students, and their desks are arranged in a U-shape.  In the center of the U, four boys in a row were sound asleep at their desks.  For some reason today, no matter how many times I woke them up and threatened detention, they fell right back to sleep.

Ms. L, who is a tiny little thing (less than 5 feet tall), sneaks up to them with a history text book and slams it on the ground.  Two confused boys slowly lifted their heads, looked at her sleepily, and went back to sleep.  JT looked at me and said, "Ms. C, how about if we all get 100s on our Math tests tomorrow, we can sleep for the entire 7th period?"  and then he too went back to sleep.  I remembered that phrase "pick your battles," which I've been reminding myself of a lot lately, and reviewed with Carolyn, who was so near tears by the thought of adding negative numbers that she kept muttering, "Math just isn't fair!"

8th period, which is one of my prep periods, I saw the principal in the hallway and she asked how my day had gone.  I mentioned my sleepy children, and she said today was a particularly sleepy day in most of the classrooms she saw--some days the cafeteria food just really slows them down.  I walked past Mr. V's global studies class and did a double take, and noticed JT in the front row--passed out on top of his notebooks with his mouth wide open while Mr. V pretended not to notice.  I couldn't stop laughing for the rest of the day...at least I knew not to take it personally!

Tomorrow after school is my first French Club meeting!

Last Week's Quote of the Week: "Ms. C, if I were to win an award right now, like a VMA or something, the first thing I'd do would be to thank Ms. C for all her help in Math." -JT


**Note: A good friend of mine reminded me to make sure I changed the names of all of my students.  I went back to look and realized that I had been using one real name, so I went through my old posts and gave him a new name.  In case you were wondering, "JT" is the formerly mentioned, self-proclaimed, "math pimp."