Friday, April 16, 2010

Out of the mouth of a high school student

Today during class I tood a quick break to show my students this funny blog post. I thought is was funny, but two boys in my class thought that it was lame. They said, and I quote "Ms. Johnson where did you find this website? (said very sarcastically) Maybe this is why you aren't married. Instead of looking at stupid blogs shouldn't you be spending your time on E-Harmony?"

I fell back in my chair laughing.





Thursday, April 1, 2010

Diaries of a High School Math Teacher

I know I've said this before, but I love my job. Here are just a few of this weeks highlights.

1) Layton high school just got a new principal which means new policies and programs. One of the new policies is that student are not to be in the hall for any reason without a hall pass. I usually let my students have a drink break half way through the class, but because of the new policy I've had to stop. Three of my students (all boys) came to me with a diagram mapping out exactly how they were going to get to the drinking fountain without being caught. The diagram included ninja rolls, secret spy moves and a plan B (just in case). With a plan like that I had to let them go. Three minutes later, two of the three boys came running into the classroom. "Ms. Johnson we're so sorry, but we got caught. Mr. Gochberg (the assistant principal)said that we are going to get truencies, and that he is going to come talk to you about following the hall pass policy." "Where is Chris (the third boy)?" I asked, "Oh, he ran and hid in the bathroom." Are you kidding me...it was a drink break for heavens sake...doesn't the assistant principal have better things to do them get mad at students for getting a drink...ahhh! Five minutes passes, Chris comes back, but no Mr. Gochberg. 10 min...15 min...no Mr Gochberg. By this time I have figured out in my head exactly how I'm going to convince Mr. Gochberg not to give these boys truencies. 20 min...and then the bell rings. As these three boys leave one says, "Ms. Johnson, we were just kidding." ... Man I am gullible.

2) Today I gave a test on probability. The symbol "!" in math is called a factoral which means that you multiply a number by every number less than it until you get to zero. For example 5! is 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1. As I was sitting at my desk one boy came up to me and said, "Ms. Johnson, I think there is a typo on number 5. All it says is forteen!!!!!(said with an excited inflection of his voice). I looked at him and thought "is he kidding...he must be kidding...wow, I think he's serious." All I could say is "no, it's not a typo, retake test will be available after spring break"...Oh, goodness :)


Two of my favorite people

One of my favorite people, Ben Denzer, just had his 24th birthday. He is one of those friends that I'm certain the Lord put in my life to help me. It's funny how he knows exactly what to say to help me keep things in perspective and make me smile. Man I love that guy!!!! To celebrate we went to the Michael Buble concert. It was amazing! He is honestly better live then on CD. The best part of the whole night was seeing all of the 40 year old women standing in the front row screaming "I love you Michael." One day that will be me :)