How do I respond?

Do you remember that show, Kids say the darndest things?  Well they probably could have added a high school edition.  Over the last few days I’ve overheard some really interesting comments, or been asked things that seemed to come out of left field. 

For instance, my Spanish 1 kids are obsessed with knowing how old I am.  Every day there’s another question trying to get me to tell them my age (quite frankly I don’t care all that much if they know how old I am, but my mentor teacher is big on them knowing and respecting those questions you just don’t ask people older than you).  Two of them decided that I must be either eighteen years old and therefore way too young to be here, or thirty and trying to hide my age.  The latter comment was quickly followed by, “well, you can’t be thirty because you just look way too young, so you must be twenty or something.”  I finally told them I was a senior in college, and they didn’t believe me!  They are determined to get me to finally admit that I’m still a teenager regardless of how many times I’ve told them I’m older than that.  I’m pretty sure I’d have to show them my license for them to finally get it (although knowing them, they’d probably accuse me of having a fake ID).

They also want to know my first name.  Now that I’m okay with them not knowing that, because that’s just part of that really important line between the teacher and the students.  But one student has made it his mission to find out my first name.  I didn’t point out that my visitor’s sticker (which I don’t wear anymore so I supposed it doesn’t matter) had my full name on it, nor did he seem to notice.  I finally told him that once they all manage to remember and call me by my last name, maybe I’ll tell them my first.  Maybe being the operative word.

I’ve also been asked:

“How much are they paying you to do this?” 

“Are you a dancer for Disney?  You look like one.”

“How do you know Spanish if you’re not Hispanic?”

(to other teachers) “Does she speak English?”
                                    “Does she speak Spanish?”

“Wait, so why are you here again?”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Do you speak English?  Say something!  I want to hear you speak in English!!”

“Why would you learn Spanish if you already know English?”

“Are you married?”

“Will you bring me food every day?  I won’t do anything if you don’t bring me food every day.”

“Are you going to be boring?”

“So…are you going to be here every day?”

I have a feeling the questions are going to get better (or worse, depending on how you look at it) as time goes by and the students get more comfortable with my being here.  At least I know they’re going to keep me on my toes.

In other news, a girl accidentally stabbed herself in the thumb with a staple today.  A staple, might I add, that had originally been attached to her quiz.  Funny, I thought that kind of stuff stopped after middle school…

Clouds: The new form of classroom management

I know I haven't written a post about my school yet, and it's coming, I promise!  But I want to get past the "I'm a visitor" stage so I can really let you know what the school is like from the teacher's perspective!

I will tell you that my mentor teacher has been really nice so far, and I can tell I'm going to be extremely busy.  I'm going to (eventually) be teaching four different levels of Spanish: Spanish 1, 3, Spanish Speakers 2, and AP Spanish for 6 straight periods except for a lunch break, since my planning period is the last one of the day.  Out of the 6 classes I will be teaching, 3 of them are made up entirely of native Spanish speakers.  I haven't quite decided if this is one of those situations that will start intimidating and get easier, or stay intimidating but be one of those experiences that's beneficial in the long run.  I guess we'll have to wait and see!

But that has nothing to do with what I wanted to share about today, so here goes...

Obviously, the weather has been great in Florida so far.  Yesterday was cloudy, but other than that it's been sunny, clear, hot, the whole enchilada.  So my classroom, even though it only has 2 fairly small windows, gets a lot of natural light.  So much that we ended up partially closing the blinds today because students were complaining about the sun in their eyes.

So later this morning we were in the middle of Spanish 1, and my mentor teacher had to keep shushing the students, bringing their attention back in, etc because they were talking over each other, getting distracted, not listening, basically doing everything they shouldn't have.  But then, a huge cloud must have rolled in because suddenly it was as if we had closed blackout shades over the windows; the room went from bright to almost completely dark, save for the one classroom light we still had on, in an instant.  Every single voice stopped and their heads turned toward the windows so in sync that you'd have thought we choreographed it.

I couldn't help but laugh to myself, since apparently Mother Nature knows how to silence a class better than the rest of us.  But of course, even Mother Nature only managed to keep them quiet for a few moments...

Want a nugget?

Today, I learned a new activity students do to make each other crazy; it seems as though "pantsing" and knocking a kid's books on the floor have been left behind for good.

Before first period one of my students was talking about "nuggeting."  I must have looked confused because he asked me if I knew what it meant (that was a big negative, all my classmates used to do was tell people that their socks were untied...).  Of course then they started talking amongst themselves about how maybe they should give me a little introduction to nuggeting.

Once they got distracted, my co-op explained to me that nuggeting is when a student takes everything out of another student's backpack, turns it inside out, and then puts everything back in.  Obviously when the bell rings the student then comes back to grab their things only to find this "nugget" of a bookbag.  Since they can't just pick it up now that the straps are inside, they're stuck hulking this big clunky sack around school until they get a chance to turn it right side out.

Now I have to admit, I did chuckle a little; the mental picture was just too funny.  But I guess students got really fast at it and it became a huge problem at the school.  It was bad enough where a student could walk across the room, come back 30 seconds later and they'd have a nugget.

Like every high school fad, this one eventually died down.  But I can't help but wonder what the students will come up with by the time I have a classroom!

And on a lighter note...

My students are taking graduation tests, meaning for the first 2 hours they're sitting in exam classrooms and then the school moves on to a schedule as if they'd had a 2 hour delay (classes are shortened to 30 minutes all week).  I was bummed because this meant I could only see my first period class.  We (my friend and I are placed at the same school) had the option of going later but we have class so I had to stick to my regular, 7:30 to 10:30 field schedule.

They were working on a word puzzle activity, so I was going around the room, helping out students who were struggling, answering questions, etc, when one of my more chatty students (who chose Alejandro as his Spanish name) called me over.

"Señorita, I have to ask you a question but you have to promise your opinion of me won't change."

I was automatically suspicious, because these are teenage boys and he had a little smile on his face.  I never know what they're going to say anyway, and Alejandro especially always has something creative or off the wall to contribute.

So I cautiously agreed and asked what was up.  He very seriously looked at me and said, "do you have any hand lotion?"

I couldn't help the smile (although I did, thank goodness, hold in the surprised chuckle) and sadly informed him that I didn't.  He of course couldn't believe that I, a female, didn't have any lotion on me.

Just the fact that he got so serious about this made sitting through two hours of testing worth it, and I made sure to put a bottle in my bag for tomorrow when I got back to the dorm...just in case...