Teacher Quote of the Day: Workshop Edition

"Good job womens." -- One teacher's aside spoken after he described to the entire roomful of teachers how his group noticed that Hawaiian "womens" helped with the majority of the fishing back in the days.

Student Quote of the Day

"I SWEAR I NEVER SAID THAT!" -- Student's response after I countered his negative muttering by saying in a loud voice, "What?! You said I'm the best teacher in the world?"

Student Question of the Day

"If I shave my head with a razor, will it grow back?" -- Not exactly what I had in mind when I asked the class if they had any questions. :/

Teacher Quote of the Day: Bonus Furlough Edition

"I'm a fan of the stink-eye." -- Overheard during a conversation between two teachers at today's Professional Collaboration Day.

Uninspiring Quote of the Day

"Don't use idioms. Whatever you do, avoid idioms, it only confuses your students." -- A hypocritical plea from our main speaker who repeatedly told us that what he was presenting was "not rocket science" at a workshop to help teachers learn the best practices of instructing "ELL learners" (Just for your information, ELL = English Language Learners so "ELL learners" would be English Language Learners Learners)

Unintentionally Humorous Quote of the Day

"Wow! I had to really dig for my wiener." -- Overheard from a co-worker as we were eating our school lunch that consisted of a lone frankfurter buried beneath a heap of chow-fun noodles.

Co-worker Quote of the Day

"Wow! They're going to look at me like I'm a genius when I show them this!" -- One co-worker's reaction after I showed him how easy it was to set up a gmail account for his friend. And runner up for quote of the day: "What is this for, testing my eyes?" -- The same co-worker's query regarding a captcha.

Depressing Thought of the Day

"The reward for working hard is MORE work." -- The underlying message I got when I found out that the reason my name was passed over for a switch of position that would help me become a tenured teacher was because I'm doing such a great job with the challenging classes that no one else wants to teach.

Personal Observation of the Day

Paperwork really sucks the joy out of teaching.

Nonsensical Quote of the Day

See if you can understand this 'cause I sure didn't. "Get it wrong so you know you don't know it." - a teacher's suggested response to when a student always asks, "Did I get it right?"

Teacher Quote of the Day

"When you're broke and over-worked, it doesn't matter what the weather is like." - My co-worker's comeback to an overly optimistic teacher's comment that we shouldn't complain about our furloughs because, "After all, we live in Hawaii, and the weather is always nicer in Hawaii."

Student Quote of the Day

"Again? You used that same story last year." - One student's response to her classmate's excuse that his dog at his homework.

Quote of the Night

"This is...interesting." -- My table- neighbor's description of a fancy-shmancy salad that consisted of Hamakua vine ripened tomatoes, truffled goat dairy, Nalo farms micro herbs, cripsy prosciutto. I would have gone with "weed-like."

Student Quote of the Day

"Take your own advice." -- One student's response when one of his classmates tried to quiet the class by repeatedly yelling "SHUT UP!"

Thoughts for Teachers

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." -- Frederick Douglass

Student Quote of the Day

"Did you just say f@#*ed up?" - Student reaction to my explanation that my recent illness left my sinuses stuffed up.

Student Quote of the Day

"Awww." - At least three students expressed their disappointment this way upon my return from taking my first day of sick leave last Friday.

Student Quote of the Day

"Can I bring my dog to class?" - 15 yr. old student.

Good Cancellation

After a long second day back at work, I was expecting more doldrums as I prepared for our weekly Wednesday meetings. While walking to my meeting site, a friend of mine told me that all faculty groups' meetings were canceled except hers. "Didn't you read the email?" she asked. I had been dreading the meeting so much that I never even bothered to read it because I thought it was the same spiel about the meeting locations and times. It ended my day on a good note.

Who was your teacher?

The problem (no pun intended) with high school level math is that every higher level course relies so heavily on the fundamentals supposedly learned in the basics like Algebra 1. A family friend recently came to me to ask for help with his homework. He is doing fairly well in grasping the concepts of calculus, but struggles with some of his basic algebra skills (like graphing equations and such). When I asked him why he was coming to see me for the first time in a long while, he replied, "I went to go see my Calculus teacher for help, but he got frustrated and told me to ask someone else." He went on to explain that because of his weak algebra skills, the calculus teacher had to go back and re-explain some basic steps in order to do the calculus problems. When the calculus teacher finally got fed up, he condescendingly asked, "How come you don't know this already? Who was your algebra teacher?" The student sheepishly replied, "You were, two years ago."