Unanswerable Question of the Day

"Do you know if he'll stay late tomorrow after school?" -- Question asked to me by another faculty member in regards to the teacher I share rooms with. My stunned silence was my only possible answer to such an inane question. Am I my co-teacher's keeper?

Quote of the Day (Chatty Aunty Edition)

"I'm the same way too." -- A confession from the chattiest Aunty I know. (She'll go up to strangers in restaurants and ask them what it is they're eating, where they're from, if they come often, etc.) She said this quote to me after I explained that I'm not as outgoing as she thinks and that I'm usually quiet around people I've met for the first time.

Question of the Day

"Are you wearing red because it's the Christmas season?" -- question asked to me because I'm rarely seen wearing our school color.

Quote of the Day (Mtg. Edition)

"What's the over-under for how long she will be up there talking? Ten minutes?" -- A coworker's question to me to keep us entertained during yet another long-winded explanation in a faculty meeting. (I bet high and lost; in losing, we all actually won)

Observation of the Day

"He looks like he's really aged...Maybe he's tired." -- overheard at a faculty meeting. It was the first time to actually see and interact with some coworkers in almost four months.

Teacher Quote of the Day

"Whoa! What the heck am I doing?" -- Reaction from a teacher who absent-mindedly poured salad dressing instead of gravy on his meatballs.

Student Question of the Day

"Oh, that isn't your wife?" -- My student's response when he realized the he wasn't getting any answers to the questions he was asking me about another teacher on campus.

Mizpronunziation of the Day

Much to the chagrin of one of my students, Lacy, my co-worker continually mispronounced her name as "Lazy" for nearly three months. After correcting him privately, he is finally starting to get it. Today, however, some students were giggling incessantly. When I stopped to see why they were disrupting the class, I noticed that my co-worker was telling "Sack" to be quiet. "Sack" is another one of our students, Zack. :D

Change of Heart Quote of the Day

"Our class is the good class!" -- said with a smile from the one student who originally called his class the "dumb class filled with stupid kids." After nearly three weeks of being combined with another class, his classmates consistently had a higher homework submission rate and better overall quiz scores.

Student Quote of the Day

"I bet you I got fatter than you." -- My student's unintentionally rude response to my explanation that all I did was eat during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Quote of the Weekend

"Wow! Your car is dirty." -- Ironic first words out of my friend's mouth right after I snapped at grandma, who told me that "You should've washed your car." (after I took a 6 mile hike, mowed the lawn and trimmed the hedge earlier in the day).

"Negative" Thought of the Day

Lately, there have been people who ADD to my stress or those who SUBTRACT from it. Two co-workers came to my rescue today. Another one fought a battle for me with people trying to add to my work. In this sense I need more "negative influences".

Parent Quote of the Day

"I trust your decision. You're the first teacher that has cared so much for *****'s education." -- Just what I needed to hear from a parent at the end of a very exhausting day at work.

Haiku of the Day (Based on a True Story)

End of the steep hill

Clutching sides, gasping for air

Scent of dog doodoo.

Happy Quote of the Day

"I'm buying you lunch and bringing it to your room." -- an unexpected phone call I got before the lunch period started. It's amazing what math skills and some service time can get you in life.

Curiousity Piquing Quote of the Day

"Oh OK, that's what I thought." -- a co-worker's response after I answered her question of "May I ask you a personal question? Are you married?" ...Now it's bugging me why she asked me that in the first place.

Teacher Quote of the Day

"I got today's lesson." -- what my co-teacher told me when he noticed that I was swamped in paperwork stressed with looming deadlines. Just what I wanted to hear.

Top 3 Quotes of the Day: Weekend Workshop Edition

1) "Great! Looks like you've got it now." -- a quote from the notoriously picky presenter at today's workshop after I showed her my work on a completely mind-boggling concept-based teaching strategy.
2) "It's so much easier when you just stand." -- overheard above the ruckus of a roomful of teachers trying to simultaneously do awkward hand motions, look up at the screen and sing, AND do a "simple" 4 step dance that we had learned less than ten minutes before.
3) "I've had people come up to me and say 'I don't care about the stipend.'" --  from workshop's coordinator as she was closing the meeting. Who are these people?
Honorable mention in the sounds-fishy-even-if-you-know-the-context category: "You touched my leg!" :D

Save of the Day

"Elaborate?" -- One teacher's correction for the word I was trying to think of during a high pressure meeting. I knew the word started with an "e" and couldn't think clearly enough to ask the teachers to add to their reports. The only word that came out of my mouth was "embellish". Oops. :D

Discouraging Student Answer of the Day

"I.D.N." -- One student's response to a quiz question. If a student doesn't know the answer, most students abbreviate "I don't know" as "I.D.K." (If you don't get it, think very carefully about why this is blog-worthy.) :D