Quote of the Day (count)

"She's said 15 words to me. I know; I've been counting." - A shy former student talking about the girl he has a crush on. (9/27/12)

Quote of the Day (moving)

"Mister, you should move your class to the first floor." - Request from an out of breath student after he had just climbed up the two flights of stairs to get to my classroom. (9/22/12)

Quote of the Day (management)

"I'm so ANGRY!" - Comment from a smiling student after he realized he merely neglected to write a negative sign at the beginning of a problem to incorrectly solve a system of equations in three variables. To his credit, he tried it again (upon my request); I loved seeing him cheer quietly to himself when he got the right answers. (9/25/12)

Quote of the Day (stream)

"And then it's up and running full stream ahead." - Quote from a presenter not even 10 minutes into today's workshop. (9/24/12)

Quote of the Day (weekend)

"Is today Friday? Oh yeah, it is Friday." - Comment from a student after I told her to have a good weekend as she was leaving class. (9/21/12)

It seems like everyone is getting their days mixed up. On Monday I had one student tell me, "See you on Friday." as he was leaving class. On Wednesday, a speaker at a workshop said, "I know that tomorrow is Friday and you all want to go home."

Quote of the Day (caught)

"Mister, did you hear that?" - Question from a student who caught me snickering at someone down the hall who was singing Gangnam Style during class. (9/20/12)

Quote of the Day (reverse)

"You wanna know how to annoy a teacher that you hate? Do all of your homework." - A student's unsolicited advice to his friend. As I continued to eavesdrop on this fascinating conversation he continued, "That way he'll be so busy grading all of this work that he won't have time to watch all of his favorite TV shows." (9/19/12)

Quote of the Day (disappointed)

"I don't like him. He burstses my bubble." - Comment from a student regarding a visitor in our class. When I asked her to explain her remark, she proceeded to describe how the visitor encroached too much into her interpersonal space. I thought it was a funny misuse of the idiom, but my parade was rained on when I learned that bursting someone's bubble is now used for that context as well. (9/18/12)

Quote of the Day (puzzled)

"This is fun. It's like a jigsaw puzzle." - Unexpected comment from a student who was thoroughly engrossed in solving systems of equations, one of the more difficult concepts covered in Algebra 2. (9/17/12)

Quote of the Day (phone call)

"You kinda freaked out my mom when you called her." - Comment from a normally quiet student at the end of class. She was referring to the phone call home that I made on Wednesday to inform the mother that her daughter was one of only 6 students to score 100% on a fairly difficult exam. (9/14/12)

Conversation of the Day (period)

Student 1: "Hey, what period do you have Mr. James' class?"
Student 2: "Huh? Oh, I have an F."
I can see why. (9/13/12)

Quote of the Day (cake)

"It was a piece of cake...a piece of burnt cake." - Comment from a student in agreement to her peer who called the second test a "piece of cake." Seeing how I didn't quite get her reference she repeated, "A piece of burnt cake. Get it? Because it's hard." (9/12/12)

Quote of the Day (love)

"Love this young is hard." - Proclamation from a former student, now in the 8th grade, who confided in me that a girl he likes broke up with him but still claims that she likes him. (9/11/12)

Quote of the Day (short)

"Nope, that's too long. Can I just call you Mister HUH?" - Request from a student who rejected my suggestion of calling me "Mister H" after she was complaining that my last name was too hard to pronounce. (9/10/12)

Quote of the Day (misspelling)

"Mister, isn't there supposed to be a 'p' in there?" - Bold question from a student who caught my omission of the letter when writing the word "reciprocal" on the board. For the record, I did NOT use the trite, "I meant to do that." Instead, I thanked her and moved on. (9/7/12)

Quote of the Day (proximity pt. 2)

"You better watch out Mister, she lives up the street from us." - Comment from the student who revels in the fact that she knows where I live about her friend in the same class. (9/6/12)

Quote of the Day (proximity)

"♪ Hi neighbor. ♪" - Greeting from a student who (for some unknown reason) thinks it's so cool that I live just down the street from her. (8/28/12)

Quote of the Day (help)

"Can you help me make some goals for a (math) student because you did such a good job with making them a few years ago?" - Desperate-sounding request from a coworker this afternoon. When I proceeded to walk her through the steps to help her make a quality math goal by using the state standards, she got short with me and said, "I don't have time, can you just do it for me?" (9/4/12)

Quote of the Day (September)

"Ooh, I know! Labor Day!" - One student's enthusiastic answer to my question of what piece of technology is being rumored to be announced this September. After I said that wasn't it, another student chimed in slightly less sure of herself, "Rail?" (8/30/12)

"Quote of the Day" (medicine)

"It's tiger balm. People say that it smells like Christmas." - A student's response after I asked him what that pungent smelling cream was that he was rubbing onto his shoulders right before class. Can you guess which student got significantly less help that day? (8/29/12)