Quote of the Day (electricity)

"Mister, I have a serious question. Do toilets need electricity to flush?" - Question asked by a high school senior during a nearly two hour power outage right before she asked to be excused to use the bathroom. (4/6/17)

Quote of the Day (victory lap)

"Can I go do a victory lap around the school?" - Question from a high school student after seeing that he did extraordinarily well on his latest exam. (4/5/17)

Quote of the Day (hiking)

"Mister, so yesterday I was looking up a video of [name of hike]. As I was watching it, I thought, 'Hey! That guy looks familiar!' Was that you?" - Enthusiastic question from a high school student who apparently found my (public) YouTube channel. (4/4/17)

Quote of the Day (pancakes)

"Hey Mister! Pancakes or waffles?" - Random question from a small group of high school students seeking a tie-breaker for a heated debate about which is better. My answer: french toast. (4/3/17)

Quote of the Day (inside joke)

Me: "Here's your homework back."
Student: "Thanks."
Student looks at his score and chuckles as I turn my back to look for the next student to return their work.
Me: "What was that for?"
Student: "Oh, nothing. Just an inside joke with myself."
(3/30/17)

Quote of the Day (high school)

Student 1: "Mister, did you ever do drugs?"
Me: "...Why would you ask me that?"
S1: "I just want to know what you were like when you were younger."
Me: "Finish your work then I'll answer that question."
[few minutes later]
S1: "I finished. What's the answer?"
Me: "No."
S1: "Aw. That's no fun. What was high school like when you were a student?"
Me: "All the textbooks were in black & white because color hadn't been invented yet."
S1: "Really! See? That's the kind of detail we would like to know about our teacher."
Me: "We used to write with a feather because we didn't have pens."
S1: "Wow. No wonder you keep all the pencils students leave behind, even the ones with no erasers."
Me: "History class was really short because there wasn't much that had happened yet."
S1 [to other students]: "Wait, why are you laughing? Did I miss something?"
Me: "We could walk to Europe because there was only one continent."
Student 2 [with a wink]: "Did you see any dinosaurs?"
S1: "What!? Oh! Wait! Mister, were you kidding this whole time?" (3/29/17)

Quote of the Day (twitch)

"Mister, she told me yours is her only class that makes her twitch?" - Confession from a high school student about her friend's perception of my class. When seeing the confused look on my face in regards to what she meant by twitching, she imitated her friend's reaction by making a strange facial tic that usually occurs when seeing a difficult question for the first time. (3/28/17)

Quote of the Day (prettier)

Student 1 (to Student 2): "Whoever finishes this question first is prettier."
Student 2 (to me): "Wouldn't it make more sense if it was for who was smarter?"
Me: "I don't know. [Student 1] seems to be farther along than you right now."
Student 1: "Yeah, so I'm smarter AND prettier. Right, Mister?" (3/17/17)

Quote of the Day (respect)

"My respect for you just went WAY up here." - Comment from a student coupled with tiptoes and a hand extension well above her head. This came after I responsed to her asking me if I liked dogs or cats better. (3/09/17)

Quote of the Day (advice)

Student 1 (just as her friend is about to finish her exam): "Don't forget to double check your work."
[pause]
Student 1 (reaching over to take her test back out of the tray where she had turned it in): "I guess I better take my own advice."
(3/15/17)

Quote of the Day (prom dress)

"My mom made a deal with me. She said if I could fit in my dress then I could go to prom. She told me that she didn't want to waste her money." - Comment from a high school senior after she had declined my offer of some of my food she had been eyeing. (3/14/17)

Quote of the Day (right thing)

"Argh! I'm so mad at people for doing the right thing." - Comment of frustration from a student who accidentally left her phone in the bathroom. Apparently, she found out that someone found the phone and brought it to a teacher. When she asked the teacher, she was told that one of that teacher's students recognized the phone and said they would return it to the owner. Somehow the good Samaritan and this student never crossed paths and now I had to deal with the aftermath (no pun intended). (3/13/17)

Quote of the Day (AP Calculus)

"I tried to explain what it was to my dad, but he didn't get it." - Part of one of my AP Calculus student's experience where something she saw on TV reminded her of a topic we covered in class. She continued, "I told him he didn't get it because he never took AP Calculus...and now I'm grounded." (3/10/17)

Quote of the Day (hair)

"Mister, I'm having a bad hair day." - Answer from a high school student after I asked her why she was having such a hard time doing some of her more basic calculations. (3/9/17)

Quote of the Day (bully)

"'Bully or be bullied.' That was our anti-bullying campaign...The teacher didn't really like that one." - Confession from a high school student after a short conversation about bullying at the end of class. (3/8/17)

Quote of the Day (acceptance)

Me: "Did you get accepted to [university name]?"
Student: "I did."
Me: "Congratulations. Wasn't that your first choice?"
Student: "No, it wasn't."
Me: "What!? I wrote you a recommendation for that school. I could've sworn you said it was your first choice."
Student: "It was, but I kept telling myself that it wasn't because I didn't think I could get in."
(3/7/17)

Quote of the Day (together)

"Well...a class that fails together stays together." - Statement from a high school student upon finding out that one of her classmate's test scores matched hers. (3/6/17)

Quote of the Day (mission)

"I'm going to make it my mission to find [student's name] a prom date." - Bold statement from a high school senior vowing to help her classmate. (3/3/17)

Quote of the Day (once upon a time)

"Once upon a time I used to like school." - Comment said with a sigh from a high school senior just as class ended and she was about to take a test in her next class. (3/2/17)

Quote of Day (choking)

"Mister, did you eat a peanut?" - Question from a high school student who unfortunately caught me choking from drinking my water too quickly. (3/1/17)