Quote of the Day (Mililani)

Student 1: “Mister, what side of the island are you from?”
Me: “Hau...um, What side of the island do you THINK I’m from?”
Student 1 [with no hesitation]: “Mililani.”
Me: “Wow. That’s a pretty racially loaded answer.”
Student 1 [getting defensive]: “What!? No, I didn’t mean it like that.”
Me: “So what did you mean?”
Student 2: “At least she didn’t say ‘Iolani’.”
Me: “That’s not a side of the island.”
Student 1 [trying to backtrack]: “No, I mean, like, Miss [teacher name who is of a different race] is from Mililani too so...”
Student 3 [from the back of the room]: “Mililani!? Isn’t that where all the smart Asians are from?” (4/9/18)

Quote of the Day (college)

Senior 1: “I hate college. It’s making me so stressed.”
Senior 2: “I know, right? And we’re not even in it yet.” (4/9/18)

Quote of the Day (breathing)

Student 1 [to Student 2 in the middle of a test]: “Argh! Stop it!”
Me: “What’s going on? Is everything OK?”
Student 1: “Mister, it’s her breathing. It’s so loud. I can’t focus. It’s distracting me.”
Me: “You do realize that by yelling about it, you’re now distracting everyone, right?”
Student 1: “Yeah, but her brother does it to. [mimics heavy breathing] I worry about them. It sounds so unhealthy.” (4/5/18)

Quote of the Day (test)

Student 1: “Hey! Didn’t we already take this test? I could’ve sworn we did this already.”
Student 2: “NO! Hello? The tests all have the same format so they look the same.”
Student 1 [ignoring her friend’s rational explanation]: “Hmm. Maybe I dreamt that I already took this test.” (4/4/18)

Quote of the Day (Thursday)

Student: “Mister, is the test Thursday and Friday?”
Me: “What does it say on the board?”
Student: “I know. It says it’s ‘tomorrow and Friday’.”
Me: “What day is it tomorrow?”
Student: “Oh... Thursday.” (4/4/18)

Quote of the Day (letter)

“Mister, did you get that letter that was handed out yesterday?” - Question from a high school student regarding a letter that was sent home with every student detailing a worrisome account of a group of students that were approached by a stranger on campus after school. When I answered his question and told him that I handed out all of the letters, he gleefully exclaimed, “That was me! I was in that group [of students].” (4/3/18)

Quote of the Day (power)

Student 1 [as class ended just minutes after the power went out]: “Bye Mister! Have a good weekend.”
Student 2: “Weekend!? It’s only Monday.”
Student 1: “Oh, right. Sorry. When the power goes off, my brain goes off.” (4/2/18)

Quote of the Day (confused)

"I can't help it. I feel like if I'm not confused, I'm not doing it right." - Comment from a high school student in one of my Calculus classes after she second guessed her answer on a simple calculation. (3/29/18)

Quote of the Day (best/worst)

"I have been coming in to get extra help and do any corrections. My grade is still an F. Is there anything else I can do? I've been doing my best." - Comments of concern from a high school student early in the morning before school started. A few hours later I returned two incomplete homework assignments to the same student. When I confronted him about it, he replied, "Sorry, I was being lazy and just didn't feel like doing them." Now I know what to say when he asks me to help him raise his grade later this year. (3/27/18)

Quote of the Day (concession)

Student [entering class after Spring Break]: "You were right."
Me: "?"
Student: "Remember how you told me to keep working on my assignment on the last day of school so I wouldn't have to do it over break?"
Me: "Oh, now I remember."
Student: "And do you remember how I didn't want to do it and said I would just do it over the break?"
Me: "I do. I also remember saying that it wouldn't happen."
Student [sighing]: "I know. You were right." (3/27/18)

Quote of the Day (top secret)

Background: Partly as a social experiment, but mostly as a joke, I labeled a file folder as “Mister Hwang’s Personal Files. Do Not Open”. I also wrote “TOP SECRET” in bright red and included a note to mind your own business inside the folder. I then left the folder out in an area near my desk before class started. Here are two reactions that happened within just a few minutes of leaving the folder out.

Student 1 [upon opening the folder and reading my note]: “Oh! Was I not supposed to open this?”

Student 2: “What’s in here? What if it’s Mr. Hwang’s grades? Argh! I want to open it, but it says ‘Do Not Open’.”
I conveniently turn away.
Student 2: “It’s so intriguing!”
Several students laugh signifying the opening of the folder. (3/16/18)

Quote of the Day (cheating)

Student 1 [to Student 2]: “I heard that your class got caught cheating on your [subject name] exam.”
Student 2: “It’s so dumb.”
Student 1: “[Teacher name] found out because someone took a picture of the exam and sent it to everybody.”
Student 2: “I know! You know how [teacher name] found out? They took a picture of [student name]’s test. He doesn’t even know what he’s doing, so everyone was copying the wrong answers.”
Student 1: “That’s so stupid. Why do people even need to cheat? The test was even open notes.”
(3/15/18)

Quote of the Day (pie)

“Hey Mister, where’s our pie?” - Question from a high school student on Pi Day. (3/14/18)

Quote of the Day (lunch)

“Wow! Thanks Mister. I’m going to come in here for lunch everyday.” - Comment from a high school student after I shared some of my food with her and another student. (3/12/18)

Quote of the Day (girlfriend)

“Mister, who is that?” - Question from a high school student who walked in while I was watching a video of a female hiker being interviewed on camera. The student continued her interrogation, “Is that your girlfriend?” (3/12/18)

Quote of the Day (fire drill)

Student 1: “Yesterday’s fire drill was so cold!”
Student 2: “Yeah! I was freezing out there.”
Student 1: “If there was an actual fire it would’ve been like, ‘Nope! It’s too cold.’ Then put itself out.” (3/9/18)

Quote of the Day (Hocus Pocus)

Me [to a student laughing near the end of class]: “Be nice. Stop laughing at [student name]’s mistake.”

Student: “Oh! No, I wasn’t laughing at her.”

Me: “So what were you laughing at?”

Student: “I was just laughing at something that I thought of. It’s not even funny. I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

Me: “No, you can’t do that to me. You can’t tell me to wait that long.”

Student: “OK. You know how the plural of focus is foci [pronouncing it fəʊ.kaɪ]?”

Me: “And?”

Student: “And do you know that movie Hocus Pocus? Well, I was just thinking that if they made another one they could call it Hoci Poci.”

Quote of the Day (mixtape)

“That’s Mister Hwang’s mixtape.” - Comment from a student just after the fire alarm sounded near the end of class. (3/5/18)

Quote of the Day (fire alarm)

Student 1 [after a fire alarm suspiciously sounds right before school was to end]: “Mister, how do they know if it’s a false alarm or a real fire.”
Student 2: “They’re probably like ‘*sniff sniff* Oh! It’s a false alarm.’” (3/5/18)

Quote of the Day (M)

Student: "OK, I just sent it to you."
Me: "I don't see it. What address did you send it to?"
Student: "mhwang@..."
Me: "M?! What does the m stand for?"
Student [starts laughing to himself]: "Oh, I thought your first name was Mister." (3/1/18)