Quote of the Day (better)

"Well, at least I did better than I did on the last test right?" - A high school student's optimism after seeing a dismally low score on a retake of an exam. In reality he scored 5% worse than the first time he took it. (4/30/13)

Quote of the Day (vegetarian)

"HELLO!? He can't eat meat; he's a vegetarian." - Scolding from a high school student when one of her friends offered me a taste of her kalbi plate. Her friend believed the story and turned to me and asked if it was true. I replied it was against my religion to which her friend continued, "Yeah, he's Korean; Koreans don't eat meat." So now one of my students thinks that Korean is my religion and that all Koreans are vegetarians despite the fact that she was offering me a taste of her Korean short ribs. (4/29/13)

Quote of the Day (notes)

"Don't worry. I'll remember." - Comment from a high school student after I advised her to write down a reminder to herself not to change the exponents when subtracting monomials (8x^2 - 4x^2). Any guesses who asked 5 minutes later if they needed to change the exponents when adding 4x and 2x? (4/26/13)

Quote of the Day (proof)

"What if I could just see the answer?" - Question from a student who was upset that she didn't get full credit on her assignment for not showing her work. I accepted the challenge and gave her "another" question. The complaining stopped as she couldn't produce an answer from the exact same question from her incomplete homework assignment. (4/25/13)

Quote of the Day (ACT)

"I later found out they only finished 20 questions and then quit." - Comment from a high school student who was amazed that she was one of the last ones still working on a section of the ACT that all 11th graders were required to take. The state awarded ACT Inc. $882,000 for their testing services this year. (4/24/13)

Quote of the Day (Sevens)

"Was it because it happened in 1877?" - Question from a high school student after I informed him that the 7 windows on the Arizona Memorial represent the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor. (4/18/13)

Quote of the Day (punches)

"I hate today! I got like 40 punches already." - Comment of exasperation from a high school student whose birthday was today. (4/22/13)

Quote of the Day (observation)

"Mister, did we pass?!" - Question from a student in the class that was observed the previous day. (4/19/13)

Quote of the Day (show)

"Oh! I was wondering why you were asking so many questions today." - Overheard from a high school student after her peer admitted that he had been participating in class more than usual to help me look better in front of the group who came to observe my class. (4/18/13)

Quote of the Day (difficulty pt. 2)

"This is going to take FOREVER." - Complaint from a high school student filling out the personal interest questionnaire part of the ACT test booklet. He hasn't even started taking the actual test yet. (4/17/13) [Yes, this is from the same student as: http://bakabreath.blogspot.com/2013/04/quote-of-day-difficulty.html]

Quote of the Day (review)

"Do you have a review sheet for the review sheet?" - Question from a high school student who intended to ask for the answer key to the review sheet. (4/16/13)

Quote of the Day (sure)

"I'm pretty sure I turned this in." - Slightly confrontational declaration from a student who saw that she had an assignment missing. A few minutes later, she had a sheepish grin and apologized with the ungraded assignment in hand. (4/15/13)

Quote of the Day (sailboat)

"I didn't know how to do it so I drew a sailboat instead." - Explanation from a high school student after I pointed out the curious doodle on his exam. (4/12/13)

Quote of the Day (pen)

"Oh, don't worry. I won't make a mistake." - Promise from a high school student who refused to use a pencil on his test. He made two huge errors and is now forced into the dilemma of trying to neatly correct them and risk missing the points if it becomes illegible or leave them alone and miss at least 10 points because he did two problems incorrectly. (4/11/13)

Quote of the Day (difficulty)

"THIS IS SO HARD!" - Exclamation from a high school junior who was expressing his disdain for filling out the bubbles on an ACT answer sheet. The test hadn't started yet; he was filling out the bubbles for his name. (4/10/13)

Quote of the Day (last)

"♪ I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away. ♪" - Line sung by a high school student after he declared that he was one his "last question". (4/9/13)

Quote of the Day (beard)

"Mister, did you ever think about growing a beard?" - A high school student pointing to her chin in the middle of class. (4/8/13)

Quote of the Day (year)

"Is that from 1901?" - Question from a high school student after her friends said they were looking through a yearbook from the Class of '01. (4/4/13) 

Quote of the Day (literacy)

"And Ralph was just standing there for two whole pages." - Excited chatter from a high school student passionately discussing what was happening in her reading of Lord of the Flies. (4/3/13)

Quote of the Day (grade)

"But it's a good grade right?" - Response from a student after I told her I didn't know her grade off the top of my head. If I don't know it, how could I know if it's good? (4/2/13)