Quote of the Day (request)

“It would be great if you could give it to [student name] on Tuesday morning.” - Ending to a polite letter of recommendation request from a parent of one of my students. It was sent Sunday night; I didn’t receive it till Tuesday morning. (5/29/18)

Quote of the Day (phone)

Student [bursting into my empty classroom after school]: “Hi Mister!”
Me: “Congratulations on your graduation.”
Student: “Thanks. I just wanted to come and say hi.”
She then produces something she had been clutching tightly in her hands since she entered.
Student [beaming]: “Look! I got a phone! My mom and dad gave it to me for graduation.” (5/25/18)

Quote of the Day (death battle)

Student: “Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you we had a Death Battle in our class the other day.”
Me: “Death Battle?”
Student: “Yeah, it’s a debate to see who would win? And guess what!? It was you versus Mr. Lau.”
Me: “So who won?”
Student: “You did! It was because you could calculate all his moves and avoid them.”
Thanks...I think. (5/24/18)

Quote of the Day (bird)

“Mister! Did you know that [teacher name] brought their pet bird to class today?” - Question from a high school student during the last period of the day. (5/23/18)

Quote of the Day (pig)

“If I ever get married, I want to have my wedding there.” - Comment from a high school student after learning about a beach in the Bahamas that is populated by a community of feral pigs. She continued, “One of the pigs could be my ring bearer!” (5/22/18)

Quote of the Day (motto)

Student gets frustrated while working through a tough problem and eventually finds success.
Me: “See! You give up to easily.”
Student: “But that’s my motto.” (5/21/18)

Quote of the Day (stairs)

“Ugh. I’m not going to miss those.” - Comment from a high school senior on her last day of school as she pointed to the stairs she had just climbed. (5/18/18)

Quote of the Day (exam)

Me: “Hey! You’re back! How was your [AP] test?”
Student: “It’s over.” (5/17/18)

Quote of the Day (schedule)

“Mister, do you know what today’s schedule is? I’m so confused. I asked Miss [teacher name] and even she didn’t know.” - Frantic question from a high school senior in regards to our change of schedule for an assembly. Both the assembly and its required schedule change were communicated to teachers at 10:30 pm the previous day. (5/16/18)

Quote of the Day (minds)

Student 1 suggests something that he could’ve done to finish his work sooner.
Me: “That’s a great idea. That’s what [student name] did, and she’s been done for a long time.”
Student 1: “Great minds think alike...too bad I don’t use mine.” (5/15/18)

Quote of the Day (sisters)

Dialogue between a current student and her sister, a former student. The current student climbed all the way up to my class on the third floor to tell me this during recess.
Current: "Guess who my math teacher is this year?"
Former: "I don't know. Who?"
Current: "Mr. Hwang!"
Former: "Oh my gosh! That was my teacher too. Did he tell you how good of a student I was in his class?"
Current: "Uh...no. He said all you did was sit in the back and talk."
Former: "NO! Correction, I sat in the front and talked." (5/14/18)

Quote of the Day (mean)

A few weeks ago, a student used an empty can of almonds to make a prank by writing “Free. Help yourself.” on it and leaving it in plain sight on my desk.
Student 1 [peering into the empty almond can and frowning]: “That’s so mean!”
Student 1 [turning to Student 2, smiling and handing her the can]: “Hey! Do you want some almonds!” (5/8/18)

Quote of the Day (ulcer)

“The other day I saw a sentence in my biology book. I want to make it my senior quote.” - Comment from a high school student after class ended. The sentence she found so amusing was, “Todd has a peptic ulcer.” (5/10/18)

Quote of the Day (marriage)

Student 1: “Ugh. Miss drives me crazy.”
Student 2: “Yeah, she seems so angry all the time.”
Student 3: “Maybe she just needs a husband.”
Student 2: “*gasp* What about Mister!?”
All three students turn to look at me. (5/2/18)

P.S. - I only caught the tail end of their conversation so please don’t ask me the name of the teacher they were talking about.

Quote of the Day (chair)

“Mister, why do you always pull up your chair when you answer my questions? Is it because you think it’ll take a long time?” - Query from a high school student who struggles with a lot of basic concepts during my last class of the day. (5/8/18)

Quote of the Day (March)

“Oh wow. We took this back in March.” - Comment from a high school student attempting to do some last minute make-up work before tomorrow’s deadline. She continued, “I can’t remember what to do. I guess I should’ve come in earlier.” (5/7/18)

Quote of the Day (philosopher)

Student: “I think I want to be a philosopher, but I don’t think I can.”
Me: “Why not?”
Student: “Because I’m too loud.” (5/4/18)

Quote of the Day (studying)

“Wow! You’re actually studying? That’s a surprise.” - Comment from one high school student to a classmate who rarely does anything beyond the bare minimum to get the grade that he wants. (5/3/18)

Quote of the Day (scaling)

“You know how they say that if you’re doing good the questions are supposed to get harder?” - Opening of a high school student’s confession regarding the scaling difficulty of a standardized test she just took. She continued, “None of my questions were getting harder.” (4/30/18)

Quote of the Day (voice)

Senior 1: “When you get your voice back, it’s gonna be as loud as [loud teacher]’s!”
Senior 2: “Yeah, when it comes back you have to record yourself singing Alma Mater [school song] and post it so we can all hear your real voice.” (5/1/18)