Fun like this is reason #552 why I Love my Job:

Physics-related Email from Student:
Hello Ms. SG!  This is probably going to sound very odd but as I was doing my homework I had a really odd question.  For the sake of the question let's just say people are able to move things with their minds.  Because you could move things with a force (brain) and a distance (meters and whatnot), would that technically be work if the object was moving in a plausible situation?  If so, how would you measure said force?

Again I realize that this has nothing to do with the quiz tomorrow, but I was studying and I couldn't get that question out of my head.  If you could reply back it would be highly appreciated.  Thank you so much! ~Crissy


My reply:
Hi Crissy, great question!  I know the answer, and I am going to send it to your pencil with my mind.  Please lay a pencil on a sheet of paper in front of you.  I will send the answer to your pencil and the pencil will write my reply onto the paper.  Watch for it ... it'll go slowly, so you might not have the full reply until 2-3 AM.  Make sure you watch the pencil the entire time because if you leave the room or even take your eyes off of it, the pencil will erase what it has written and start over.  :) Ms SG

Reason #161 Why I Love My Job:

Jasper was sad that my test didn't have any extra credit 

... so he made his own!

Reason #876823683 why I love my job:

Poor Allie was caught chewing gum in school. In lieu of serving hard time, she opted to write gum haiku. A much better choice, don't you agree?

Chewing gum is not
a good plan when you're in school
you might get caught, Whoops!

Oh, PS i am
Chewing gum at this moment
it is very good

Ok now I will
say goodbye because I have
to eat dinner, Peace.

ps ... why the gum-chewing rule? Does anyone care anymore?

Reason # 43543 why I love my job:

Every year my students suffer through 2 weeks of standardized testing, known as the CMT. This year I asked them to post their CMT Practice Test with triumph (on the fridge, on a bulletin board, etc.)and send photographic evidence for extra credit. Well, I got some pretty great photos ... but this one by far takes the cake:

BEST CMT PHOTO

Do you feel encouraged to turn in your 8th grade baby picture and quote representing your philosophy in life, by viewing this poster?

Reason #313 why I Love my Job

... because of what Allie wrote in her "hint box" on my recent physics quiz ...

This is the best thing I have ever seen.

Dallas School Districts

Opening Convocation

(delivered by a 3rd grader)

I love my job, part 2

One of my students baby-sits for Neil Armstrong's grandkids. One of them told her that they were in school one day, and in class they did a jigsaw puzzle of his Pop-Pop. He has no idea why. (He's only four). That is so cute.

I love my job.

We were doing concept maps about our pre-knowledge of space/astronomy. Note how "God" is listed under Space People (along with Luke Skywalker and Galileo, among others) and how he "lives in" Heaven, grouped under The Unknown Universe (along with the Big Bang).

Really, my work is done here. What can I possibly have left to tell them??

Reason # 813 why I love my job:

Anonymous pop-up smiley cards, left for me to find.

Reasons #297 and #298 why I love my job:

Universal truths,

randomly placed

by the hands of the young:

Creative freedom:

Our science tables were so trashed that they needed a paint job; I asked the principal for permission to paint them. We laid the base color in October and have finally gotten around to putting the animal prints on. Yesterday we started the giraffe; I projected the print onto the screen so kids could see how it should look. One tiger is also finished. There will also be cheetah and zebra. Only 10 tables to go!!!

A LiveBlogging Experience:

Kids entering the classroom on the first school day after my classroom roommate got fired.

Where is Ms. Miller?
(awkward silence)
Ummm, she is out today, she had a family thing.

Woah, Ms. Miller's desk is all cleared off.
Yeah, umm, we are doing like a desk-switch fall cleaning thing. Boy, am I getting dusty. Does anyone else hate dust as much as I do? (deflect deflect deflect)

Do we have a sub?
Yes, it's Mr. Zapliski.

OK, he's cool. Where's Ms. Miller?
...

Hey Ms. G, is Ms. Miller out today?
Yup, she had a family thing. Get your notebooks out everyone! (cheerful smile)

Where's Ms. Miller?

She's out today. She had a family thing. (how many times do I say this before it starts to sound fake?)

Are you our sub?

Nope, it's Mr. Zapliski. I'm just starting the class until he gets here.

Woah, this rooms looks empty!

Yup, we're doing some cleaning.

Is there a sub for Ms. Miller?

Yup, it's Mr. Zapliski.

Where's Ms. Miller?

(She got her ass fired, OK? She wasn't any good, and she was incompetent, and you should be fucking grateful! Jesus Christ!!! Now take out your notebooks and watch fucking Mythbusters, OK?!?!?!?!?)

She's out today.

Repeat above cycle 25 times.

Reason #998 Why I Love My Job

This school year, I give a prize to kids who come up with the best way to use recycling in the completion of their homework; I thus accept homework done on cereal boxes, soup cans, old worksheets, newspaper, etc.

Christopher took it one step further today:

The Quaintville Name Quiz

See how well you do guessing the nicknames kids use here in Quaintville. You will be astounded and amazed when you take the ...

Names at Quaintville

Middle School Quiz

Reason #577 Why I Love My Job

... this conversation (today):

Sarah: Guess what, Miss S! I am psychic.

Me: Oh really?

Sarah: Yup.

Me: So ... what am I thinking right now?

Sarah: You're thinking, "I wonder if she's really psychic."

The less I write, the less I have to say. The more I write, well ... we shall see.

It's a strange phenomenon that the less time I give myself for writing, the less I have to say, and the less I want to write. But something in me drives me to want to write more, and unblock these obstacles that pile up in front of me. Stephen King, in On Writing, says that we should write every day to keep the instrument limber; you won't write a masterpiece everyday, but you have to show up at the page for the muse to know you mean business. Getting together with Leigh Yung Li always helps, and on one of our recent slumber parties I quickly came up with 7-8 stories I could tell, including how Brad the Clown once flipped a blueberry pie upside down. This is a tale for another day... or best left buried, before the angry demons awake? For now, I am simply showing up.

School ended.

It was an intensely busy time, but one of the highlights includes this letter that I got from My Little Percy, the most amazing student:

... and these shoes from Ashe, which you may remember from an earlier post. The boy outgrew them, and thought I might like them as a parting gift to remember him by. They now reside on my fireplace, and smell only very faintly of his little Indian feet.

My house occupies a largish chunk of my time ... mowing, trying to fix my botched paint job in the yoga room, growing small vegetables and trying to beautify the backyard for gatherings.

Something is dead under my shed; I smell it, I see the flies. I refuse to look. Three baby birds fallen from their nest in the front yard are covered with those same green-bottle flies. I refuse to look. I hear the flies, buzzing. There is a smell.

I joined a gym, finally, a commitment that is long overdue for my out-of-shape body. I felt I needed some physique intervention. It came in the form of Matt, who is 6'4" tall, 1% body fat, and expensive. Twice a week for an hour he kicks my ass, and I come back for more. I am starting to feel muscles in places where I forgot I had places. This is so much better than Curves, where all I learned was whose daughter got accepted to which college. I forgot how good sweating can feel. My favorite part of the gym is the shower. They have the best soaps. I haven't showered in my own house for about two weeks.

Sitting at the computer feels like work. I read email sometimes. Sometimes I make lolcats, like this one from my sister's house:

I know Todd loves these.

In a week I leave for choir camp, but I'll try to post something every day until then. Just showing up at the page; no promises of brilliance, OK? I can't live up to that. I can barely fucking walk.

And in August, well ... am I allowed to say, you guys? Or should I wait until after? I don't want to let the simian out of the bag too early. Let's just say a very exciting blog reunion is brewing.

Oh, and about the blog frolic? I'm working on it. Fuckspot.com refused to "save as draft" even though I am hitting "save now" and "ctrl-D" like they tell me to, but all I get is the silent hourglass and a blank stare.

Carry on. See you tomorrow.

Reason # 3341 why I love my job.

Carmina did a science project on the elasticity of Gummy Bears as affected by their temperature. Here are the illustrations in her formal report:

I could not be more in love with the side views of the Gummy Bears. Especially the stretched-out one. Could you?!?!?!

Reason #17 Why I Love My Job

Missy wrote a paper about an experiment she conducted comparing the relative upper-body strengths of males and females (with a baseball vs. softball debate as the foundation). In the Real Life Applications portion of her abstract, she wrote the following:

Bonus points to any student who mentions an obscure Baltic sport in her final science paper!!! A+!!!

Reason # 34 why I love my job.

Katie was worried this nicotine patch stuck to her shoe could absorb through the sole and make her addicted to nicotine. How cute is that? I told her not to touch it, peeled it off with plastic gloves, then threw it out (after I went in the back room and licked it a few times ... oh, Dark Mother, once again I suckle at your smoky teat!)

It's best the kids don't get hooked too early, and have to face the Beast at such tender age. The Beast we all come to know, that hungry demon that breathes on our neck in the night and claws us to succumb to the seductive power of the chemical world.

Oh, Monster!!!

I might be making too much of this; after all, she just had some trash stuck on her shoe. I'm OK.

Reason #1212 why I love my job

Billy got a haircut. A buzz cut.

So Sean, Sean, Chris, and Taeke

took turns "teeing off" on his new turf.

I had to take a picture.

See other reasons I love my job by clicking the label below!