Wednesday, April 23, 2008

My Daily Life

These are the kind of things that happen on a daily basis while working in a high school...

The other day during 9th grade Language Arts class, we were comparing the book, The Odyssey by Homer (after spending the last 2 months studying it), and the film version of the same book.

One student raised his hand and said, "Why didn't they just make the movie first and them write the book so they would match better?" The other teacher in the room and I didn't really know how to respond.

The other teacher recovered faster and said, "Does anyone have any ideas about that?"

Thankfully a more thoughtful student said, "When was it written?" To which we replied, "About 3000 years ago."

The first student sat there a couple seconds and said, "Oh, I understand...they didn't have movie cameras back then."

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Yesterday in class the student were all supposed to be silently reading; and most were doing well. I walked up to a student who was messing with his cell phone and asked him to please put it away. he looked and me and said, "Okay," but didn't put it away.

So, I stood there and again said, "Please put your phone away or I will have to take it." He kept right on texting away.

He said, "I have to finish this message." I think he was missing the point and that, in fact, he didn't need to finish his sentence or his message. He got really huffy with me and slammed the phone shut.

How did cell phones go from being a rarity 10 years ago to people not knowing how to live without them? Suddenly 31 days until my retirement doesn't seem too bad.

On a side note, parents please teach your children responsible cell phone usage when buying them cell phones.

7 comments:

Kers said...

You have put up with irritating teenagers so much longer than I ever could have. I love the sound of retirement. Can't wait to see you in the hot pink maternity suit :)

mini and brother said...

I still don't have one(a cell phone) and I can't understand what the big deal is about texting. It is so annoying to spend so much time just to say 2words.

When I read The Odyssey on your blog I thought you were doing a tribute to our old van.
I think you would have hated me in your class.

Kiki said...

Funny to me, frustrating to you!

That is our biggest lesson in our house, I keep telling Sage, no texting at dinner! It is so irritating.

Mikele said...

My kids aren't getting them. They'll just have to write notes in class like I did.

Mrs. Spice (Holly) said...

Cell phones to kids? Who came up with that idea? I mean why can't every family just have the family whistle. That's how we did it in my family. If my Dad needed to get a hold of us....he would venture to the general area where we were and do the family whistle. I should mention I can get very confused when I go to dog parks...

Carrie said...

Ahh ... 31 days til retirement. When I taught middle school, I LOVED it when a kid's phone would ring in class and it was their parent on the other end! Like they didn't know their kid was at school??? YIKES!

Kers said...

Hair pic please? :)