Monday, April 23, 2007

Thanks for trying...

Every single time I had a math test in high school I secretly hoped that I would walk into class and the teacher would say, "Surprise! No test today! I just wanted you to study and learn the material, and I knew telling you we had a test was the only way to ensure that you did."

Did it ever happen? I'll give you a hint...NO! (To set the record straight, my junior year finals were cancelled for a day due to a snow storm, but that one we can chalk up to divine intervention and not teacher generosity.)

But never, ever ever, would I have had the nerve to do what one of my students did yesterday. She walked into my classroom right after lunch, with a grin like she had just snuck into a second movie after the one she paid for finished, and said,
"I have bad news. You aren't going to like it, but you can't do anything about it. Well, you will just have to accept it, but..."
I was going for mock shock, but I think I accidentally a heard of elephants from my eyes to trample her instead.
"It's about the math test. None of us are ready, and we don't want to take the test."
This is the point where I asked her where she was going to be seventh period. In math class? Well, yes. Problem solved.

Also, a different student returned a book that I leant to her, First They Killed My Father. She clandestinely left it on my desk with this post-it note:
Thank you for the book! I really x 1000000 enjoyed it. P.S. Sorry for making it Dirty.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is that book about? Can I borrow it?

Anonymous said...

wow...i can't believe it. btw, thanks for blogging so much recently...it's been a treat reading all your entries. -Alice

Anonymous said...

Who asks to borrow a book but then doesn't say who they are?
-Paul

Katherine Adams said...

I love the note--it makes my librarian heart happy!

Katherine Adams said...

Also, I always used to hope that the "surprise! no test!" thing would happen in Physics. I seem to recall that Dr. Lamb told a story on the first day, to encourage us to always bring our calculators to class, that implied that one day he would pretend we had a test just to check that we had our calculators. I pretty much hinged every test taking venture on the hope that this would be the day when all I needed to do was bring my calculator. Sadly, this never actually happened.