Student Quote of the Day

I have three best girl friends in one of my English classes. Ordinarily they drive me nuts with their incessant need to gossip about boys, shopping, and who knows what else, but every once in a while it's totally worth it. The thing that you need to know is that one of the girls, "Kelly" is bi-racial-

Kelly: Mrs. D, did you go tanning?

Me: Uuuuh..... no? I've never been tanning in my life.

Kelly: You look tanner than usual.

Me: Nope, I'm my usual pasty self.

Jennifer (to Kelly): Do you tan? You're always so dark.

Kelly: No, you idiot. I'm half black.

I had to walk away. Quickly. And go talk to another group. If I didn't, I'd have inadvertently laughed in poor Jennifer's face.

Because my job's not hard enough...

I've had a really bad week.

I'm used to challenges. I just wish they didn't decide to fall into my lap at once. Or be so emotionally charged. Let's just get to the point; this week I was diagnosed with lupus. It makes teaching interesting. Typing and writing is uncomfortable, but since it's been caught early it probably won't get any worse, or go into my organs (which means my sister can keep her kidney- she's thrilled). My students know, or at least know my hands hurt, so they're willing to help pass out papers and whatnot, which helps.

The harder challenge is that my mother-in-law, a woman I love dearly, has just been given a very grave diagnosis. To take this job, we moved 4 hours away, and part of me is wracked with guilt over that. We found out on a Friday, so I have to pray I can get through Monday without breaking down in front of my classes.

Student quote of the day

Teaching Speech isn't my forte. And the class I have is proving to be especially challenging; because it's an elective, they seem to think they don't have to do the work or can screw around and be disrespectful. the past two weeks have seen me approaching each class period with dread; however, today seemed to be a turning point. They were better behaved, more respectful, and overall made me feel much less homicidal than normal. We're talking about symbols and the meaning behind them. I gave them a worksheet that had the Twittter logo on it. Then this happened:

Mike: I hate Twitter.

Me: Me too. I never got the appeal.

Mike: The logo is like a backwards F.

Me: Oh, so it is. I never noticed that.

Mike: Yeah, it's like it's making fun of Facebook. And Mark Wahlberg.

Me: ::blink blink:: What does the Twitter logo have to do with Mark Wahlberg?

Mike: Didn't he invent Facebook or something?

Me: ZUCKERberg, dear. Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook.

Mike: Oh. I got my Bergs mixed up. I hear he's a douche. (turns to the German exchange student, Jon) Hey Jon, do you know anyone named Berg in Germany?

(Jon looks confused.)

Me: Berg is a suffix, Mike.

Mike (to Jon): Is there anyone with a name that ends in Berg in Germany?

Jon: There are eight million people in Germany. I'm sure there are a few.

So maybe this class doesn't suck.