Random Thought Thursday 2-19-09

Add another page to the Encyclopedia of Common Knowledge:
You can tell the ones who smoke pot because they have really skinny arms right here (forearm), and they are covered with dark black hair.

I picked up that little gem this afternoon, after students from a class not my own came around passing out surveys for their science project. As you might guess, the survey was all about weed. I would not have approved it, just because the ones who like to do this sort of survey are in fact glorifying the usage of the substance. Kids who don't do it don't think of a project about it. They did, however, get it approved through the office to pass out such a survey. That's a step in the right direction, but don't tell me the drug dog won't be barking at their lockers first.

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After the kerfluffle over the science project board that two kids bought and wrote their names on and then took a brand-spankin'-new one and glued their stuff on...I have a leftover board with two names on the back. The original buyers ain't complainin', because they didn't buy. I don't hold it against them. They don't even know it has two names on it. Times are tough. Not every kid and his partner can chip in $2.50 apiece for a science board. They brought in a cardboard box today that they had already spray-painted.

I have another group who has worked really, really, hard on their project. It could hold its own at the local junior college science fair. They are planning on entering. They also brought in a cardboard box. It is a sad sight. Some boxes look OK. This one is too small, and raggedy, and floppy. They won't have room on it to glue all their data tables and graphs and whatnot. I have that extra board that I am going to give them, because their project is too good to go to college in a raggedy box. I can eat $5. That's how I roll.

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Neither of my boys qualified for the conference spelling bee this year. They were disappointed, what with both of them qualifying last year. The #1 son spelled 'belligerent' with one L. The Pony added and extra N to 'general'. I'm sure his was a nervous tic. He has a bit of a stammer. I can't say that I am disappointed. They both are doing well in the grade department according to their progress reports. I signed The Pony's and sent it back, but he has something like 4 A and 3 A-. The #1 son's came in the mail today. He had 7 A and 1 A-. DARN THAT LANGUAGE ARTS TEACHER! Just kidding. Good to see that he got an A in homeroom.

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Here's another one from the "It's Free, So Take It" Files: Today I caught a kid drawing on a Puffs with Lotion tissue that I provide for my classroom, out of my own deep pockets. I don't mind a kid blowing his nose. I don't mind a kid asking to take a few tissues with him because his next class doesn't have any. I hate seeing kids grab a roll of school-issue toilet paper off a teacher's desk to rip some off and blow his nose. That's subhuman. That stuff doesn't even have sections, for cryin' out loud. But I'll be darned if I will let a student take my tissue to use for drawing. That's where I draw the line. It came to my attention because another dear one said, "Hey, where'd you get the napkin?" That is kid-talk for, "Hey, there's some free stuff here and I'm gonna get my share!" You have to be careful, because before you know it, those kids will be swiping tissues willy-nilly and making crowns and such out of them.

I know I sound like a crotchety old hag, but I buy about 12 boxes of tissues a year. Plus the colored paper and the odd consumables for my lab activities and ink cartridges for my HP Deskjet 940C and treats for my advisory students every two weeks with more stuff for holidays, and, well, that stuff adds up to more than that teacher tax deduction of $250 per year that we probably don't even have on this year's tax forms. I wouldn't know, because I haven't looked at them yet. But I don't like people wasting my stuff!

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Now I've gone and made myself too cranky to continue.