Of course, I appreciate all of my past school teachers. Here are just a couple of moments that I recall of the top of my head on this Wednesday1 evening.
My 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Okamoto back at Swain Elementary. She forced me to spend half an hour cleaning out my desk2 while the rest of the class was learning social studies on the day of Open House.3
Also to Mr. Petrilla back at Lexington, who for Algebra I4 in the eighth grade, gave us a conic sections bonus problem5 for homework that prompted me to ask my sister that afternoon to mute the TV in the next room for half an hour so that I could access that last four percent of my brain.6 To this day I still remember that being one of the most difficult problems I have ever completed.7
Oh by the way, it’s teacher appreciation week!8
Things heard this past week:
Student #2: He doesn’t really seem like the “goodie-bag” type of guy…
Me: I’m not really sure I know how to make a goodie bag…?
Student #3: Uh… you put goodies… in a bag!9
Also, after one of my classes found out my age:10
Student #1: The Cold War?
Student #2: The Great Depression?!12
Trying to manage this stretch run is a delicate act, to say the least. On one hand, we have a job to do13 yet on the other, most of the seniors have had one foot out the door since Spring Break.14 It’s like coaching a college athlete on a team that’s not making the playoffs during the last week of the regular season when they’ve already signed a big contract with the pros and they have little to play for aside from personal pride. Or something akin to landing a aircraft with two busted engines and bad weather in the middle of a cornfield. The balancing act is a constant game of choosing between the lesser of undesirable outcomes.
One week left until number five.15
- in a hectic week that I keep forgetting what day it is [↩]
- sitting in the floor with a waste basket next to me, pulling out old papers and tossing them into that bin. [↩]
- I remember the first ten minutes or so feeling shamefully awkward, and after that I just wanted to throw everything away. [↩]
- Not a typo. Algebra ONE. [↩]
- required completing the square for “x” and “y”! Crazy, right?! I still remember him saying that only one other person figured it out. To this day I wonder if that kid’s parents helped her out with that one… [↩]
- That day, it worked. [↩]
- Well, for its place in time. Along with perhaps the original TMNT and the sixth level of Ninja Gaiden on the NES. Oh, who can forget world 6-3 on the arcade version of Vs. Super Mario Bros:
[↩] - Which, again like last year, comes during the first week of AP testing and STAAR testing. That cannot be coincidence… [↩]
- Yes, thanks for the clarification :) [↩]
- which they somehow didn’t know yet [↩]
- I can’t even remember how I intended to finish this sentence. [↩]
- And this would be what earned the “Can’t make this stuff up” tag. All productivity essentially ceased after “The Great Depression”. There was no recovery from this one. [↩]
- especially with a week to go until the AP Exam [↩]
- or, arguably for some, much, much earlier. -_- [↩]
- And hanging on by a very thin thread. [↩]