Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Twinkers the Hermit Crab is Not Amused.

I know because he told me so.

The last few weeks have been busy as you probably would have guessed. Some amusing things have happened along the way, which I will share in no particular order.

I now have a new hermit crab in my classroom. I got a second crab because the first one, Isabella, seemed rather...crabby...since her cagemate died. She has perked up since Twinkers arrived. One of my students (and family friend of Todd) named the crab. The student's father said the name "Twinkers" isn't fancy enough to match the name "Isabella," which I agreed. So now we have Isabella and Prince Twinkers the Third residing in our classroom cage. All hail.

Inside jokes can go a long way in motivating students. My Algebra class wasn't being very productive lately, so in a fit of inspiration, I gave a few of them nicknames. One I dubbed Professor Bubba McPheely, and the another I named Cash Money. Cash really likes her new name and has started doing her work again. So has Bubba. Apparently the joy of writing their new names on their papers is all it took to get them started on their algebra.

Eighth graders really like classical music; they just don't know it yet. Right now they're working on their model bridges, and I've started to play a CD while they work to keep them calm. All I had in the room was classical piano music. At first they whined and complained and made fun of it, but after awhile I noticed that they were oddly quiet. Could it be that they were actually listening? Then the CD skipped a track and they complained! A few class periods later they started asking for play lists of the songs. I AM an evil genius.

Our wedding is in less than 3 weeks! I can't wait. Soon I'll be Mrs. How-the-heck-do-you-spell-that?!? I love my Toddly, even if he has the strangest last name. :)

1 comment:

Zaar said...

So hermit crabs actually talk, huh...

I think you need a red carpet under the cage for Prince Twinkers III :)