Pearls of Teenage Wisdom

I spent this entire weekend grading papers.  It feels great to be caught up on my work, but it felt better to chuckle at some of my students' delightful missteps:

One student meant to write that one character was "proving" something to another.  Instead, she wrote that the character was "probing" him.  Ouch!  I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that typo.

Another meant to write on a vocabulary quiz that his "squalid bedroom is covered with dirty wrappers," but instead wrote that his "squalid bedroom is covered in dirty rappers."  In his defense, I have heard that Snoop Dogg can be quite filthy.

2BBLESS

I recently saw a second in what seems to be a new series on ridiculous license plates.  They're just so self-serving and perplexing.  I'm as mystified by the people who choose to display such vanity as I am by the puzzling plates themselves.

This plate read "2BBLESS," and it has had me perplexed ever since.

Was the driver telling us to frequent bed and breakfasts less frequently?

Does she enjoy a place called "Bobbles," and does she want to go there?

Or, as was my first instinct, is she just too boobless?

Hatin' on Howard

I teach in Baltimore County, considered by many to be the consolation prize to teaching in Howard County.  Many families prefer Howard County as well, paying more in property taxes for schools that come with a slightly better reputation.

I'm very proud to teach in Baltimore County, and I'm especially proud of my high school and its feeder schools.  Understandably, I get a little defensive when people imply that Howard County Schools are in any way superior.  So I felt somewhat vindicated about a week ago when I left a Speech tournament at a Howard County high school and saw this sign at the middle school across the street:

I don't know if I would trust a conferenc with one of their teachrs.  It also didn't help Howard County's case that the house across the street was proudly waving not one, but two, Confederate flags.

The Beginning of the End

I begin the last semester of my Master's degree this week.  In fact, I began writing this post while sitting in a course called "Applications of Multimedia."  Yes, it's that challenging.

In the days before this course began, our instructor sent us an email with directions to our class.  She gave us the wrong room number, and I ended up in the same room where I had my very first class at Notre Dame.  I talked with that class's instructor and learned that she was teaching that same course that began my journey over two years ago.

When I found my way to the correct classroom downstairs and settled in, I thought of the people in the classroom upstairs, beginning the same journey to teacher certification and advanced degree that I started in that same room.  I was envious of the excitement and anticipation they were likely feeling, but I wouldn't have traded places with them for anything.