They've found me

My sister told me that it would only be a matter of time before my students found my blog. I didn't believe her. Well, it has happened! Two of my Spanish 2 students found both my blogs last night (Hola Isabel y Catalina!).

These two girls were sad that they hadn't yet made the blog. One reason for that is that they are so well behaved and well adjusted that they don't ever do anything crazy. They will however go down in history as the two students most interested in Isadora. They ask if she's going to be coming to school every single day. I told them today that I'd post a list of all the things they've said to try to pursuade me.

In the earliest weeks of their campaign to get Isadora to visit:

Is Isadora coming today?
Is Isadora coming tomorrow?
She could stay all day! We would watch her during class and she could sleep in her crib over in the corner.

After I explained numerous times that school was not a place for Isadora because she has to nap so often:

She can miss one nap.
She can take her nap a little late.
She can take her nap a little early.
When does she nap?
Our class falls right in between her naps! You could bring her in just for our class and she could have lunch with us. Then, she could go back home.

Today we had a party in class to bid farewell to a student and I thought maybe Rob would like to bring her in since we weren't doing anything educational and I wanted to get these two off my back:

Give me your phone number. I'll call him. She HAS to come.

Huelga

One of my students is on strike. We had a run-in last week in which I admitted that I trusted another student more than he about whether or not something dirty had been written on a piece of paper. This kid is a joker so I, of course, trust his partner who is quiet and dignified. As soon as I said I trusted her more he announced, "That's it. I'm on strike from Spanish. I'm not trying any more." I thought he was kidding and so did everyone else. Well, two class periods later and he's still on strike! He's yet to bring posters and march around the room but I'm waiting...

Juanes

Juanes is my favorite singer. We do a couple of his songs every year. I make a lot of jokes about how he's my husband and the kids play along with my "star crush". Just a few weeks ago we did PowerPoint Presentations in class so I had my computer hooked up to a projector. It projected my monitor onto a big screen. I, of course, have a photo of Rob and Isadora as my background.

Student: Wait a minute, that's not Juanes!
Me: Oh no! You found me out, I'm not really married to Juanes!
Student: Not yet

The Wheel of Misfortune

Well, the school year is well underway. I've been trying to catch the kids doing crazy things so I could post here but there hasn't really been much to report. My craziest kids are in class first hour (which means they are too tired for any antics). And, two of the kids I could rely on for blog-worthy behavior don't take Spanish anymore.

I did hear something in the teacher's lounge the other day worth sharing. I think it is hilarious but you really have to keep in mind the fact that this was happening in the 70s and it was a different culture. One of my fellow teachers was talking about his high school physics teacher. If a kid misbehaved the guy would have the kids come after school to serve detention or they could spin the Wheel of Misfortune. This guy actually had a wheel with pie slices containing the alternate punishment to detention. I've done my best to describe the options below:

The Sin Box: It was a black wooden box big enough to fit in but not really big enough to fit all of your body inside. The teacher would take a wooden swatter and smack the front of the box really hard - too bad for you if you couldn't fit all the way in!

The Stocks: He actually had a real stocks and you spent the hour clamped in it. He had a table made to the appropriate height so the student could still take notes.

The Electric Chair: He rigged up a way to give the kids a slight shock using a metal pan, an old student desk, and a probe.

The Swat-Stick-a: The smack to the back side.

Free Space

My coworker said a lot of the kids chose to spin the wheel. They actually got a kick out of it! This might sound strange to people not still in high school but I can really see how high school kids would enjoy it. Especially because they never had to take one of the alternate punishments they could always just serve a detention.