Was Socrates Ripped?

I overheard this fantastic discussion the other day. One of my students was reading a book about Socrates. A classmate of his saw the artistic representation of Socrates on the cover and disputed his appearance.

"There's no way Socrates looked like that."
"Why not?"
"He was an old man. No old man looks like that."
"Some old men do. If they work out they are really cut."
"There's just no way! That was a long time ago."
"People worked out a lot back then. Plus, they had more physical jobs so they were probably just more muscular."
"But, look at him! That's not just muscular - he's ripped!"
"He's cut, he's not ripped."
"Well, whatever. Plus, he was a teacher. They didn't have dumb bells back then."
"But, I'm sure they lifted rocks or something."
"Oh, I'm sure he didn't go home and lift rocks!"

Are you pregnant?

I am almost 5 months pregnant with my 2nd child. I told my students that I was pregnant about 2 months ago. I've been wearing maternity clothes for at least 6 weeks. I had a wonderful conversation with one of my students today that I wanted to share.

student (quietly, as is asking me something I may not want to answer: Are you pregnant?
me: Yes. You knew that. I told you a couple months ago.
student: Yeah, but I thought you were kidding.
me (laughing): Really?
Student: How pregnant are you?
me: About 5 months.
Student (shocked): And you just found out?!
me: No, you just found out. I've known for about 5 months.

DDR

My Spanish 4 does silent reading every week. They earned a party by all reading at least 10 books. When we were planning the party one of the students asked if we could get the popcorn machine because, "It's kind-of been a dream of mine."

They brought cakes and treats to share. I brought in my PlayStation and my Dance Dance Revolution. I didn't really know if they'd like to play but they have created a tournament out of the whole thing. They are having a really good time. This is the sort of thing I'd like to have everyone see. People wouldn't think so poorly of teenagers if they could see them doing this.

A compliment you'll rarely hear

I was talking with the 5th grade teacher the other day when two of her students walked up to her.

girl to 5th grade teacher: "You're pretty."
teacher: "Thank you. You are pretty, too."
girl to me: "You're pretty, too. You have purple-y glasses."
me: "You have purple-y glasses, too! How nice!"
other girl to me: "I like your teeth."

enter night

I know it's been a long time since I posted anything. A few weeks ago my Spanish 3 class was listening to music and commenting on it. I provided the first songs and then had them bring in their own. It had to be a song that they either loved or hated. Most were current songs but a couple kids brought in songs that really surprised me. Enter Sandman (Metallica) and Sweet Child of Mine (Guns N Roses)!

Timbaland vs. Timberland

We sing a song every day in my class. The new song comes out on Monday and we translate it. A couple weeks ago we sang "Pobre Diabla" by Don Omar. At one point he says, "Eliel" and my students wanted to know what that was. I didn't know at the time so I guessed that I thought it might be his producer. They looked at me funny so I gave them the example of how Missy Elliott talks about Timbaland in her songs. They all burst out laughing. I couldn't tell what they were laughing about - is it because I'm 30? I'm their teacher and shouldn't know anything about Missy Elliott? Two students (probably laughing harder than anyone) got pretty indignant and said, "Missy Elliott raps about shoes? I don't think so!"

We spent a little time in class fighting about shoes and producers. We checked on-line and got a few pages but nothing difinitive. One page was an interview in which Missy said she and Timbaland make great beats and the student said, "See! Look - she's talking about dancing in her Timberland shoes!"

I said that I'd bring proof the next day. My husband found three songs in which Missy Elliott refers to Timbaland and I found an article about him on allmusic.com. We had some good fun the next day teasing each other about the shoes and the producer. I mentioned that Timbaland also produced Big Pimpin'. The students laughed even harder than the day before and requested that I sing a little bit of that song.

I don't think the situation translates too well because I'm not the best writer, but this was probably the most fun I have ever had in a classroom. And, for those of you anxious to know - "Eliel" is Don Omar's DJ.

Random question

I'm right in the middle of giving the students a list of vocabulary words about jobs when a sophomore student raises his hand. He is stoking his throat and says, "This has nothing to do with Spanish but I'm wondering, do women have Eve's Apples?"

Being an outsider

We did an immigration unit with Spanish 4. The students did a project to show what it feels like to be an outsider (a poem or collage). One of the poems was so good that I wanted to share it - sorry if you don't speak Spanish! (I did not fix any grammar mistakes.)

No es divertido, no es bien
Ver todas las personas que amigos tienen,
Nadie responden cuando hablo.
No es divertido no tener un amigo.

No es divertido no conocer nadie.
Estoy muy triste y digo "¿Por qué?"
"¿Por qué personas no hablan a mi?
Creo que no soy importante aquí."

early bedtime

Spanish 1 students were learning how to tell time the other day. To introduce it I told them my daily schedule. It included the fact that Isadora goes to bed at 7:00 PM. One of my students gasped and said, "She misses all the good TV shows!"