Comments on: Guest Blogger: Sirens in the Distance

By: TheInfamousJ

TheInfamousJ — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:16:22 +0000

I’m short too, Katie, but my standard response is, “Good things come in small packages.”

DrPezz — When teaching my students the difference between mixtures (can be separated physically) and pure substances (cannot), I often mention a time in my youth where I paid my brother a quarter to sort birdseed into its component seeds.

Most students get the concept of physical separation right then and there, but there is always at least one girl in every class who raises her hand and asks, “Is he cute?”

By: DrPezz

DrPezz — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:37:30 +0000

My first days of student-teaching at 22 years of age were interesting as well. I kept having students try to fix me up with their older sisters to date, and the parents tried to help the students in this regard by talking about their eldest daughters frequently. I was only 1-3 years older than my students in the alternative school in which I worked, an odd experience to say the least–same music, movies, and the like did help though.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:58:32 +0000

I’m naturally around 59 inches, but I wear platformed high heels to look taller (and so I don’t have to hem my pants, which cover most of the shoes). During my first round of student teaching in a freshman algebra class, I held a lanky student after class to talk to him about speaking respectfully to other students.

He didn’t say anything for a moment. Maybe I made an impact, I thought. I felt pretty proud of myself. Then he said, “Miss, you short.”

“Yes,” I said. “But my boots are tall.” I have no idea what I meant by that, but he nodded sagely. He didn’t give me any behavioral issues the rest of my time there.

I had a student in the same freshman class hit on me before he realized that I was not a new student.

Another time I was stopped by an assistant principal as I was walking to my car mid-day. I had already taken off my ID badge. I explained that I was a student teacher, “but I’ll take that as a complement!” He still made me show him my
ID before I could leave.

By: Jason Dyer

Jason Dyer — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 02:54:21 +0000

Two years ago I went to the office to get some referral forms or some such, and one of the people there (I think an assistant principal) asked me “so are you here to try out for sports?”

That is why I got a beard. It helps with the age thing.

By: corn

corn — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:57:59 +0000

Four years your junior? My inaugural teaching experience was at an independent school where one of the students (a foreign national) turned 21. “No, you can’t drink on campus, even if …”