From the mouths of babes, well teenagers actually...

[Badfish740]

So I've started my student teaching at a suburban high school here in North Jersey which shall remain unnamed. I decided to do an icebreaker activity that I learned a few years ago as a camp counselor to introduce myself and get the class talking. You pass around a roll of toilet paper instructing the kids to take as much or as little as they want. Once everyone has gotten some (inevitably some smart guy takes half the roll) you inform them that everyone must share one fact about themselves for every square of toilet paper they now possess.

I got to one girl who stood up and in the process of sharing her many facts with the class (she took A LOT of paper) said this in the exact order it appears: "...Ummmmm, my favorite food is chicken parm, ummmm, I'm a vegetarian..." Of course the class erupts into a fit of uncontrollable laughter which bewilders this poor girl. After I get them quieted down she says "I didn't know chicken was meat ok?" Its going to be an interesting semester...

 

[Ben Ruset]

Damn.

 

[Bobbleton]

Chicken is meat?!?!!??

 

[Ben Ruset]

Chicken is meat?!?!!??

Only when it's in nugget form.

 

[Badfish740]

Chicken is meat?!?!!??

Ok so its fowl, but a vegetable it aint...lol

 

[woodjin]

oh, just wait. You won't believe some of the things they will say. I work with a lot of teenagers (I am a guitar teacher) and believe me, they are a never ending sorce of amusement!! You'll get to look forward to it, but you have to get used to not laughing out loud..they get real sensitive. I bite my tongue to keep from laughing sometimes. The teenage girls are the best, I don't know why but they just say whatever comes into their heads. Examples:
1) After explaining what a major scale is to a 15 y.o. girl I asked if she had any questions. "yes" she replies "Why do our thumbs looks so much like our big toes?"
2) After explaining note values to the same girl I again asked if she had any questions, she said "Yes", do you think people ever work out to their own work out videos? And if they do, don't you think that's a little conceited?"
3) The best...a 16 year old girl wanted me to show her this Led Zeppelin song. In the song Robert Plant repeats the lyric "squeeze my lemon till the jusice runs down my leg" over and over again. I'm thinking this is a little alkward, but then she says "Did the singer grow up on a lemon farm or something?"
After I composed myself I said, " I don't know but if I ever have a daughter I hope she is just like you."

Okay, teenage boys say things like this too but it is like 10 times more cute when a girl says it for some reason. Enjoy it!!!!!!!!!!

Jeff

 

[Teegate]

The best...a 16 year old girl wanted me to show her this Led Zeppelin song. In the song Robert Plant repeats the lyric "squeeze my lemon till the jusice runs down my leg" over and over again. I'm thinking this is a little alkward, but then she says "Did the singer grow up on a lemon farm or something?"
After I composed myself I said, " I don't know but if I ever have a daughter I hope she is just like you."

Jeff

I wonder if she played that song for her parents? I'm gonna bet she did. Why did they not say something to her, or do they not know? In any event, you should wish your kids are like her. Nothing wrong with being a kid a little longer.....that is rare today.

Thanks Badfish for the original post, and congrats on the new position. Fill those heads with your insight and experience, and they will end the year much better off.

Guy

 

[Badfish740]

Thanks Badfish for the original post, and congrats on the new position. Fill those heads with your insight and experience, and they will end the year much better off.

Thanks, I just wish I could teach some New Jersey history. Its a shame that in our state core content standards the history of the state gets a quick glossing over in 4th grade which is basically just the battles of Trenton, Monmouth, and Princeton. Once high school starts there's so much to cover and so little time. I wish I could educate these poor suburban kids about that "weird place" off to the side of the Parkway on the way to the shore. Some people think that sort of history is just useless knowledge that focuses on memorization of facts, but I can think of plenty of pines related topics that would do well to illustrate economics, sociology, and history of course.

I had a conversation with one social studies teacher at my school (who also shall remain nameless) who simply thinks its "quaint" that an entire set of industries was born, thrived, and died in the pines and that relatively few people know or care. I guess its because I look at it from a North Jersey perspective, but sometimes I marvel at the fact that the entirety of South Jersey was never bulldozed and made into the world's largest airport in the 60s. My guess is few up here would have batted an eye.

The ironic thing is that the focal point of the Essex/Morris County area is South Mountain Reservation, a 2,000+ acre park surrounded by urban sprawl and the "Northern" Great Swamp which is a watershed for the entire northeastern corner of the state. At one point (early 70s I think-maybe as an alternative to the pines?) this Great Swamp was threatened by a large airport but public outcry was deafening. I wonder if any of the same people stood up for the pines?

 

[bobpbx]

I got a book I ordered in the mail yesterday entitled: "Woody Plants of the Pine Barrens" by Michael Geller. The preface has a section "Why the Pine Barrens are Barren.". Its the best explanation I have read so far. Maybe I'll ask the author, a professor at Stockton if we can have that section to post. Very interesting.