2.1???

So today we were reading an article about Italy's declining birth rate. We're popcorn reading, and when one kid gets to a paragraph about how Italy's birth rate has dropped below the 2.1 average of children per woman- several kids gasp and one boy says out loud "2.1 kids?!?! How does a woman have 2.1 kids?!" Then another boy at his table says "I guess she gave birth to a toe....I mean, it's only .1 of a child!!" Needless to say, I cracked up laughing...and once I recovered my composure, we had a nice class discussion on averages and how we come up with an average number.

Oh freshmen..... :)

Cape Horn...

Well, it's happened again, folks...another year of teaching Latin America, and another year of Lake Titicaca and Cape Horn. If you didn't catch my post on Facebook last year about Cape Horn, you may not know why this is so funny to 15 year olds...well, let me fill you in.

Start off by saying "Cape Horn" outloud (preferably in a a Texan accent where you slur your words together and don't properly pronounce things...ha)...perhaps say it 2 or 3 times out loud. Do you get it yet? Yeah, Cape Horn sounds remarkably like "Gay Porn" when spoken out loud.... today's quiz was really fun..."Ok kids, locate Cape Horn on your maps" *giggle giggle* "Ms. Ramos! What did you just say?!"..."Ok, now locate Lake Titicaca" *giggle giggle*.

I tried over pronouncing it, like "cay-puh HhhorNnn" ... but I think they just found that even more funny.

I announced to all of my classes that I was just resolved to let Latin America be the most awkward unit of the year....b/c between Lake Titicaca and Cape Horn, how can it not be?

Are you Russian?

Forgot to mention this the other day, as my kids were researching their country of origin the other day, I saw a girl researching Russia, so I said "Oh Sally (name has been changed), are you Russian?" And she gets this horrified look on her face and starts shaking her head emphatically and says "NO! No, Ms. Ramos, I'm not rushin'!" Then I cracked up and said "No sweetie, I meant Russian, like from Russia, not rushin', like the way a Texan says "rushing"..."

Needless to say, the poor thing was horrified...not to mention that her mom is a volunteer library aide at our school, so she heard the whole thing and was cracking up over it, too!

Oh how I love Texan accents.... :)

Vacation City...

Well, the kids presented their Immigration Projects today....one kid whose ancestors come from Italy was talking about the importance of Roman Catholicism in Italy. As he's going through his slide, he then reads out loud that the Pope resides in "Vacation City".  So, I just thought all of you would appreciate knowing that the Pope no longer lives in Vatican City, but is now permanently on vacation in Vacation City.

Tomorrow night I'll be watching the new Harry Potter film!!! Soooo excited! Yay!

The one that smiles all the time...

My kids are researching in the computer lab all this week, and today as I was leaving to meet my 4th period in the lab, I passed a couple of my kiddos so they walked with me down the hall to the lab. Along the way, we passed another boy in my class and I said "hey Billy" (don't worry, his name has been changed to protect his identity! :)  )  but he didn't notice me. The boy walking next to me to the lab yelled out "HEY BILLY!" and then he looked at me and said, "Miss, I don't know how he didn't see you, you're the one teacher that smiles all the time." I said "Really? That's a really sweet thing of you to notice, thank you." Then he said, "yeah, Miss, that's why everyone loves you, because you're always so happy."

Isn't that cute? Made my day.

Another thing that made my day was a kid who was doing his project over the England and he called me over saying "Miss, I can't find anything for this" and I said "well, what are you searching for?" And he shows me....he was googling "England Language"....let me just let that soak in for a minute. I said "sweetheart, what language do they speak in England?"..."uh, English?"..."yes, so don't you think you'd be better off searching for English instead of England Language?"...

There's the future of America, folks! They speak England Language! :)

Hello!

As a High School Geography teacher, my kids tend to say some really funny things and I always think "gosh I should write this stuff down otherwise I'm going to forget it all"....hence, this blog. I have no idea how often I'll post, but it's here in case something great comes up that I should write down. 

Here are some of my favorite things that my kids have said in the past, that I've remembered!

*"Vietnam is a country?! I thought it was just the name of a war!"

*(Let me preface this by saying that this kid was working on the computer, and the Wizard Microsoft helper guy kept popping up and asking him to save his work) "Miss, that bad fool made my work go away!" I think the "bad fool" asked him to save it and he clicked no.

*"So that's where Yukon is...they have a really good basketball team" "No, I think you're thinking of U-Conn, not Yukon"

I'm sure there's 230983 of others, I just can't remember them at this time...more to come!