Thursday, February 18, 2010

Today in Class: Ignore the Degrees on the Wall

Today in class, my students are using Apple Laptops to do a research project (our school may have goats in the backyard and be surrounded by nothing but farms, but we do have a technology grant that freaking rocks).

Anyway, a lot of the kids hate Macs--they don't know the shortcuts and aren't as comfortable with them. A common problem is they'll open an application such as Word, and not know that they need to open a document within Word. The application will be on, in other words, but there won't be any document to type in.

Kid: Mrs. Revis! I can't figure this stupid thing out! Where is Word?

Me: *walk over without saying anything, press command and the letter N as the shortcut to open a new document, start to walk away*

Kid: Whoa....wow.... she just, like, touched it and now it works.

Other Kid: Wow. I guess some teachers are getting smarter now.

UPDATE:
A kid asked me for tape for her project.

Me: Sorry--I don't have tape.

Kid 1: What kind of teacher doesn't have tape?

Me: I had tape before I left, but it disappeared while I was gone. I guess one of the kids or the sub stole it.

Kid 2: Who would steal tape?

Kid 1: Well, YOU stole Teacher X's stapler!

Kid 2: Yeah, but that's not tape! I wouldn't steal tape!

Me: Why did you steal Teacher X's stapler?

Kid 2: Cause I don't like him.

Me: You know the school buys the staplers, right? All he had to do was go back to the office and get another one.

Kid 2: Well, he didn't have any staples to staple his papers together that night, then, did he?

Kid 1: Don't worry, Mrs. Revis, we like you. We won't steal your stapler.

Kid 2: But someone did steal your tape...

13 comments:

CL said...

Beth, I think all teachers are angels! (maybe I should say most teachers)
I wish you could come to my house and touch my computer sometimes!

christine M said...

Teachers are definitely magic! And getting smarter all the time. I guess on the dislike meter stealing a stapler is way higher than stealing tape. :)

Unknown said...

This post cracked me up. :)

I teach first grade, so I could probably post the crazy conversations I have with them every day, like how in Feb, they saw MLK Day on the calendar and asked me why we have a holiday for milk. :)

Happy teaching! ;)

Unknown said...

Oops, I meant in Jan., not Feb. This is why my sinus infection kept me home today. :P :)

lotusgirl said...

That's hilarious. Thanks for putting more of these in. I appreciate the laughs.

It's nice to see that your magical touch is working.

The Screaming Guppy said...

Haha! Please, please, please, Beth - never stop posting these stories!

BK Mattingly said...

This post was hilarious! I hope you get some tape soon :) At least you still have your stapler.

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

You are KILLING me with the funny with these kid stories!

And yes, someone did steal your tape. I think your students should hunt them down. :)

Kelly H-Y said...

Love it! You've got the magical touch. Now if only you could summon the tape with those magical powers! :-) Too funny!

Rebecca J. Carlson said...

I am so showing this to my high school teaching husband

Heather Zundel said...

Oh that would be a great short story - a beloved teacher's supplies keep getting stolen so the kids make a pact to find out the culprit. Romance and hilarity ensues. I love it. :D

Your kids are a riot.

in which a girl reads said...

lololololol!

Funny post :)

Unknown said...

I had the tape/stapler conversation almost verbatim with my students a few weeks ago. It was spooky to read this ... although I guess it supports the "Teachers Speak a Universal Language" theory : )