Stop! Collaborate and Listen!

My homeroom students were discussing rappers this morning (I don't know why.  I try not to ask too many questions.)  This was the conversation that I managed to catch...

Student One:  What about Vanilla Ice?

Student Two:  You know, he's white though.

Student One:  What are you talking about?

Student Two:  He's white.

Me (because I could no longer take it):  Why do you think his name is Vanilla Ice?

Student One:  I just thought he really liked vanilla ice cream.

This, among many reasons, is why I have to educate these children in the ways of 80s pop culture.

Tilting At Windmills

We're finishing up our biography and autobiography unit.  Hannah, the student teacher, came up with this great lesson plan about Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote.  To give them some background, she showed them a picture of him:

Questions from the students included:

Is that a man or a woman?
Where's the rest of his body?


Oh, but it goes on.  Apparently during Cervantes's lifetime, there was this thing called the Holy League.  I freely admit I knew nothing about this--apparently it was a group of Catholic countries that joined together to drive the Turks out of the eastern Mediterranean in 1571.  The students immediately thought that it was a church softball team.  Seems logical to me.

The Honeymoon's Almost Over

So my student teacher has been gone for the past two days in order to attend job fairs and, you know, get a job. Leaving me in charge. I need to get used to it since her days with us are numbered, but I figured I would mess with her while I still can. Here is the actual text messages exchanged between us tonight as she attempted to regroup for tomorrow: 

I am freaking hysterical.