On Top of Spagheeeeeetttttiiii...

In seventh grade, we have ten vocabulary words each week.  I start off the unit by going through the words to make sure everyone understands the definitions and pronunciations.  One of the words this week was "exploit", as in to take advantage of.  Seventh graders are reeeeeaaaalllyyyy good at exploiting things, if you didn't know.  As we discussed the definition, I mentioned that some of them had "exploited" the substitute teacher who had been in the classroom the day before.  We talked about how "exploitation" is deliberate--you are going out of your way to do it, and you are aware that what you are doing is probably ethically questionable.  One student referred back to a story I had shared earlier in the year about how I as a young child "exploited" my even-younger brother by telling him swear words to repeat to my mom, thereby earning him a spanking.  I agreed that indeed, I had definitely "exploited" my brother's youth and naiveté--I knew that he would get into trouble, and I wanted it to happen because I was jealous of him.

I also reminded the students that I had been known to "exploit" seventh-graders as well.  For example, a few of the teachers at a different school I used to work at teamed up once to convince the students that we were at war with Canada.  We also told them that spaghetti grew on trees.  Classic example of "exploiting" gullibility based on the classic 1957 April Fools joke concocted by the BBC:

My current students laughed and laughed....no way would THEY be so stupid as to allow me to "exploit" them in such a fashion!

Then a student asked how noodles were ACTUALLY made.  Another student immediately piped up that he made noodles at home with his family and that they were made from flour.  I confirmed this detail.  The first student looked puzzled, so I clarified that noodles were made from eggs and flour and water.  He said, "OH!  I thought you meant that they were made from FLOWERS!  This makes MUCH more sense!"

Homophones FTW.