So my freshmen are diligently working(more or less) on an assignment, when one of them says very abruptly

“We should have a national ABBA dedication day.”

I responded, not quite sure he’d actually said what I thought he said

“Really? Are you sure you mean ABBA? I mean they’re kind of old don’t you think?”

Another student asked incredulously

“Are they still alive?”

I sighed, kind of amazed that any of these students actually know who ABBA is

“Of course they’re still alive. I mean, they’re old but they’re not THAT old.”

The first student chimed in again

“I think they made mostly Disco music. . .I really like Disco music. . .Maybe we should have a national Disco dedication day.”

Shortly thereafter this same student starts singing “Heart of Glass” to himself, to which a nearby student asked

“Is that ABBA?”

“No, that’s Blondie”

Then he decided to start singing YMCA, at which point I gently reminded him that there is no singing in Computer class.

So as a reward for finishing all the lessons in my typing program early, I let a few of my 7th graders play a game called TyperShark. It’s a great game, and somewhat addictive.

So I introduce this game to a student of mine and she is appalled by the game.

“You mean I have to kill these poor sharks?”
“Well, yes, but they’re trying to eat you. They’re very mean and scary sharks.”

She wasn’t convinced, but she played it anyway. So today I ask her if she wants to play TyperShark again.

“Yes, of course”
“But I thought you didn’t like killing the sharks?”
“Well I decided that I could just pretend that the sharks are my brothers. That makes it a lot more fun!”

A group of students did a project for my class on the first Apple Macintosh. During their presentation they informed the class that it was first introduced with a “non-famous” commercial during the 1984 Super Bowl.

“A non-famous commercial,” I interjected, “what does that mean?”
Surprised by the question, one of my students shrugged, “well…um…it wasn’t famous, I guess.”
I was still puzzled. I mean, they showed it during the Super Bowl. How could it not be famous? So another student tried to explain it a different way.
A light bulb came on, and I grinned. “Wait. Did your source say the commercial was ‘infamous‘?”

Heads nodded and I chuckled, then went on to explain what the word infamous actually means.

For those of you curious as to what that “infamous” commercial actually looked like, here it is in all its glory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R706isyDrqI

As I was walking up the stairs at school I encountered one of my 8th grade students heading up to ESL class. What followed was a very unexpected discussion:

Han: “Are you a heterotroph?”
Me: Not understanding, “Am I a what?”
H: “A heterotroph. Are you a heterotroph?”
M: “I’m sorry, I still didn’t understand you.”
H: “Mr. Elwell says you are a heterotroph because you can’t make your own food.”

It appears Mr. Elwell knows me all too well.

One of our ESL teachers shared a quote today from her class:

She asked them, “What people work everyday all the time?”(i.e. doctors, policemen, etc.)
A cute little Korean kid answered, “Jesus.”

This reminded me of the children’s sermons that used to take place right before the kids were dismissed for sunday school at Woodland Presbyterian.

The kids would all go forward and someone would share a short interactive message and would invariably ask them a question or two that whose answer was Jesus.

So my college friends and I would sit in the pews, chuckle and whisper “Say Jesus” when a kid was called on to answer and groan quietly if they got it wrong.

Then one time the teacher asked, “Who is the president of the United States?” This confused us because the answer to this question was obviously not Jesus, but Bill Clinton.

So from then on, whenever a question was asked during the children’s sermon, we would confer amongst each other in hushed tones about whether the answer to the question was Jesus or Bill Clinton. “I think this one is Bill Clinton…No, no, this one is definitely Jesus…” And then we would wait expectantly for the answer.