daily smiles//kids say the darndest things

being that this daily smile took place while at work with my 8th graders, i think it also counts as a kstdt.

it was my last class period with them {sad!} so they were of a sorts yesterday.

the short of it is, i have a boyfriend in the 8th grade. yup. true love.

forget the fact that i'm ten years his senior.

haha.

ok, here's the story.

one of my best kids (well, ok let's be honest, they're all pretty great), the one who tried to bribe me with money to give him extra points, was having trouble focusing. talking and chatting with friends, one of the girls started up a conversation suggesting that i liked him. i said, "well zach, given that i'm ten years older than you, i can't. if you were ten years older, settled and graduated from college, then maybe, it'd be a different story."

he then went on to say that he had already graduated from harvard and that he came back to middle school to relearn the basics. RIIIIIGHT.

we continued with the tutorial but he continued having problems focusing.

when i mentioned it to him, he confessed, "it's hard to do when your beauty is so blinding"

AH HAHA. right.

then, on the board i had circled like terms in a polynomial using squares, circles and triangles. when i asked zach if he knew what the problem was, he said, "it means you and me. see the circle and triangle is your heart and the other ones are mine."

oh boy.

i told him when i was grading his notes that i was giving him full points just because he made me laugh.

on his paper he had doodled several things, one on the front, our names together in a heart.

on the back: kayla=key to my heart. and then in his summary, zach and kayla forever.

hahahahahaha. i laughed so hard. and it definitely made me smile.

at the end of the class period, the students were thanking us for the help this year and zach yelled out across the room, "we love you kayla!"

his teacher then commented saying, "looks like you've got yourself a boyfriend"

yup, guess so.

oh i sure will miss these kids.

:)

kids say the darndest things, #5

except this time, it was ME that said it....

I was working with my group of 7th graders, discussing light and how we are able to see colors.

In my group (this is necessary for this to be funny) we had one boy and four girls.

Out of the four girls, one, Sammi, is Black.

Everyone else is White.

So we talked about how opaque objects absorb all colors except the one that they show, that one is reflected.

Our example was a red apple: it absorbs all colors but red, which it reflects.

In their textbook, it showed the red apple under different lights: under red, it showed red, while the leaves (which were green to begin with) were black.

Under green light, the apple was black and the leaves were green.

To make it more applicable, I said, "What if I shine a green light on your face?" (directed towards Sammi)

She proceeds to answer saying, "I would look black.....HEY! That's racist!"

At that, she and I lost it. We started laughing hysterically, tears forming in our eyes.

She knew I wasn't making a jab at her, that it was completely on accident, but it was hilarious, nonetheless.

To show that I had no preferences one way or the other, I did this same test to the other kids, and they all came up with the same conclusion: a green light on their face would make them look black.

Needless to say, it was not forgotten, and actually, Sammi proceeded to tell anyone who would listen what I said. :)

Oh science....how politically incorrect you may be. :)

kids say (and do) the darndest things

Preface:

There is a boy in my 8th grade class that I work with and the last two weeks, he has done exceptionally well in his tutorial groups, so, his tutors (me, and another) gave him extra points. He was with me yesterday and automatically started asking for extra points. I told him he needed to earn them.

Story:

He didn't start things off on the right foot. He wasn't being bad per se, but he wasn't apt to pay attention. Rather, he chatted with the girl next to him instead of asking/answering questions. Granted, if I said his name, he would turn and apologize and pay attention for a few minutes.

He started to realize halfway through the class that I most likely wasn't going to give him the extra points and so he started trying to persuade me to change my mind.

Picture this:

I am standing at the white board with my back to all of them, writing down math answers for another student's question. He slyly pulls out a dollar bill, in order to bribe me. With my back still turned, he tosses the crumpled up dollar at the white board where I see it land in the tray next to me. Before I even had a chance to say anything (even though I was thinking of a clever, witty response that probably would've been way too inappropriate), his teacher says, "Zach, did you just throw a dollar at her?"

Now this sent me into uncontrolled laughter. I turn and ask if he's trying to bribe me, and did he really think a dollar was going to sway me? In my head though I'm thinking, "oh this kid thinks i'm easy! a dollar bill, tossed at me, is likened to dollars handed to strippers/prostitutes/etc" The irony of the situation was too much to handle and I laughed loudly. I handed it back to him and said, I can't take this. And he responds with, don't think of it as taking, think of it as you found it. (and this was said in a weird, almost seductive accent ha).

He then asked his buddy for another dollar and tossed that at me too, saying, go get yourself a mighty kids meal. bahaha. oh these boys. thinking they can buy my grades with measly dollar bills.

don't they know i'm worth more than that?! ;)

kids say the darndest things, #4

I work with a group of kids after school in a program known as Intervention.

It's for those kids that are trouble makers, don't do their homework, aren't applying themselves, etc.

Needless to say, they're a handful, and full of attitude.

However, they do say some funny things.

Yesterday was one of those days.

I walked in and one kid immediately asked, "What kind of shampoo do you use?"

I was taken aback, but responded with, "herbal essences" (dangerously straight-fave)

another kid, who was listening in, piped in saying "i thought you would say that"

(WHAT?! ha)

so i said, "do i look like i use herbal essences or something? ha"

and the kid that asked the original question just said, "i use loreal, because i'm worth it."

oh, i busted up laughing. i couldn't help it.

it didn't help that this kid has long-ish hair, almost to his shoulders, so it came off funnier than if a guy with short hair had said it.

Some days I do enjoy my job. :)

kids say the darndest things, #3

"miss kayla, you have the eiffel tower on your butt."

"grant, why are you looking at my butt?"

"i'm not, it's just, the eiffel tower is just there"

HAHA. probably one of my favorite kids.

too bad i kept calling him 'gabe' all class. whoops.

thank you to my eiffel tower key chain, for providing such joy :)

kids say the darndest things, #2

oh boy, were my 7th graders out of sorts today!

we got through THREE questions today, when normally i am struggling to get them to ask more once we run out.

today they just kept getting themselves off topic: asking me about where i go to school, what my job was (they were shocked that tutoring them was my only one), if i had a boyfriend (that story is coming...), what i wanted to do with my life, where i went to college and why i don't drink, aka, what do mormons believe.

normally, i'm a talker.

i would discuss all of these points with them.

it would've taken a couple hours, sure, but i could enlighten them with my knowledge, get to know them a little better, maybe become their friends (since we all know i have none out here haha).

however, i was being paid to TUTOR them. help them with their subjects.

and boy, was that what i was going to do!

we did briefly BRIEFLY discuss some of these questions.

i told them i had graduated college already.

that i wanted to be a lawyer.

that i had gotten my degree in political science.

and then when they found out i went to BYU, that's when they went off.

"wait, why did you go there? isn't that where the mormons go?"

"are you MORMON?!"

my response:

yes, i am mormon. (and one of my kids is too! yay!)

and then their reply:

"so that means you don't drink, huh?"

nope, definitely do not drink.

and then ONE kid (the instigator/distractor of the group):

"i could never go to a party that didn't have alcohol"

oooooh geez. he is only 12. i fear for his future.

me: i will have you know wade, that from experience, you do not need alcohol to have fun.

wade: everyone is so boring and dull when there isn't alcohol (as if he knows this from experience...)

thus began my moral advice for the day. my good deed, as it were. (one of maybe many today)

we discussed it a bit further, but then i realized that time was running short and we needed to get back on track.

of course at that moment, kelsey decided to ask "do you have a boyfriend?!"

i turned to her, and very sternly said, i am NOT answering that (trying to get us all focused).

and immediately wade took that to mean: "oh, so you DON'T!"

oh shame. is it that obvious?

do i appear to be an old maid, far too soon, may i add?

well, despite the lack of work that was accomplished, at least i enjoyed a good laugh.

i think they are starting to get used to me, and become comfortable around me.

this could have positive and negative repercussions.

i think the latter was just proven.

kids say the darndest things, part 1

yesterday, i was helping a few of my 7th graders with their RTLs (responses to literature) by reading them the story of Echo and Narcissus. (they needed to compare it to other literary greats such as The Highwayman and Annabel Lee).

I had just gotten to the part of the story when Narcissus discovers his reflection in a pool of water and falls in love with himself, when one of my boys shouted out "oh, so he's gay!"

Oh boy. Did I lose control of my group or what?

He said he thought about saying it out loud during class when his teacher had read it, but decided against it.

Good choice, kid. That class would have been uncontrollable.

But, nice way of thinking.

Oh, the joys of middle school and freshman in high school.

I'll be randomly posting other insights into their lives as they come about.

They keep me laughing, and hopefully do the same for you. :)