Student stuck silly

March 20, 2006

Much to his embarrassment, one of my 1st year students got his little finger stuck in one of the many small holes of his chair.
I had to hunt down some dish soap and really
gob it on as his finger had swollen.
It was bound to happen sooner or later; i am glad the kid in question was good-natured about it. Oddly, his friends didn’t tease him TOO much… (it’s my hand in the picture. I’dlike to say that I didn’t take a picture because I did not want to traumatize the child. That would be a lie. The fact is, like in so many other situations, I did not have the correct amount of grey matter at the time. )
This week, 1st years are doing a postcard/travel assignment. They have to find 3 capital cities, decide how much money to bring for 2 days in each city, write a postcard (on a photo sourced from a search engine) that includes a “fun or interesting activity they did there.
They know what capital city is because I told them in Chinese. They know New York isn’t the capital of the US,but still many tried to pass off Vancouver, New York , Toronto, etc. as acceptable choices. One kid even put forth Idaho, Missouri and Kansas.
“DO you know these aren’t capital cities? These are states. Do you understand this?”
“Yes.”
“So, why d’ya choose these??”
“Oh.”
But I, Nebulon, will not be discouraged by this. I will continue my search unaffected by these small, nay, minuscule attempts at obfuscation!