My "kids"

Sometimes, when you teach, you have to laugh. They are just so darned amazingly funny.

I teach junior high kids -- 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. There are people who avoid that age group, find them difficult and horrible to deal with. I think they are fascinating as their minds wake up and begin to question and wonder how it is they know what it is that they know... But, the other side of the coin is that, developmentally, around the 7th grade, the functioning of the human mind is not a smooth thing. Thinking is not at all dependable. There are moments when the 7th grade brain is something like a bowl of oatmeal... It can be endearing if you don't take it too seriously. Like this...

I recently handed out a new computer project. I try to tie these things to the rest of the curriculum, and then use them to teach computer skills. So this project was a practice in Internet research, publisher document creation, word processing, and presentation software use, wrapped around a social studies "curriculum" goal. The 7th graders were given the assignment of choosing a first lady to research and prepare a variety of "products" for both a computer grade and a social studies grade. There were no limitations placed on their choice of first lady, although I did encourage them to resist the urge to choose the "obvious" names we all are familiar with and look at some more "interesting" possibilities.

Immediately, without even a few minutes to contemplate the possible issues with such an assignment, hands shot into the air with questions. Here are the first three questions out of the mouths of my darlings. I swear I've done no editing...

Question -- "Can we do Mrs. Kerry?"
Answer -- "No. She is not married to a president, and is not, therefore, a first lady."

Question -- "Can we do Laura Bush?"
Answer -- "Yes. She is married to a president, and is, therefore, a first lady."

Question -- "Can we do Bill Clinton?"
Answer -- "Did you just ask me that question?"

Room dissolves into hysterical laughter...

Did I mention I love junior high kids because their minds are just waking up and they are starting to wonder how it is they know what they know?

swan