Forum: DCForumID6
Thread Number: 37949
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Original Message
"It was Twenty Years ago today..."
Posted by Molaholic on 01-19-13 at 01:52 PM
No, not a Sargent Pepper reference, but a personal vocational milestone.January 19, 1993 -- George H. W. Bush is in his final 24 hours in the White House, but here on the left coast a career is born. I get the call to go for my very first teaching assignment. I had completed student teaching (all elementary school) with a six-week stint in a kindergarten class, and had been hired as a substitute. I get the call about 5:30am to report to the middle school (not going to refuse my first job). I report to the office and get the word -- it's a 7th grade Health class.
Yes. 7th grade Health.
On the teacher's desk is a stack of worksheets, with the instructions to have the students read and answer questions. The title and illustration catches my eye.
THE.HUMAN.FEMALE.REPRODUCTIVE.SYSTEM
All the naughty bits in their full blackline glory. Vocabulary terms that would have gotten my kinder students' mouths washed out with soap.
The first three class periods I managed nothing more than a couple of Gleasonesque "hummana hummana"s as the kids went through the work basically on their own. During lunch my neighbor pops his head in and warns me about a student I'll have the next period -- "you can't miss him, he's got a head of red hair you can see a block away."
By this time I can actually read the material with the kids. We get to the part about the baby passing through the cervix -- which is described as normally being the width of a straw -- which has Red ask "does it hurt?" I tell him that I don't have direct experience, so he should ask his mother. "No way!" he yells, "she already says I'm a pain in the ass!"
Amazing that I survived to teach another day.
I'll be teaching that same subject in a couple of weeks -- maybe I can get a sub?
Another Agman masterpiece (2011)
Table of contents
- RE: It was Twenty Years ago today...,byoffer, 03:15 PM, 01-19-13
- Sure has.,Estee, 03:25 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: Sure has.,PepeLePew13, 03:35 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: Sure has.,Molaholic, 04:58 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: Sure has.,Estee, 05:07 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: Sure has.,PepeLePew13, 06:05 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: Sure has.,Brownroach, 00:16 AM, 01-20-13
- RE: Sure has.,Molaholic, 04:58 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: Sure has.,PepeLePew13, 03:35 PM, 01-19-13
- Sure has.,Estee, 03:25 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: It was Twenty Years ago today...,kidflash212, 03:37 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: It was Twenty Years ago today...,Estee, 03:39 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: It was Twenty Years ago today...,kidflash212, 03:41 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: It was Twenty Years ago today...,Brownroach, 00:08 AM, 01-20-13
- RE: It was Twenty Years ago today...,kidflash212, 03:41 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: It was Twenty Years ago today...,Estee, 03:39 PM, 01-19-13
- RE: It was Twenty Years ago today...,kingfish, 01:05 PM, 01-20-13
- RE: It was Twenty Years ago today...,foonermints, 01:56 PM, 01-20-13
- RE: It was Twenty Years ago today...,dabo, 09:57 PM, 01-20-13
- RE: It was Twenty Years ago today...,jbug, 12:19 PM, 01-21-13
- Maybe,foonermints, 12:43 PM, 01-21-13
- sticky fingers?,jbug, 04:13 PM, 01-21-13
- Karchita or bystander,foonermints, 05:03 PM, 01-21-13
- sticky fingers?,jbug, 04:13 PM, 01-21-13
- Maybe,foonermints, 12:43 PM, 01-21-13
Messages in this discussion
"RE: It was Twenty Years ago today..."
Posted by byoffer on 01-19-13 at 03:15 PM
Happy Anniversary, Molie.I have heard you talk about teaching health previously. Always gives me a chuckle (and a "thanks gawd it's not me!"!)
Just wondering if the material has changed over the last 20 years?
"Sure has."
Posted by Estee on 01-19-13 at 03:25 PM
Several states have passed legislation so that 'reproductive system' now equals 'cabbage leaves, babies found under'.But there are less names to memorize that way.
"RE: Sure has."
Posted by PepeLePew13 on 01-19-13 at 03:35 PM
No pancakes shaped like the female reproductive system?Moley - that might be a real nice way to grab their attention in class; bring a portable grill and cook pancakes shaped as such, then pass it around in class. Tell the boys they can only eat these pancakes if they name the parts correctly.
"RE: Sure has."
Posted by Molaholic on 01-19-13 at 04:58 PM
Pepe --OK, after I clean off my monitor...
I'd love to do that except that I'd have to go through all kinds of district red tape and prove that that pancakes meet the new nutritional guidelines (which, according to my students, means
"if it tastes like sh!t, they have it"). Any kind of syrup is strictly verboten as well.
Los Angeles Kings - 2012 Stanley Cup Champions
Capn’s Stanley Cup Pick ‘em Surprise.
"RE: Sure has."
Posted by Estee on 01-19-13 at 05:07 PM
(which, according to my students, means "if it tastes like sh!t, they have it")So save it for when they study the digestive system.
"RE: Sure has."
Posted by PepeLePew13 on 01-19-13 at 06:05 PM
My post was tongue-in-cheek, but hey, if we are going to find a way to get beyond the red tape... homemade pancake mix could include whole wheat flour (grain), egg and milk (dairy) and use thawed-down frozen blueberries (a super-fruit filled with anti-oxidants) as a topping.Yah, a college setting is different from your school board, but we have had breakfast sales operating out of our classroom in the past as a fundraiser.
"RE: Sure has."
Posted by Brownroach on 01-20-13 at 00:16 AM
Has anyone ever tried to unearth the pancake instruction film?(...missing JSlice...hope she's well)
"RE: It was Twenty Years ago today..."
Posted by kidflash212 on 01-19-13 at 03:37 PM
Happy Anniversary from someone who used to be a kid with bright red hair.In my grade the health teacher was a nun.
Capn2patch put me in motion!
"RE: It was Twenty Years ago today..."
Posted by Estee on 01-19-13 at 03:39 PM
I'm guessing the banana-condom demonstration was out.
"RE: It was Twenty Years ago today..."
Posted by kidflash212 on 01-19-13 at 03:41 PM
Actually, Sister Ann Eugene was pretty thorough. I think nuns in the 70's were cooler than nuns in the 21st century.
"RE: It was Twenty Years ago today..."
Posted by Brownroach on 01-20-13 at 00:08 AM
The male-female-combo nun names always stuck me as vaguely subversive. I had a Sister Marie Jose and a Sister John Marie in grade school. Sr. John Marie covered reproductive science and was kind of cool. Sr. Marie Jose, on the other hand, was prim to a fault (and also somewhat clueless -- once she ordered a classmate to turn his bookbag around because it had an STP sticker on it, and how dare he display that "smut" in her classroom).
"RE: It was Twenty Years ago today..."
Posted by kingfish on 01-20-13 at 01:05 PM
Congratulations on surviving.I remember when you and your Mole brother, Das Mole were inseparable.
I guess he got sent to the principle and never returned. Serving as a lesson for your students.
"RE: It was Twenty Years ago today..."
Posted by foonermints on 01-20-13 at 01:56 PM
I wonder how they teach that in the Netherlands? *does not put in straight-face smiley*<
>
Handcrafted by RollDdice
foonermint: full of curiousity!
"RE: It was Twenty Years ago today..."
Posted by dabo on 01-20-13 at 09:57 PM
"RE: It was Twenty Years ago today..."
Posted by jbug on 01-21-13 at 12:19 PM
congrats!
So, when do you retire?
tiny frozen stolen clown
"Maybe"
Posted by foonermints on 01-21-13 at 12:43 PM
About the same time your sticky fingers get cured?
tiny liberated Barney!
*runs off*
"sticky fingers?"
Posted by jbug on 01-21-13 at 04:13 PM
me?
& just who do you think I learned this from?
"Karchita or bystander"
Posted by foonermints on 01-21-13 at 05:03 PM
Didn't mom tell you to stay away from strange people lest you pick up bad habits?
You don't see me cavorting with fish, do you?