Minion Stories

So, it's been a while since I've had some really good minion stories to share, and within the past three or four days, I suddenly have tons to share again. I think the kids are getting a little bit more crazy the closer we get to Summer!

I think I will do them in chronological order, which also saves the best for last. On Tuesday, a group of students "cornered" me in third period. "Mrs. H!" They cried, "You are always reading the best books! Your homework assignment is to create a summer reading list for us to read!" I told them I would as long as I got their books to add to the list so I have materials to read while I'm in Indiana. They also want contact information for Indiana. It makes me feel really special inside. P.S. If anyone wants a copy of our summer reading, let me know. Once it's finished I'll send a copy your way!

On Wednesday, in 6th period we were solving using completing the square. Part of Completing the Square requires you to put blanks on both sides of the equal sign. I asked the students why we need blanks on both sides and they start guessing, but they're not really close. When they run out of guesses, they all looked confused. I told them that it was one the commandments of Math. "Thou shalt do unto one side of an equation what thou doest to the other." They all started laughing and one kid said "Hey that sounds like just like the Book of Mormon." Another kid spoke in the formal third person for the rest of the period. They also wanted to know the rest of the Math Ten Commandments. They are as follows:

1. Thou shalt not divide by zero.
2. Thou shalt not put other textbooks before thee in math class.
3. Thou shalt show thy work; check thy work and confirm that thy results are reasonable.
4. Remember thy test days and prepare for them wholly.
5. Thou shalt honor the correct order of operations.
6. Thous shalt not do thy math homeowrk in ink!
7. Thou shalt commit the facts of aritmetic to memory.
8. Thou shalt do unto one side of the equation what thou doest unto the other.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy orignial problems; thou shalt copy thy problems accurately and legibly.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's paper, not anything that is thy neighbor's.

On Thursday I had three to five students tell me that I was their favorite teacher ever. They also all agreed that I was the best math teacher in the whole school. It was really flattering that they all believe it.

On Friday I interacted with one minion a lot. I had a box of packing peanuts by my desk, because one teacher brought them in for me. One minion picked up a peanut and asked me, "Can I have this cheeto?" I then told him that they were styrofoam and weren't cheetos. He was devestated. He then spent the rest of the period trying to climb into the garbage can. I told him three seperate times to get out of the garbage can. They are very silly this time of year.

Here's a movie about the Baby Hero, because I know that's the real reason why you listen to me.

Back to School

The Bug Hero took this picture of the Baby Hero to send to me during school. This is the Baby Hero enjoying some tummy time mid morning today. I sure did miss my boys. The hardest part about today was leaving the apartment. I cried on my way to the car.

At school I felt like a rock star, famous athlete, and a super hero all at once. The kids did dances in the halls, I heard them singing, "MRS. HUGHES IS BACK!!!" It was great! I also got tons of hugs from students, and two students even brought cookies to celebrate my return! I got a standing ovation as I walked into one of my class periods. They were really grateful to see me come in, and then they were excited that I started explaining the math to them.

The most frequent comment I had was, "You're BACK!" Said in a grateful, pathetic voice, "I can finally understand math again!" The other comment was, "Oh yeah! We have to follow the rules, she's back to enforce them." Strangely, that comment wasn't made while whining, it was just a statement of fact. Some of the kids seemed pleased that I was enforcing the rules and making them stay on task.

I was told by several teachers today that the kids were thrilled to see me, one teacher told me about how all of her classes danced in her room to tell her that I was back. A couple of the kids told me that they understood I needed to have the baby, but I should never leave them again for that long.

I feel loved. I hope I can keep it up and finish out the school year strong. It was a good first day back.

Minions Responses to Panda

I'm sorry it's taken so long to get these responses up, but in my defense, school is quite crazy right now and I'm working not to evict the panda, since he is determined to kick his way out. He is constantly moving and doesn't like me to sit down for very long since it limits his space. Here are the long awaited responses to the minions with the quiz.

1st period: They were really dead, but there were gasps all around the room as they reached question 3. One minion raised his hand and told me not to get a massage of any kind, especially not a foot massage because it would cause the panda to be born early. I thanked the minion for the advice and everyone got excited.

2nd period: They found out from their friends because there is no 2nd period on Wednesdays.

3rd period: I passed out the quiz and right as the last minion had the quiz one minion, the loudest minion in the class, yelled out "Congratulations!" And the whole class was confused. He then yelled out, "Am I the only one who reads the whole quiz before I start to answer? Read the quiz!" They all read the quiz and then they hollared out Congratulations! They all started telling that other minions had said that it was time that I had a baby. And different girls had called that I was pregnant. This period was loads of fun.

4th period: They were really quiet, but one minion kept raising his hand and asking me, "What are you having?" I told him to guess, and then the next question he wanted to know what I was going to name the panda. I told him I don't know and then he looked at me and asked me how he was going to get the question right. I laughed really hard about it after wards, because he totally missed the point.

5th period: One minion saw the questions and then started talking to everyone about it and pointing at it and I reminded her to be quiet and to try the quiz and she was really excited. One boy minion yelled "I don't know what you guys are talking about! Be quiet!" And then two minutes later the same minion said really loudly, "OH!!" The following day when I put on the board that the panda was a boy and the same minion child was at the board doing the starter right underneath the sign and everyone started talking about how it was a boy and he looked so hard at the kids and said, "How do you know?!" They told him to look up. It was precious.

6th period: They were quiet, and I was surprised how many had no idea. Their friends hadn't all told them because they wanted to share in the joy of discovering. One minion raised his hand and was really confused, because he didn't think that it was real. I told him that I really was having a baby and he said, "oh.....well.....congratulations.....I guess...." And I laughed all the way back to my desk.

7th period: They were loud and excited. A couple of minions said that they thought that I was expecting, but that they weren't going to dare to ask me. I told them I was grateful that they didn't ask me. One minion asked how far along I was and I told him 20 weeks and he looked at me and said, "You've known for 20 weeks and you didn't tell us?!" I asked him if he could tell, and he said no. And then I told him that at least I was telling him now. And he was satisfied.

All in all they were great and I had loads of fun telling them all day long.

Two weeks of Minions

I have now had two weeks with this years batch of minions, and they are up to their usual tricks and I have many stories about them.

Yesterday two of the stories happened and they made me very happy. The first of them happened not in my class. Mr. S, another math teacher had one of his minions tell him that he was boring. Mr. S then said that if he wanted an exciting math teacher the minion should sign up to take a class from me, Mrs. H. The minion then replied, "Mrs. H, is like a kindergarten student who's really good at math." When Mr. S told me that story, I just laughed and laughed.

The other story happened during 7th period, the second to last period of the day. Every Friday I celebrate that I didn't kill any one, no one killed me, and I get to sleep in tomorrow by dancing to the music in the halls. Before 7th period, I was dancing in the halls and once it started I passed out papers. Half way through the process, one minion looked at me and asked, "did you just change your shirt?" "No. This is the shirt I've had on all day long." Another minion asked me if I'd been wearing the shirt in TA (2nd period) and I looked at him and said, "Yes." The whole class was convinced that I had changed my shirt right before I came into class. Mr. S thinks I should change my shirt halfway through the period sometime next week and see if they notice or say anything.

Last week, the principal shared this story with me. She told me that she walks around during lunch talking to the kids and she asked one seventh grader who their favorite teacher is. The seventh grader said, 'I think it's Mrs. H. But she's scary." The principal asked why I was scary, and the seventh grader looked up at the principal and said, "You know she wears a calculator on her leg, That's scary." The principal and I thought that was funny too.