Tuesday, January 31, 2006
You won't believe this...
Today something reminded me of Chad's story of long ago, about that girl who didn't know what "quarter to 8" meant. I told my students with great glee, and was joking about telling Chad that my students were way smarter than his. All the guys were laughing and stuff when the blond girl in my class raised her hand. "I have a confession to make." SURE ENOUGH. She didn't know what it meant either, and admitted that she'd always been confused by that quarter to business. What are the odds?!?! The boys laughed much harder then, and I was hard pressed to back-track about all those non-smart student comments I'd been making. I babbled on and on about how these things sometimes escape us, and how exciting it was to have a learning moment, and how there are many different kinds of smart (oy vay, did I really use that one?). It made for an exciting start to a good day. Phew. I'd better watch out what kind of adjectives I preface my stories with from now on! One never knows. Oh, and I explained that quarter to 8 meant 7:45, as in a quarter of the clock (15 minutes) before whatever time was specified.
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6 comments:
o h my word. I think I struggled with the concept of quarter to 8 etc... when I was maybe in 3rd or 4th GRADE! But not HIGH school! Back in the good old US of A you can say quarter of 8, and be perfectly understood, but here, it is quarter to only. Also..people say half past, or midday (for noon) here.
haha, funny story...
One word: AWKWARD!!! especially for one who is an aff. person.
Hahaha. I laugh at your students "brightness" and I break out into giggles at the thot of all the "backtrackings" you must have done :)
Of course, that girl was really brave to admit that when her teacher had just said how dumb someone was who didn't know it, lol.
Oh this was priceless. Thanks for sharing...
Ha ha. I'm glad to hear that at least the teacher knows what it means! And it just goes to show how careful one needs to be about calling anyone dumb! Just assure your time-challenged student that she's "smart" in other ways. Like maybe she's a good actress or something.
Maybe she is from the south! That is the only excuse I can come up with. It was nice talking to you last night. Funny story.
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