As full time employment with teenagers is slowing eating my brain, let me share with you a selection of the conversations I had with some of my students today.
Backdrop: Class -- Physical Science. Age -- mostly HS sophomores. The educational objective was to teach kids to write really good hypotheses in the If . . . then . . . because . . . format.
First period: We are reviewing an experiment we already did to determine if boys or girls had better reflexes, and rewriting the hypothesis for it in the new format. All of a sudden, a boy off to the side of the room sighs loudly and with great satisfaction and says, "Spiderman." The joy in his voice at that moment is hard to convey, but it was clear that Spiderman made him happy. We all stopped and stared. He then said, "I didn't mean to say that out loud. It's just what I think of when I think of reflexes." We stared a few more seconds and then returned to what we were doing.
Fifth period: In the hallway before class started, a girl came up with her hand in the air, "Whaz up?" I responded with the overly proper, "Hello" as I returned her high five. "Don't say hello. You're supposed to say 'what's up?' back! Cmon, say 'what's up?'" So I responded with, "What's up?" "The ceiling!" She ran into the classroom giggling.
Eighth period (the last of the day): We are talking about the reflex experiment again, which involved dropping and catching a ruler, and all of a sudden, "F*ck you, Ruler!" It is a good natured boy who is waving a ruler in the air, and said with great veahmence. I told him to use more appropriate language in class and he looked at me, "What are you talking about? I never said that." He continued to deny all knowledge, and did it convincingly enough that my teenage liar radar did not go off. I think he really had no idea he'd yelled that. He did stop waving the ruler.
So with those pieces of wisdom, I'm going to go find a ruler to wave at the ceiling and think about Spiderman. Or knit. One of the two.
I'd go with the knitting, were I you. And perhaps the experiment should be a consideration of whether boys or girls are better at regulating their "outside my head" voices ;)
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