Seniors!!!

For those who don't know me (which all of you do, but I couldn't think how to start this blog!), I teach in a high school (of sorts). We just had our senior class graduate, so I thought I'd tell you a bit about them (please note that these are not their real names)...

Chin and that blond girl - Okay, so these two didn't actually graduate. The blond girl had a tanty about her research and walked off. Her mentor and dad tried to fix things, but it didn't work out. Her heart wasn't really in it. Chin was the most unfocused individual I've ever met. He could not balance anything in his life (I know this sounds rather harsh, but he really couldn't). The prime example of this was his English grade... He failed first semester and was told that he had to improve his grade, which he did to and "A"! So what's the problem (as his mother asked us)? Well, he improved on English by ignoring his other subjects, two of which he was now failing!!! After much effort to get him together, he ran out of rope just 2 weeks short of graduating...

Windy - Quiet to the extreme (to the point where we were wondering if something was wrong), she slowly opened up, starting with telling me she enjoyed playing soccer as she got to beat up on her opponents! She ended up getting into every college she applied to, and really blossomed!

Q-Tip - This girl was not helped by being "hand-held" through her time in the lab... This meant she appeared to be great, until she was out of the lab and her work nose-dived. Used as the (most unlikely) poster-child for the program (not our idea), she is a nice kid, but was far too easily distracted (particularly by Cashew).

The Twins - Okay, so these two are not twins, but they were inseparable! Both great girls who were impossibly "cute"... as in they presented their research at a poster session wearing "party dresses"! They were probably to least nerdy students in the whole school!

Loin - I will remember him for telling me he was aiming for either and Ivy League School, a tennis scholarship (he was that good), or he would do ladies nails...

Little Miss Bossy - Our hardest working student, our biggest worry-wart, and with an amazing ability to tell her elders what to do, and what they could do for her ("i need you to do this" was one of her favorite phrases)... Hopefully she keeps up with the former trait, but eases up on the latter two...

The Two McQ Girls - Two of our most successful students. Polite, generally on task, pleasures to teach, and not very interesting... I wish them all the best!

Cashew - Leaving the best for last! Cashew was a special boy... He once sent 6000 text messages in one month (yes, that's 200 a day!)... How do you do that when you're in class 5 days a week? By texting in class of course!!! ("It helps me stay awake!") We took his phone away... But there was so much more to him than texting... Annoyed at his lack of focus one day, I gently lobbed a tennis ball at the back of his head... I missed, it bounced on the table in front of him, was caught by the person he was talking to, thrown back to me, and then I had another go (as he hadn't even broken conversation during all this)... He was completely surprised when something hit him in the back of the head!!! The final story I'll leave you with was when he needed aluminium trays for a project in class, but her couldn't find them ("Why didn't you ask for help?" "Because people are stupid"). So he bought aluminium trays... complete with already made pie-crusts...

People, I present to you the Class of 2009!

I Think I Remember How This Thing Works...

To say I haven't blogged for a while is kind of like saying the Pope is Catholic... It's true, but there's so much more to it!

There are a number of reasons for my absence:
- I've gotten married (no, my wonderful wife isn't against me blogging, but planning and attending your own wedding takes a bit out of you);
- We've been house-hunting;
- We've moved into an apartment together (which gives you an indication of how the house-hunting is going);
- I turned 30; and
- Semester has been wrapping up.

So these are my somewhat flimsy excuses... I plan to blog a bit more regularly, but plans are subject to change... Let's just see how this goes, shall we?