Top 10 Places to Built a Fallout Shelter

- as explained by my student's projects

10. Underwater in the Bermuda Triangle

9. On the Moon

8. In a Chuck E Cheese ballpit

7. Under the Bat-Cave

6. In a treehouse

5. Backyard

4. Underwater in the Great Barrier Reef

3. In the middle of a dormant volcano

2. 1,800 miles below the Earth's surface

1. Canada

10 Ten Items to Build a Fallout Shelter out of:

10. Cement

9. Steel

8. Brick

7. Glass

6. Lead

5. Titanium

4. Melted ballpit balls

3. Dinosaur hides

2. Adamantium 

1. Kryptonite 

Fallout Shelters

This week we have been learning about the Cold War and the nuclear arms race and all that fun stuff. For a mini-project, my students had to create their own fallout shelters to get in the mindset of a person of the 1950s in a way.

Most students have made their under their houses, or in Canada (because no one would bomb Canada) and a lot made theirs entirely out of glass in the middle of the ocean - so they can look at fish for fun.

One student begins his explanation of his fallout shelter like this:
"Deep in the heart of Chuck E. Cheese, through the depths of the ball pit, there is a door. Under the door there is a ladder to my fallout shelter. It is made out of melted balls from the ball pit because it is easy to obtain. I'd also have a window so I don't look like Edward Cullen."

He goes on to talk about his race-car bed and, "I'd live by myself so that I could get a good start on my one-man band. Also, I don't want to have to resort to cannibalism."

States

A student runs up to me today; "Quick, how many states are there? 51 right? Because James swears there are 52. How ridiculous is that!?"

Iwo Jima

Today we were learning about the Battle of Iwo Jima. On the slide projected on the board, I had put the famous picture of the flag raising from the battle. One student right away says, "Wait!? That's what that picture is from? I always thought it was from something else!" When asked where she thought it came from, she refused to say because she said it was stupid.

As class went on a different student, who had been talking to the first student, yells, "Seriously, you thought that picture was from the moon landing!"

Very confusing.

Oh kids.

Overheard in a Department Meeting

"I never dated a guy in a leisure suit. Weirdos. If I saw a guy in a leisure suit - I went the other way. Never dated them, never."

overheard

Student 1: "what's a provision?"
Student 2: "it's the ban of alcohol - no more moonshine!"

LOST

I sit in the back of a fellow PACT teacher's class during one of my free period. The class is hilarious and different everyday.

Today they were learning about Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War. The teacher was lecturing about how the winter was really rough, there was little food, the American soldiers were running out of supplies and so on.

Student: "Wait so they weren't even dying because of someone else? They were starving? Jeez, that's why we lost."

The rest of the class then had to explain that we won the American Revolution - it took a solid 5 minutes to convince the kid.

overheard in the cafeteria

One freshman girl to another:

"Do you like fat guys? I went to a bar once and an old fat guy took my picture."




What kind of conversation has to happen for this to make sense in context? Or is that impossible?

Milgram

In 1961 a social psychologist, Dr. Milgram, conducted a study on people's obedience to authority and how far someone will go inflicting damage/pain on another person just because an authority told them to do so. He was studying things like how Hitler was able to led and direct Germans do carry out his plan without much dissent (much of it was fear, but Milgram thought and obedience to authority was the rest).

He had 40 people in the study, these 40 had to teach a list of word-pairs (yellow flower, strong coffee, etc) to a "learner" (actually an actor) and then later on test the learner's memory. If the learner got a question wrong, the teacher had to administer an electric shock (starting at 15 volts and going to a lethal 450 volts) because the authority had told them the experiment required them to do so.

Of the 40 participants, 26 went all the way to giving the fatal 450 volt shock (the learner wasn't actually hooked up to the electric shock machine - but the teacher thought they were), 14 quit before that point.

Today I discussed Milgram and dedicated the day's lesson to his study on obedience. I told my students it was a memory study and lied to them just like Milgram lied to his participants. In the process, without them realizing they were blindly following an authority figure, I got them to change seats, move all their backpacks to the back of the room, write nonsense words on an index card, and I even got about 5 in each class to go to their lockers and get their World Languages textbook - all without anyone questioning or challenging my directions.

After I revealed the true nature of the lesson, most kids couldn't believe it, one kid said, "wait, uhhh, umm, wait, so, uhh, you just like uhh messed with our heads. my mind is like blown." Very eloquent.

I did make a point to explain that in no way, shape or form am I advising my students to disrespect and ignore authority. I told them they had to listen to their teachers and parents, follow orders from the police, and generally avoid any form of anarchist revolution.

But overall, fun day.

studying

"Ok guys, today we are going to be studying the Holocaust."
"Oh my God, I love the Holocaust! ... I mean, umm, I love STUDYING the Holocaust, that's it."

Sharks

As we are watching a five minute clip of "Saving Private Ryan" and the invasion of Normandy Beach scene, a girl turns to me an asks. "Wait, so has a shark ever attacked a boat before?"

No idea where this came from, but it is the same girl who asked if the Great Depression really happened.

Retreat but no Surrender

Friday, directly after school, I left to help out with a school retreat. We didn't get back until Sunday night at about 10. So I went to bed shortly after, woke up the next morning, went to school, taught, had cafeteria duty until 5, came home, did work, and then went to bed.

This morning was a struggle and I have been exhausted all day so far. However, the weekend retreat was totally worth it. Here's hoping I get to help out next year too.

Delegate

"So they have 56 delegates at this conference, what's a delegate?"
"Something that is easily broken."
"Delegate - not delicate."


kids.

Parent Teacher Night #3

We had our third round of parent teacher conferences tonight. It went really well, I saw about 15 sets of parents - not to bad but a good amount.

During the first parent teacher night, I had a pretty difficult conference with a parent about her son who was failing the class simply because he didn't hand stuff in. He has been able to turn it around, currently has a 73 and things are looking good.

The entire conference went really well. It validated me in a way and made me know I was doing something right.

Overall, great night. Also - I got to school an hour and forty-five minutes before the first bell, and after conferences were over I had stayed four and a half hours past the last bell.