The Lobster Shanty

Now that I am done with college it's time to start working. Oh wait, I'm sorry, did I say work?  I meant PARTYING! My next job doesn't start until late June so I have two months to live it up. I went home to Boston for two weeks and had a really delightful time (for all you Boston peeps, I'm sorry I didn't call you to hang out. I was pre-occupied). I went to the Chihuly exhibit at the MFA, did lots of shopping and basketball, watched the Boston Marathon, and even had some visitors. Both my sisters and their husbands came up, as well as my friends Michelle and Melissa. The next weekend my friend Diana came up too.  I think the most fun thing I did was eat a twin lobster dinner with Diana in Salem. I mean seriously, look at these pictures. Can't you see how much I've matured since I've graduated college?

I ended up just eating the whole lobster, including the legs.

Oh my gosh, Diana is being suffocated! My nose has enlarged! (That's a joke regarding Pinocchio).

Kids Say the Darndest Things...

Yesterday was my last day at the wonderful Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. as a student teacher. As a parting gift my awesome mentor teacher bought some big posterboard and had all our kids sign it with messages. It has the feel of what you'd see in a yearbook. Many of the messages were hilarious to read so I've selected a few and am posting them with some commentary. Many of them can only be understood by a teenager, many of them only understood by a gangsta, and many of them can just never be comprehended. The following are exact quotes from my card, except for one or two names which will be denoted with asterisks. I tried to keep the feel of the messages as best I could even though I omitted some things that were too long.

•  I loved your dancing was great. I'm glad I wasn't this child's English teacher. Dancing was an occasional occurrence in my class.
• Imma miss you homeslice! If you ever come back (like your promised) imma teach you how to Jerk! LoL. it's gonna be weird not seein' you in the hallway but I guess i can deal! sniff sniff. To 'Jerk' means to do a specific dance called the 'Jerk.' Sometimes this child capitalized her 'i's and sometimes she did not.
• Yo Yo Mr. Bennett. Thanx on da 1,000. Strictly from the Young Wolf M****** A.K.A. Moe Chill-A I'm still not sure what the 1,000 is. Apparently this student has three names and he signed them all on my card.
• I'm goanna miss you! You was ji cool as #@!?. LoL. It's goanna be different without you. Don't forget me! She spelled 'gonna' wrong both times so I'll just assume she meant to write what she wrote. I had to ask what 'ji' meant and another student told me 'that means you're like really, REALLY cool.' I was flattered.
• J****** C*****= Your wife. <3 This particular student, J.C. also made me a cake with my name on it. She's a sweetie.

• Good Teaching young man! BIG DADDY PAPI SHMOOKY A.K.A. A****** Many students saw this card as an avenue to advertise their rap careers I think...
• Be the king of numbers. <3 you! That's just good advice for a math teacher.
• Mr. Bennett, I love your wonderfully abstract ways of teaching shapes, your sound effects, and enthusiasm. I wasn't even aware of all my sound effects until my mentor teacher told me they were really funny to listen to. Apparently I make them all the time, including when erasing the board and crossing off numbers.
• We will mess you and your "funny" jokes. Lots of jokes, some not so well received.
• Good job not straightening your hair. Your student teached the bestest. Once again, I'm glad I wasn't this girl's English teacher. My kids were really obsessed with my hair and the way that it fell straight down.
• We'll miss you Mr. Handsome. After reading this another student said, "You know Mr. Bennett, you have a lot of perverts in your class." I disagreed with her, but it was a funny comment.
• ily I had to ask, and apparently this is short for "I love you."
• I will miss your corny/funny jokes in class. Enough Said.
• Your class was hella fun. I enjoyed it. This student said about three things to me all semester so I was pleased to hear he thought class was fun.
• "Bennett" "Swag" Teenagers these days love the word 'swag.' This was perhaps the most complimentary thing anyone could have written on my card.
• One student drew a picture of Death with a sickle then wrote Thank you. He was kind of goth...
• Thanks Mr. Bennett. For Math. Young Loud aka M******* I'm not sure why he wanted to be called Young Loud, but there you have it.
• Your cool... and HANDSOME. P.S. Your very "funny" IMY! I learned that IMY stands for "I'll miss you."
• Stay a THUG! I'm not sure I was ever a thug, but I guess now I get to stay one

Pi Day

American Historians have July 4th (Independence Day).
Somnambulists have January 3rd (Festival of Sleep Day).
Architects have September 3rd (Skyscraper Day).
Christians have December 25th (Christmas).
But what about math people? What do they have? Oh yea, that's right, we have PI DAY!

March 14th is Pi day, every year, celebrating the first three digits of the magnanimous Greek letter pi. This year for Pi day I went to school and taught about circles. But then I went to a pi party! All four of the people in the above picture are high school math teachers with a passion for pi (and pie, as you'd have it). At this party we shared our favorite math jokes (What did the 0 say to the 8? - I like your belt!) and talked about our favorite numbers. It was a major math fest that alienated all the non math nerds. Most people may want to look at this in disgust, but they would be ill advised to do so on March 14. That's our day. Word!
Pie was served at the party. I would say that it wasn't a very good place to pick up on chicks. Any girl I started a conversation with ended pretty quickly due to my math references...  Not even my favorite math pick up line worked- "Dang girl! Can I lay tangent to those curves?"
Note: My shirt was the first 3,045 digits of pi on it; the girl on the left has a shirt that has pi telling i to 'Get real!' and i responding with 'Be rational!'; the girl on the right's shirt says "QT pi"; and the girl on the far right is a Math Ninja, apparently.