And today seniors pranked my room

It’s been a long time since I got pranked!  Nice to know they care.



Eric

What is with all the coffee cans?

Anne--It is well known that I am the coffee hog in the school.  Those cans belonged to my "Great Wall of Coffee"

So the coffee cans were part of the prank?

What is in them?

awwww. this time of year between this and your gift thread (do teachers get the best gifts or what) i am feeling nostalgic. i don't often miss teaching, but i had a great time teaching high school (due to the fabulous students i was lucky enough to work with).

Not to be too critical here, Eric, but I think you need to grade them on their efforts.  I mean, that's a mediocre toilet-papering job, no?  Did they even make an attempt to Saran Wrap your desk drawers closed?  And I would take the coffee cans as a hint that I needed to jazz up my lecturing a bit more.....a veiled commentary by the students that each needed a full can of coffee to remain awake.  No gum sticking the feet of your chair to the floor?.....No drawer full of rotten apple cores after a semester of school lunches?  Hmmmm....what's with students these days??  :-)

All in jest!  ... LOL

I worked in a lab once where the supervisor kept getting on us, his students, for leaving test-tube labeling tape stuck on the lab benches....little odds and ends that didn't fit on the tube.  Over and over again he would come in when each of us was trying to focus on our experimentation and give us the grind.  So we finally tracked down his favorite set of micro-pipettors, the little hand-held tools that you use to transfer small volumes of liquid when setting up experiments, and in one fit of mock retribution, duct-taped all of them into one mass of tape and pipettors and placed them back in his drawer.
To his credit, he thought is was pretty amusing when he found them!.......

Here's to the end of another school year!....

Thanks Tereza!!

Yeah, this is a fun time of year—I am about as busy as I can be but it’s fun to see these things.


When I got to school on Friday, I saw two students, seniors, and one my former American History student.  My former student was duct-taping the other to a support column—while he was standing on a chair—so that the chair could be removed and he would be suspended by the duct tape.  

They saw me come in and had a little panic—I wasn’t supposed to be there yet (actually I was late).  I smiled, laughed, and helped wrap the duct tape.  I got a couple of pictures.  I would love to share but of course there are all those rules and things.  




Eric

Anne,

Yes, the coffee cans are a part of the prank—a pretty harmless prank.  I have a whole collection of coffee cans stacked by my wall.  I joke that I will leave the Great Wall of Folgers to my successor to try and figure out.

They turned it into the Folgers Brick Road.




Eric

I found out who TP’d my room—one of my AP Psychology students.  She has her name on my wall and has a special, unique identifier by her name—5.  5 indicates that I had her for a total of five semesters, the most I can have a student.  That represents 1 semester of regular psychology? 2 semesters of U.S. History, and 2 semesters of AP Psychology.

How fun!!!




Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:......That represents 1 semester of regular psychology? 2 semesters of U.S. History, and 2 semesters of AP Psychology.

If you teach History and Psychology, then surely you must be a fan of Psychohistory:   https://psychohistory.com/

;-)

Oh Eric, have you met Professor Poutine? He's hilarious.

He's comparing countries to porcupines in this one:


Many of his videos are worth watching.

John,

History! Psychology! Great combination.  There is a profundity in history and something mystical about psychology.  

That’s how people first perceive it.  But I really need to deconstruct it—especially the psychology part.  Soooooo often people (and students are so vulnerable to this) see psychology as a tool of mind control and manipulation—and put into the hands of a teacher is a formula for automatic mass brainwashing and certain submission of willpower to authority.

If that sounds dramatic that’s because it is.

I don’t brainwash, I don’t force students to do things against their will—that’s not what psychology is.

But they are under my mind control!  I do subvert coups and plots every day.  I am just one person and I have to find a way to mollify twenty rebellious students at a time.

This has nothing to do with the class or subject of psychology and has everything to do with being a teacher.  And if I can use “Psychology Teacher” as a subversive tool to cow a rebellion, you bet I do!  And in short while, the ringleaders are isolated, their would-be supporters afraid to act.  Others actually like my style—he just put down a rebellion by giving someone “the look.”

My favorite technique is the “pregnant pause.”  I am up teaching and some kid off task.  I could stop him immediately, but I usually prefer to give him enough rope to hang himself (this is all metaphor).  So while I am teaching, I just stop mid sentence.  It’s quiet.  Too quiet.  The whole class knows exactly what is happening except for this helpless kid who suddenly finds himself the center of attention of the whole class and a teacher who is making direct, slightly disturbing, unblinking eye contact all while smiling with the biggest grin!


WORKS. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!




Eric

Jay, I finally got the chance to watch the video—nice job by the way—it was pretty much right on target.

I will give my own historical summary and try to steer clear of politics:

Basically everything he said was spot on with one exception—early in the video he suggested that the porcupine strategy was a 21st century adaptation.  It is ancient.  But I will give a somewhat mid-tier age example.  Switzerland has to be the porcupiniest country on earth.  Its strategy is to make itself absolutely impossible to invade, which is helped by being extremely mountainous (which is terrible for invasion) and holds no real strategic value.  Even Hitler decided against invading Switzerland in WWII after briefly considering it.  Switzerland doubles down on this by having universal male conscription (with a few exceptions), that is, after high school, every male citizen goes to boot camp and is trained in basic infantry.  When finished, each new infantry graduate is issued an assault rifle and is expected to keep it, maintain it and be proficient in its use.  In the extremely unlikely chance of an invasion, every male citizen is instantly an armed member of the Swiss Army.  In the United States there is a right to bear arms, but in Switzerland there is a *responsibility* bear arms!

So really, there is no point in invading Switzerland!!  The ultimate porcupine!!

I also liked that he touched on navies, but I can address that later.




Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:...—nice job by the way—it was pretty much right on target.

... Switzerland!!  The ultimate porcupine!!

The trouble with short 'infotainment' is that you have to leave bits out! I do think he did one about Switzerland at some point, and yes, their approach to security has worked so far, thank goodness. The more urbanized a country becomes, the fewer farmers out there on the edges to keep their eyes open!