One of my delights as an elementary school LD/BD resource teacher is collaboratively teaching with general educators.
During a third grade math class one bright girl told me, "e2 = y." When I questioned her on how she figured that out, she explained, "e is the fifth letter of the alphabet, so e2 is 25, and y is the 25th letter." That's thinking outside the box!

Kathy Froehlich
Florissant, Missouri

Several years ago, I was doing a unit on trigonometric functions with my Algebra I class. On the second day of the unit, in reviewing the meaning of the abbreviations used, I asked the class what "sin" was.

A student in the back of the room raised his hand and said, "Mr. Hesselton, I'm not sure what it is, but if you asked Jimmy Swaggart, he could probably tell you all about it!"

Robert Hesselton
Ganado, Arizona

One day when my pre-kindergarten students were busy with a readiness activity, it seemed like a good time to review their parents' first names.

Many of my little ones were still unable to give the first name of each parent in case of an emergency.
As we were going around the table, one of them said her mom's name was Jill. I said, "Wow, what a coincidence, that was what my mom was going to name me when I was born."

She replied, "Isn't it a good thing that she decided to name you Mrs. Sheehy instead."

Tamara Sheehy
Muskegon, Michigan

My second year of teaching, I was teaching my fourth graders 90 degree angles. I had the students stand up and turn around 360 degrees, 180 degrees, and then 90 degrees. They started by facing forward and then turning to the left (90 degrees).
After the students visually saw the examples on the white board and physically did the turns, one student showed me that she was definitely not a visual or a kinesthetic learner. She learned in a very literal way.

She said, "OK, let me see if I understand this right. Ninety degrees means how hot or cold a triangle is!"

Stephanie Bugash
Las Vegas, Nevada

As an elementary school counselor, I was talking to a five-year-old who was having difficulties in school.
I asked her, "If you could change one thing about school, what would it be?" She said, "Some people here don't know that I'm a princess!"

Rebecca Schmidt
Mayfield Heights, Ohio

Recently our high school faculty sponsored a sock hop for Relay for Life.

One of my students came up to me at the dance and said that she had recently used some of the acting skills she'd learned in my drama class. I told her how pleased I was … then she said, "Yep, I really wanted to come to the sock hop tonight, so I called my boss and convinced him I was too sick to go to work."

Janey Branson
Hutsonville, Illinois

My first year of teaching, over 25 years ago, was in an era when tie-dyed T-shirts were in great fashion.
My sixth grade class was completing a unit on Hawaii, and as a culminating art project, I thought it would be fun, as well as educational, to let the students design and make their own brightly colored "Hawaiian" shirts. I instructed them to go home and talk to their parents about bringing a white T-shirt for tie-dyeing.

The next morning I discovered that one of my students, a happy, wide-eyed 11-year-old, had not quite grasped the concept. He ran up to me before school started and bluntly informed me that his mother said she would have to know more about that sky-diving thing that we were planning.

Gail Clay
Aberdeen, North Carolina

This happened during testing for report cards. Phonics is still an integral part of our kindergarten program.

The children learn a key word for every consonant, for example, a is for apple, b is for ball, etc. If they can't remember the sound of a letter, they refer to the key word's initial sound. I asked Matthew to give the sound for the consonants and we were doing well until we got to the letter "f."

He just couldn't remember the sound, so I reminded him to use the key word: "Matt, remember the sound of Frog?" And sure enough he did … "ribbit." In kindergarten, you just never know.

Patricia Sabold
Wyomissing Hills, Pennsylvania

When lecturing to my Westfield Middle School art students, leading toward a drawing reflecting American Indian art, I wrote the word "symmetry" on the board.

I asked my students for a definition of this. A young man raised his hand and offered, "I know what that means. That's where they bury dead people!"

Cathy Breitholtz
Algonquin, Illinois

Literally Speaking

While reviewing what we had learned about territorial expansion in the United States, one student volunteered that the United States had signed a treaty that set the northern border of the Oregon Territory at the 49th parallel. Noticing that one student was not quite paying attention, I said, "And Jacob, the U.S. signed that treaty with . . . . " Snapping back to reality, and not missing a beat, Jacob replied, "A pen?"

Holly Powell
Portland, Oregon

On the message board at the Web site for the National Science Teachers Association, students often post messages asking teachers to reply to their questions.

One middle school student complained that there were no classes on religion at her school. Another student replylying to the message, advised, "Check with the teachers and administrators. If that doesn't work, check with your princeable."
I've never seen it spelled that way before-I think most princeables would like it!!

Pamela Galus
Omaha, Nebraska

I was having an informal reading discussion with my fourth graders. At one point, the boy sitting next to me and I simultaneously asked the same question of another student. We laughed, and he said, "Hey, Mrs. C., we think alike." He paused for a minute contemplating that concept and then said, "Scary thought!"

Cindy Cummings
Westminster, Maryland

I was walking down the hall behind two kindergarten students when one of them turned to the other and announced, "Hey! You know what? I was born on my birthday!" The second student turned to the first, his eyes wide with amazement, and said, "I was born on my birthday, too!"

Dianne Garczynski
Johnstown, Pennsylvania

I thought this was kind of cute... Living in a state prone to earthquakes, we had been having earthquake drills throughout the year. One day as we were lining up to go to PE we felt the school jerk and then the ground started rolling. The children all hurried to their desks and got under them and held on. As we were under our desks feeling the building move up and down with the ground I heard a small voice speak..."Mrs. Foote, Is this a real one or just another drill?"

Nancy Foote
Tacoma, Washington

Our school was scheduled to have a tornado drill one afternoon, and I was discussing with my seventh graders what would happen and where we were to go. I said, "When the siren goes off we immediately get out of our desks and quietly leave the room." One boy enthusiastically asked, "So we get to go outside then?"

Sara Schlotte
Mankato, Minnesota