Junior High Science
For some reason, I've been thinking more lately about teaching Junior High. I taught Science for two years at a private Christian school, and though I would never go back to it, I do have some great memories.
Junior highers can be snotty, defiant, and irresponsible, but they are also hilarious.
Some of my favorite students were a group of boys who proudly classified themselves as nerds. One boy, Bobby, would beg me to let him read the encylopedia in class when he had finished his work. Bobby and his friends once drew a picture of the human body and were naming each body part. Larry the left arm, Kevin the kidney, Paul the pancreas, etc.
Bobby also developed a keen interest in a creature called the Pangolin. He would talk about it constantly to anyone who would listen. I didn't believe that it was a real animal until he showed it to me on the internet. He had even made his own website about it.
Those guys had me laughing hysterically on many occasions.
The same kids also got themselves in trouble during our frog dissection project because they decided it would be a great idea to play chef and thinly slice the meat off of the frog's leg. They had been warned that mutlilation of their frog would affect their grade, and sure 'nuff, it did. It was funny, though.

I often wonder what those guys are doing now. I guess they'd be Juniors in high school, and I hope they are still as happy and as indifferent to what other people think of them as they were in 7th grade.  ¶ 9:50 AM