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[stitch]

My students all knew about Lucille Ball and the candy conveyor belt when I mentioned it as an example of an enzyme becoming saturated.

OTOH, today in lecture, few of them understood my references to the assigned textbook.

One student told me on Monday he didn't read the book because he didn't have time to. His preferred method of studying was grilling me after class about the points I had made in class. I kept saying "This is all explained in detail in the book." I'm happy to clarify, but it was pretty obvious he had not done any reading or thinking about the topic before class and was not planning to do any later, either. I was his oracle, and he wanted answers.

Then he admitted he didn't have time to read the book. I suggested he find the time. It's a rather expensive doorstop, but a decent textbook.

My students don't seem to know who MacGyver is, and I find that particularly depressing. My family calls me MacGyver. A whole generation of students apparently lacks any appreciation for the numerous ways you can save the day with duct tape, paper clips, a pocket knife, and a brain.

Maybe I need to find a good MacGyver clip to show next class.....

There's always the McGruber clips from the Betty White SNL.  Though I personally thought that bit was rather lame.

[amlithist]

In HS and college I dated a guy whose dad bred horses.  We'd all sit in the barn after work on Fri/Sat. nights with the radio on, talking and playing cards, and we had to watch one horse--he'd reach over the rail and steal your Busch/Bud Lite longnecks if you left them sitting too close.

[der_gadfly]

All this talk of horses... none of them ever talked did they? Because if they did, ang you mentioned it in class, they would miss the reference to Mr. Ed and Wiiillllbuuuurrrrrrr

[gennimom]

P.S.: The Halloween Oreos are unnatural and abhorrent.

GD had a friend from Scotland who, upon visiting the States, discovered Oreos. He subsequently sent her a package of the Halloween ones. She wanted to know if the Oreos had gone bad!


MTG: My horse Simon has been known to take an Oreo apart, lick off all the good stuff, and spit the cookies out. Of course, this is the same horse who will eat plums and spit the pits out, as well. Amazing skills for an animal with no paws or hands.

Heh. Tamagon liked the cookie part, too. I never tried giving him plums. He did love watermelon, though.

 (And here I was afraid I was going to be censured by other horse people for letting have Oreos and Mt. Dew to begin with.)

It'd be hard to censure.  Mine loved pink lemonade and BBQ Fritos.  They ended up becoming his horse show treats. I knew one pony around whom you couldn't leave a burger unattended.  Who could ever imagine having to guard your burger from a pony?

Simon doesn't like the cookie. He likes the filling. And we didn't give him plums. He'd steal them off the plum tree next to his pasture. I worried about it, considering the pits are poisonous, until GD showed me what he did with them.

Simon's mom loved chocolate covered doughnuts. I'd stop at the Shipley's and pick up four. Two for me and two for her. We also found out chocolate bars weren't safe from her. I had a Hershey Almond Bar once, still in the foil wrapper. I ate a bite and left it on the fence while we washed horses prepping for a show. A little while later we realized my bar was missing, foil wrapper and all. She was the only one close enough to reach it.

Alastrina, a friend of mine had a horse that would eat burgers AND hotdogs. Carnivore!

ALH, I think some horses like beer as another version of the grain they eat.

[bioteacher]

My students all knew about Lucille Ball and the candy conveyor belt when I mentioned it as an example of an enzyme becoming saturated.

I love this!!  Mind if I steal it, bioteacher?

I can trade you one, maybe (it's kind of a stretch, but the student got it). 

Of course you may. I like the oreo analogy, too. Analogies are what I do. Many of my students love them. A few sigh and roll their eyes (90/10 seems to be the ratio of love to hate). My "gift" is inventing analogies on the fly. If it works, I add it to the arsenal. Someday, in my free time, I should collect them all in to a booklet.

Nothing explains cell signaling like the Mousetrap board game, after all. And yes, I bring it to class, set it up, turn the crank... and if it malfunctions, use is as an example of how pathways an malfunction, too! :-)

My students may hate me, they may complain on evaluations that I bring toys to class and spend time talking about Mousetrap. But to them I say: you remembered something. I win!

[barred_owl]

My students may hate me, they may complain on evaluations that I bring toys to class and spend time talking about Mousetrap. But to them I say: you remembered something. I win!

Are you me, bioteacher??!  I seriously doubt that your students hate you, though. 

Hmmm...maybe I should head out to Toys 'R' Us and pick up an Operation game for my anatomy class...

[notaprof]

My colleague directed a student to my office by saying, "And heeeeeere's Notaprof!"  We both started laughing at the student's blank and confused expression when it dawned on both of us that the student had probably never heard Ed McMahon say, "And heeeeere's Johnny!" It was confirmed when I asked if she had ever heard of Johnny Carson and her answer was a still puzzled, "No."  

We did educate her on this important popped cultural icon.

[krisanthe]

When I expressed my disbelief that they had never heard of Homestar Runner, one class told me "It's probably something from your generation."  I'm 26!!

...?  I don't know what Homestar Runner is either and I am also 26

[tinyzombie]

When I expressed my disbelief that they had never heard of Homestar Runner, one class told me "It's probably something from your generation."  I'm 26!!

...?  I don't know what Homestar Runner is either and I am also 26

OMG, google it! It's fantastic!

TZ, 27

[elsie]

Particularly this email to Strongbad: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail64.html.

[lotsoquestions]

Is it not the parents' job to tell their kids about some of this stuff? How do you not know about apartheid? Or vinyl records? 

My sixth grader has a teacher bring  in a record player the other day to play some Civil War songs for them.  My daughter tried to describe it for me:  "She brought in this box thing, and then she put these round plastic things on there and they spun around -- what do you call those?  They sounded really scratchy."

Records, dear.  They're called records.  (Felt like a *(()) dinosaur).

[dr_alcott]

Particularly this email to Strongbad: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail64.html.

Funny! Thanks, Elsie.

[chaosbydesign]

One of my horses loved Diet Coke and french fries (with ketchup). I bought them for him at shows, but he still tried to steal mine as well.

P.S.: The Halloween Oreos are unnatural and abhorrent.

GD had a friend from Scotland who, upon visiting the States, discovered Oreos. He subsequently sent her a package of the Halloween ones. She wanted to know if the Oreos had gone bad!


MTG: My horse Simon has been known to take an Oreo apart, lick off all the good stuff, and spit the cookies out. Of course, this is the same horse who will eat plums and spit the pits out, as well. Amazing skills for an animal with no paws or hands.

Heh. Tamagon liked the cookie part, too. I never tried giving him plums. He did love watermelon, though.

 (And here I was afraid I was going to be censured by other horse people for letting have Oreos and Mt. Dew to begin with.)

It'd be hard to censure.  Mine loved pink lemonade and BBQ Fritos.  They ended up becoming his horse show treats. I knew one pony around whom you couldn't leave a burger unattended.  Who could ever imagine having to guard your burger from a pony?