Thursday, January 22, 2009

Candid Conversations

Besides my almost daily interactions with the "German" mother, I have conversations with my students. Recently I was talking to a student about Junie B. Jones books (which I love). We were looking at the titles of a few and came upon the book called Junie B. Jones and some Sneaky Peaky Spying. This student turned to me and said, "My dad is teaching me how to be a spy." My interest was peaked and I said, "What kinds of things does he teach you?" He told me about listening to people's conversations and peeking through windows. Then he said, "In order to be a good spy, sometimes you have to be really quiet when you peek in other people's houses." Very interesting. Do you ever wonder if you should report these things and to whom would you report it to? Then he popped up with, "You have to do that when you want to know if they are talking about you." OK. Good to know.

A couple days ago, a flock of students were gathered around my desk before school started. One said, "Last night a got a huge zit on my back. It really hurt. My mom had to pop it. It popped all over." Oh, thank you very much. That began a largely grotesque conversation about acne, its causes, and people with it. But, I did learn something new. Do you know what acne is called when its on your back? It's not called acne. It's called "backne." Good to know.

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