Lifelong Learner

Teachers are supposed to be "lifelong learners," meaning that we need to keep up with developments in our fields (although I doubt math changes all that often), teaching techniques, technology (dreaded by every teacher), etc.  I don't know about being a "lifelong" learner, but my students definitely teach me new things every day...

LMSs -- short for people who constantly post "like my status" on Facebook.  "Like my status if you love Katy Perry!"  "Like my status if you think I'm hot!"  "Like my status if..." ... hopefully you get the picture.
SMH -- short for "shaking my head" as in, "I'm shaking my head in disbelief at how stupid my classmate's question just was..."
Beavis and Butthead will never die -- I actually heard a kid quoting "Cornholio" the other day.  PS, if you don't know what this is, consider yourself lucky.  It's not worth googling to find out.
Movie Day -- loved by every student.  It also causes students to ask if we can watch the most ridiculous movies... no, we're not going to watch "Saw IV" in school.  No, we're not going to watch "The Hangover II." Geez!  (PS, we're having movie day because I have 1st period for 4 HOURS next week while other students take the ACT.  We're watching "Mr. Holland's Opus" because it's good, it's school-approved, and it everso loosely ties in with the sound waves we're discussing the next day)


Teachers are great tie-breakers.  If two students are debating a topic, they'll call you over as a neutral party to break the tie.
Students see teachers as an infinite pool of knowledge. They have a wealth of questions, and they expect us to know all the answers!!!  In the past two days, I've been asked how permanent magnets are made (which was actually a topic we were discussing in class), whether dark nail polish makes your skin look lighter or darker,  and where do hiccups come from. (I actually take great pride that my students ask me these questions and that I usually know the answers)


Cool points (even from geeky students) make me feel like I'm in the "in-crowd."  We were talking about magnetism the other day, and a student asked if there is enough magnetism in us to be attracted to a magnet.  I said no, that though we have iron in our bodies, it's not enough to attract us to a magnet.  A student in the front brought up a scene in X-Men 2 where Magneto magnetically pulls the iron out of a person.  I immediately replied that that was true, but that Mystique had injected him with extra iron.  Another student told me that it was really cool that I had seen that movie. (score!)  It totally didn't matter that the rest of the class were rolling their eyes...

What have you learned today?