Channeling Mr. Nottger

In 8th grade I had a class on earth science, which had a section on weather.  One day I bounded into class and before the bell rang I said, "It's a beautiful day outside!  We are lucky to be here in earth science studying weather..."

Mr. Nottger was not pleased by the way he thought I was mocking him and the class.  He called me aside and forced me to sit in the corner until class started.  Seriously.

During the class we did a project where we learned that as you go up in the atmosphere temperatures drop (no surprise) but at a certain elevation temperatures actually rise before dropping again.  Before we completed the project I said, "Oh, this is to show that temperatures actually go up above the troposphere."

Mr. Nottger looked at me and said, "Yes.  I have never had a student who knew that."

I basically replied, "I am a weather geek and until today I loved studying weather."

The look on his face was priceless.  At that age I didn't know the term calling someone a "douche" but that's what it was.

*****
Last week I was so convinced that my students had cheated big time on a quiz that I spent hours writing two completely different finals (with two versions each - four finals in total).  I asked the solid A students to take the final at a different time (so others couldn't cheat off of them).  I gave the final in a really large room with assigned seats and had a colleague join me to help monitor.

The result?  The scores were really high.  Apparently, my students didn't cheat more than normal last week; they actually learned the material.

May wonders never cease.

And, yes, I feel like a douche.