body parts

in my 11th grade smart class after school, we were playing a game i've dubbed "category throwdown" for no other reason than i wanted it to have a name and didn't have one for it yet. there are two teams, and the game host (or hostess, in my case) names a category. each team goes back and forth, naming a thing from the category (no repeats) until one team can't name anything else.

so we're playing this game and i gave'em the category "body parts." we started out with easy things like hair and head and fingers and toes and elbows, but after 8 or 9 minutes of this game, the kids were getting creative. pancreas, thyroid, liver, kindeys. everyone was getting really into the game, shouting and pointing out the body parts as they said'em. the most excitable girl screams TALL FINGER! i would've had a hard time figuring out what she meant if she hadn't just given me the biggest, strongest flip off i've ever received.

indeed, my 11th grade student (unintentionally) gave me the bird in the middle of class. everyone busted up. she started doing this flailing, flapping-her-arms dance and going, "sorry sorry sorry teacha! sorry sorry sorry!"

so we're already in this laughy mood, and we must've been at least 10 minutes into the body part round by now. team 1 leaned in real close to each other and sort of started giggling, but it was the kind of giggle where they knew they shouldn't be laughing. something weird must be happening. one girl looks at me and, real shyly, goes...

"pussy."

i just lost it. broke into a hysterical laughter. everyone did. "EXCUSE ME! where did you learn that? you NEVER say that! it's so inappropriate!" i explained to everyone what it meant--learning is very important--but made all of them swear they'd never say who they learned it from.

teacher nicki's after school classes: semi-educational, mostly inappropriate.