"What comes after G?" a welcome back to school post

School started.

Meeting new students is always nerve racking.  I  was having teacher nightmares, you know, the one where my alarm doesn't go off and there's a room full of students and no teacher and I get a phone call asking me where I am and if I know what time it is.  Sigh.

However, this year has already shown some real hurdles. For example, when labeling papers from A-Z, one student stopped at G. I told her to continue and she said, "I don't know what comes next"
I told her "H".  
She stared at me.  I said it again, "H".  
More staring.  
Then I said, "hache"
Finally, she wrote down an H.

I am supposed to get this girl to pass a NY state science regents exam.  The same exam you and I would take in high school.  It isn't fair.  But guess what?  
I already got this girl to pass the regents.
She's just in my class again because she failed my class.

I started the year off with an activity I did with my Sci-Ed group.  The Marshmallow Challenge!
Here's the Marshmallow Challenge TED Talk. It's a real thing! Thousands of people have done it!

I give instructions through a prezi  and have the kids build the tallest structure they can out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, 1 yard of tape, 1 yard of string, and it must have a marshmallow sitting on top.

When I tried it, I wanted to snap all the spaghetti sticks and throw them across the room.  
Compared to me and my rage filled angst against marshmallows during this activity, my kids did rather well.  
The time constraint did not faze them at all.  
The time constraint made me go nuts.

It's hard to say how this year will go.  
I am trying to keep my kids terrified for now.
I'm just kidding.  
Sort of.
My little nephew is helping me keep my game face on.  
Look at his face. This kid is not having it.

I think its true what they say, don't smile until January.