My Math and Science Class -- Learning With Humor

Yeah, my name is Fred and not Greg. You must've heard about me before in here. Thanks to our friend Lord, we are going to share some anecdotal situations, that made my science and math class really, really fun.

Arithmetic operations

I look back and just smile myself at the simple thought.There are so many students that have come up with stories of their own, and some other ones that I made up myself. For instance, math can be boring if we take it too serious. One time I asked this kid named Henry, to come up with practical examples of numerical operations.

"Oh that one is easy Teacher!" he said. "When my sister hugged her boyfriend that was addition; when they got mad at each other and end up breaking up, that would mean subtraction." He was great with an originality of his own. I wanted to test him and made him go the extra mile. "How about long divisions Henry?" I said.

"Well, dad found out that my sister and him were more than just 'friends,' and kicked his behind (Arse for Mike Mucalhy's UK friends). That was a long division... to say the least!"

I was teaching second graders as a substitute teacher over the first years of my career, and that was really fun. These kids rarely lied. This one comes to my mind: one time I was asking Thomas, how much was... let's say, "You have four roses for Mother's day and I give you four more Tommy. How many roses will you have in your hands?"

"Nine," said Thomas.

"No Thomas, take your time and answer again," I replied.

"Teacher, I already had one rose in my hands. So, one plus eight makes nine!"

The whole class went nuts!

One time I asked Mark, another second grader, "If you have a five dollar bill in your hands, Mark, and, let's say... you ask your mom for one extra dollar... How much money would you have?" That was just a simple 'addition' example for him, and his fellow classmates that were dying to learn with my new method.

"Five teacher...!" answered Mark.

"Wait a minute! Are you sure? Do you see my fingers? Can you try again?" I replied a little surprised. I was giving away the answer with my two hands. But he was just sure of his answer: " Five, because my mom wouldn't lend me any. I've been grounded for 3 days."

This was honestly the best answer from a second grader, and shame on her mommy. His name was Steve, and he might be 16 by now. I guess kids are taught to be honest and he topped the cake. I was asking him about his summer vacation, and everything was cool, until I myself came out with the typical question: "What does your father do?"

"Whatever mom says...!" That was it. I gave him 3 extra points.

I was teaching conversions and I figured, maybe if I ask some real life situation questions, along with the conversion chart on the black board, my class would understand better.

"Okay, Victor. Stop sucking your thumb, and tell me: if you have a box which contains a 10 foot snake... How...?"
"But Sir, snakes don’t have feet."