Miss Wells, what's a ...?
The past 3 weeks of work were quite interesting. (Those of you reading this that knew me in high school or college will get a kick out of this.)
As most of you know, I teach 7th grade science. Two weeks ago my class was learning about invertebrates and we did a squid dissection as a part of that unit. Well, kids were asking me what this part was by the top of the head. I told them very non-chalantly that it was the gonads. Then, the question I dreaded the entire unit came from almost every group, "What's a gonad?" So, I got to talk about the facts of life. Lucky me.
We got to the point of learning about amphibians, which means we did a frog dissection. To prepare for the dissection I had them color worksheets that showed the internal organs, so when it came time to dissect they would know where to find them. Here came another opportunity to teach the facts of life. "Miss Wells, what's a testis?" (I wish you could hear how they pronounced it- just like it's written.)
I replied, "Depending on whether you're a girl or boy, you'll have either 2 testis or 2 ovaries." You could see the light bulbs coming on over their heads. And then they'd get embarassed. It was so funny.
My plea to all of you parents; please teach your children the proper names of body parts and what they do. I'm teaching junior high kids what an esophagus and trachea are along with the above mentioned things.
Sometimes people think that only little kids say the darndest things, but 7th graders make me
laugh every day.
posted by Wishing Wells at 6:06 PM
3 Comments:
That has to be an intimidating job! I bet you'll have quite a collection of stories in just a few year from teaching the facts of life. I like the expression of the girl in the last picture. That's how I feel about dissecting frogs, too. Happy Friday to you!
Man I'm impressed... because I too have disected a squid in my science days but I was a student at ACU not a 7th grader! The coolest part was after we disected it then we got to fry part of it and eat it if we wanted- Raina can vouch for me she and Elisa (Knox) Brantley were my lab partners. Mayeb you can add a little fried squid to next years curriculum!! :)
Oh, Chris - that is disgusting!! I hated this part of jr high science class... I guess that is why I majored in elem ed... Katie, you have a such a gift for working with these kids... I am sure you are a real blessing to them!
I will try to teach my boys the propper names for body parts, but the word "gonads" just just makes me cringe! :-)
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