In unrelated news, why does every student who enters the room feel the need to comment on the smell? I KNOW it smells bad. Seriously. This is not a new discovery.

I suspect it's related to the "This tastes like shit...here, try it!" phenomenon. We're all just looking for shared crappy experiences.

And of course there's the HGttG observation about humans needing to state the obvious or our brains will start working. But STILL. Splorch, I tell you, splorch a lot.

And now, I should be cramming chemistry.

Okay, I just opened the chemistry book to a random page and came across this:

"59. Captain Kirk has set a trap for the Klingons who are threatening an innocent planet. He has sent small groups of fighter rockets to sites that are invisible to Klingon radar and put a decoy in the open. He calls this the 'fishhook' strategy. Mr. Spock has sent a coded message to the chemists on the fighters to tell the ships what to do next."

And then there are clues to the message having to do with various chemicals.

OMG!

is furiously envious of Emily

is furiously envious of Emily

Er. For the chemistry? Or the smelly room?

Alas, the lovely geekiness seems to have been just a small tidbit in an otherwise ordinary chemistry book. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go compose a note-taking guide about metallurgy. And pretend I know what this means:

CaCO3(s) -(heat) CaO(s) + CO2(g)

Well, okay, I know what it means. I just don't know why.

Actually, first I need to make several copies of a guide to modeling the large intestine.

Okay, I take it back. You can be envious. My job is bizarre but cool.

CaCO3(s) -(heat) CaO(s) + CO2(g)

I read that as a recipe for hot cocoa.

Carbonated hot cocoa.

"59. Captain Kirk has set a trap for the Klingons who are threatening an innocent planet. He has sent small groups of fighter rockets to sites that are invisible to Klingon radar and put a decoy in the open. He calls this the 'fishhook' strategy. Mr. Spock has sent a coded message to the chemists on the fighters to tell the ships what to do next."

That is so wrong! I cannot believe it.

Everyone knows that the Enterprise has photon torpedoes, not rockets! Jeesh!

Also, they seem to have used "rockets" to mean, well, "ships" or "TIE fighters" or something.

Whilst CaBil is very right, I still love the fact that the Chemistry Book people made Star Trek Fanfic to teach the kidz. Although I do not envy Emily the smelly room.

otoh, today I had to assess a new kid, of whom I knew little beyond the fact that he was Thai, had SEN, and had a twin at another school who doesn't have SEN. He spent the first hour or so crying. It was Snot-a-go-go, with occasional wails of 'I..want..my...MUM!' demonstrating that he could speak at least some English. The first lesson was PE, so he was outside weeping with Mr John, our universally adored, long-braid-wearing, tattoo-sporting Aussie PE teacher. He even managed to make himself sick in the middle of the field, to demonstrate how serious he was about wanting his mum. Nice.

He returned to my class still weeping.

I kicked the day's planning to the curb and instead of an hour or so of literacy (mostly carrying on with our writing project) we had circle time games, painting and singing. And he cheered the fuck up! Yay!

By snacktime he was perfectly chipper.

And I have to say - my kids are just AWESOME. He's a tiny wee thing (allegedly 8, whereas my kids are mostly 6 and 7, but he's way smaller than my lot) and he was a weepy mess, and I SAID to my little buggers (as he was wrapped round his mum weeping outside the classroom): "Look, I need your help! He's scared stiff! We need to help him feel welcome!" And, OMG, they were freaking ADORABLE! So supportive and kind and friendly and gentle and just freaking FANTASTIC that I'm all tearing up just thinking about it. They totally took him under their collective wing. It was great. Go Team Kids!