Our valedictorian in high schools was controversial (at least with the kids I knew in honors and AP classes) because they didn't use weighted GPA for valedictorian. Hence our valedictorian was never in a honors or AP class and was not regarded as being all that smart. At the time I remember it being a topic of bitter discussion amongst the AP and honors crowd.

Man, I keep telling my students that (the ones who can easily do the assigned work but don't see why they should have to do anything more challenging). They don't believe me.

I remember my AP English teacher really drilled the idea of "you think this is hard, just wait till you get to college" into our class. College wasn't nearly as tough as she made it sound, but she did a good job of motivating the class to step it up a notch.

Corwood - how terrible.

The woman who sits next door to my cubicle is the admin for a group upstairs, and she spoils her department! Today, she brought in a bunch of homemade treats for someone's b-day, and had a lot left over for those of us in the vicinity. I've had a chocolate-dipped rice krispie treat and a chocolate-dipped strawberry--yummmmm!

And the teacher just watched us.

Bet you and Doug learned your algebra real well, though.

Bet you and Doug learned your algebra real well, though.

Heh.

I think I told the story about how I had a huge crush on a woman in my first semester college calculus class. I tutored her, so I got to do the hard problems twice.

I lost one point the entire semester.

We know students have mastered a subject when they can teach others, after all.

Ah, tommyrot, the unexploited educational potential of sex appeal. I'm totally not kidding, either. I probably learned the most from teachers I had crushes on.

they do have PE. mac often runs races, places soccer, does something with hula hoops. He is lucky and has it twice a week. I say lucky because they rarely get recess.

They have PE at our school as well. It's on a rotation with Art and Music classes so it's either once or twice a week. They do exercises, dancing, numerous games, and some health education.

That makes sense somehow for city kids. I was wondering (what with the extra-curricular town programs they have now) whether they still do PE in school. Growing up, there was boys* little league in the summer, but that was it. No other team sports leagues.

It was quite a revelation to get to prep school and realize I was actually athletic.