A Shrewdness of Apes

An Okie teacher banished to the Midwest. "Education is not the filling a bucket but the lighting of a fire."-- William Butler Yeats

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Thursday Thirteen Number 2


Thirteen Things about Ms. Cornelius


Thirteen Actual Certified Excuses Why Students Didn't Turn in Their Homework


1. I was in too much pain from the tattoo I got last weekend. Wanna see it? (Last May-- and girl turns around to show me her lower back before I frantically try to stop her. It was infected, by the way.)
2. The window in the back of my car was broken in the last hail storm. It rained this morning, but I had left my notebook in the back seat, and it got ruined. (September 12)
3. I put the assignment in the back of my truck, and it flew out on the highway. (October 20)
4. I was in the emergency room all night with a sinus infection. (October 30, December 15, January 8-- same kid)
5. I didn't do my research paper because last night was my mom's boyfriend's birthday, and they made me go out to eat. (Paper had been assigned for three weeks, last November 7)
6. I left my jumpdrive at home. (January 22)
7. Our printer is out of ink. (Every. Single. Week. At least twice a week.)
8. I got food poisoning at Taco Bell. (November 27. And hasn't everyone?)
9. I emailed it to you last night. Whaddya mean, it didn't get here?! (September 26)
10. My mom refused to bring it up to school. She is so mean! (December 13)
11. I let my friend borrow my book, and I put my homework in it. (December 18)
12. I can't get my locker open. (November 13 and January 12)
13. I lost the internet at home last night. I then tried to email one of my friends, but email didn't work either. (last April)

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. Rashenbo
2. ancsweetnsassygal
3. johnh985
4. Mr. c
5. Jess, the computer diva
6. momtoanangel
7. Tour Marm
(leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!



13 Comments:

At 1/25/07, 6:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lol, great list! You've got some interesting students. I particularly love the concern over the email not working when the internet went out :)

Happy Thursday.

 
At 1/25/07, 6:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh wow...what excuses! Do the students know you keep track of the excuses? lol You have my admiration for the job you do everyday!

My TT is up on my 13 fav tv shows.

 
At 1/25/07, 8:08 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just got:
My guinea pig ate the corner of it.
She then proceeded to show me the bits. Of the homework, not the guinea pig.
Great list, although my lovelies just stick with the "I just forgot" or the "I didn't hand it in?" excuse. Yours are much more creative.

 
At 1/25/07, 9:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Some great excuses. A great list.

My 13 are up.

 
At 1/25/07, 11:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your list had me laughing out loud. Especially the one about the printer running out of ink, which I also hear at least a couple times a week.

My 13 are up at http://www.culbertclassroom.org/thoughts

 
At 1/26/07, 6:29 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm going to start collecting excuses now! Of course, I teach apathetic community college students, and most of them don't bother giving me excuses. Sigh.

 
At 1/26/07, 8:18 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is a great list! I must say #13 grates on me something awful. You LOST the Internet? Are you sure? Did you check under the bed? On the counter? Think back....where did you last have it?

That's almost as good as my co-workers calling to tell me the Internet is down. The WHOLE Internet? Is this on CNN as "breaking news?" Because it's gotta be a nefarious plot. Are you sure it's not just your Internet *connection* that's down?

I know. There's nothing more annoying than a wordsmithing geek. At any rate, my list of 13 quotes I like is up :)

 
At 1/26/07, 8:21 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

LOL- what a great list of horrible excuses! I am a homeschooling mom, so I know when my kids are trying to use a bad excuse, I think they sometimes forget I live with them! LOL

 
At 1/26/07, 9:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love the list. :-)

I get the email excuse a lot too. And, the printer ran out of ink. Ughy!

Can't they be a tad bit more creative?????

I can add one that may put a smile on your face.

Had my kids do a CD project with a paper. Kid comes in to say to me that his dog really did eat his homework. Gave me a note from Mom, a baggy with the destroyed CD, and the paper with fresh doggie slober all over it. Student left his CD and paper on the coffee table over night and their 8 month old Lab puppy decided to have a midnight snack on his project.

I kept that baggy as reminder to me and I do share it with my students at least once a year. :-)

 
At 1/26/07, 6:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I loved this list! I get "I lost my jumpdrive" a whole lot. And "The printer doesn't work." What's really funny is that I don't require my kids to type their work!

 
At 1/27/07, 2:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm still having problems deciphering the Thursday 13 code. (I've just started blogging and obviously need, HTML for Dummies!)

However, you're welcome to visit mine at my site!

Your homework excuses pressed a button!

During my very short time as a classroom teacher, the first assignment I gave out was to be written on one sheet of paper, front and back:

1. On the front of the sheet: Give me a valid excuse why you could not do/turn in your homework.

2. On the back of the sheet: Make up the biggest lie/story you can imagine
why you could not do your homework

I collected the papers the next day (everyone turned it in) and read the best of them to the class.
Hilarious!

I then took a tally of the valid excuses, assigned each excuse a number, and posted the results in the classroom. i.e. #4 - Dog ate my homework

After asking them to take down at least five phone numbers of friends and people they thought would be responsible, I announced that completion of homework was necessary, their responsibility, and non-negotiable. (obviously there were some situations...)

The first few times students did not hand in their assignments, I asked their excuse and then the reference number of the excuse. I left it up to the class to judge if it was valid. Peer pressure wins out!

I had no trouble after that.

 
At 1/28/07, 6:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Forgot to get by for your list. Great job! At least they begin to come up with creative excuses by middle and high school. At my level they just tell me they don't have it with no excuse.

 
At 2/19/07, 1:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello!

very nice post... enjoyed it very much.

Thank you
tosa inu

 

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