Author's note: Bored one fine summer afternoon, I randomly decided to write about each of my classes from freshman year. Each class has its own piece of lined paper, and I've filled both sides of the page for each class- no going under, no going over.
There's really no point to these, other than a glimpse into my life and a simple writing exercise.
I've got them organised by class periods (at my school, we have the same schedule, same order, every day, five days a week).
Names have been changed so I don't get yelled at, and have been signified by {this}.
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Period One: Biology
Biology is a unique class. I sit for most of the year in the front. It is taught by Mrs. {Venezuela}, or Mrs. {V}. She is both insane and brilliant at the same time. A good way to start off the day.
I love biology. Picking things apart to find out how they tick is mind-boggling. Science has always been my favourite. I like investigating things. Miz V delivers just that. We do some awesome labs. She teaches us genetics and heredity by having us create strange marshmallow creatures called Reebops. We get a first look at DNA by extracting it from strawberries. I still know how and sometimes do so out of boredom. We even make our own fossils. Miz V is amazing. She oft makes us do the labs before teaching us the lesson. Trial-by-fire stuff.
The work is a challenge. I enjoy challenges. Miz V is a real scientist, so she nitpicks our lab write-ups like no tomorrow. I’ve always done well on these, until Miz V got her hands on them. I often got calls from {Ralph} and {Erica}- and the occasional conference call on speakerphone- to discuss homework.
My classmates are awesome, if not a bit irksome. Honours freshmen. Well-behaved, but overly-analytic at times. The stupid questions they ask make me want to choke them. Miz V handles it spectacularly. I made a note to study her teaching methods fully. Might be useful for the future.
We spend second semester teaching the class ourselves. We pick a topic, research it, and teach it to everyone else. I pick Cultural Barriers to Science. In other words, how morals and law and religion and such get in the way of scientific advancement. My presentation comes second-to-last. The majority of people do slideshows. Boring, drab slideshows. I start my lesson off with a slideshow- but mine is fake. Just to break the ice. I start an open-floor discussion and give out candy to those who volunteer. My lesson is a huge hit. I get a C because I didn’t hand in a lesson plan.
My lesson is somewhat marred by the doubling of our class size. A long term, long hated substitute down the hall allegedly slapped a student. She handed in her resignation the next day. Her class is combined with mine. Cue final exam cram session. The substitute’s teaching has been lackluster at best. The horror stories are endless. My best mate- who suffers bad asthma- had an attack in her class once. She couldn’t breathe. The teacher {Miz R} would not let her go to the nurse. My mate went anyway. Miz R is the talk of the school until the end of the year. Go figure.
Miz V adopts a green flotation Noodle towards the end of the year. She whacks it on the desk of anyone sleeping. It makes a sound like a sonicboom. It evolves into a half joke half threat thing. {Ralph} is obsessed with it.
I end the year with a high B; 87%. Go figure.
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P.S.: If you want the recipe to extract strawberry DNA, let me know. You just need a few household chemicals and it's really cool. The DNA is white and feels like bogies.
