Being a new teacher, means that each day is unpredictable and filled with adventures and mishaps. Some are worth telling, in order to make you laugh and for example in the following case, make you laugh AND preventing you from making the same mistake. And so we start this new series on Loopy’s Manifold.
As you may have guessed, I have decide to simply steal the method of naming this episodes, from THE FUNNIEST SHOW ON TELEVISION … that’s right, i’m talking about SCRUBS; and so we’re off.
I have now managed to get two hours of class behind me, (that totals to 8 hours, since i have 4 classes i’m in charge of). In order to set the tone, and get the message across that they will have to work hard thsi year, i decided to give my students a small bit of revision homework on the stuff they’d learned last year, at the end of the very first session of the year.
The exercise comprised of basic questions on electricity and some questions on heterogeneous/homogeneous mixtures (and no, i’m not talking about homogenous, in the sense that “what goes homogeneous mean? A really really bright gay guy. No that’s not what we’re talking about here). Anyways, one of the questions was to give three examples of a homogeneous mixture in daily life, and 3 examples of a heterogenous one.
The next class, we took the questions up in class. When we reached the mixture questions, i asked, so who can give me an exampel of a homogeneous mixture. Several students put their hands up and answered. Finally one of them suggested “vinegar”. I said yes. However another of the kids challenged this, saying that vinegar is not a mixture.
Naturally i said, that’s not true, it is a mixture. Here was what i actually said: oui, c’est vrai. Vinaigre est un melange. Il y a de l’eau, du vinaigre, des mineraux et parfois des preservatifs.
Unfortunately, like being in a car wreck, even as i spoke this i knew i’d make a mistake. My notion was proved with sudden stunned silence accompanied by widening of 30 pairs of 14 year old eyes, followed by barely suppressed giggling and sniggering.
The problem was that, even as i was saying it, i remember that the word “preservatif” in french, does NOT translate to “preservative” in english…
… But rather, it means Condom.
So in fact what i had just told my students that vinegar usually contains water, vinegar, minerals, and sometimes Condoms.
Naturally no one was in the proper state to point out to me that if that was the case, i would be Doubly wrong, since then our mixture would no longer be Homogeneous!
