Red Ajah BTS Week Class Memories

[bhskeeper11]

Welcome to the Red Ajah’s Back to School Week class memories discussion!

 

We all had favorite and least favorite subjects in school. With the four big subjects being Literature, Science, History, and Mathematics, I will lead us in a discussion of each and encourage you all to share any memories (funny, serious, educational, anything!) you have from these classes. And, at the end of the week, round off the discussion in which one of these classes were your favorite and least favorite.

 

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Day One: Literature, Writing, and Language Arts

 

• 
   
  Here are a few fun facts about various topics in the literary world:
   
  
• The news of an original copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales made it to the Guinness Book of World Records in 1998. The original copies of Canterbury Tales were printed in 1477 by William Caxton, the first printer to introduce the printing press in England. Only one of these first copies is still in private hands and was sold in an auction on July 8, 1998, for £4,621,500, making it the most expensive book ever sold.
  
• Harry Potter sold about 400 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 65 languages.
  
• When Henry David Thoreau graduated from Harvard, he didn't think it was worth it to pay the $5 fee to receive his diploma. He left without a diploma.
  

 

So, what are your best memories from Literature/Writing/Language Arts classes? Did you have any amazing teachers in these subjects? Any terrible teachers? Read any great or terrible books for a class?

 

 

These questions are merely a spring-board for discussion, feel free to talk about anything related to your literature/writing classes!

[ed2funy]

I've been reading since I was in the womb, but the first book I can truly, truly remember is Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor.

 

I love this book.

[Ithillian Turambar]

I can remember having Animal Farm read to us in Primary School (aged 9 or 10) complete with all the animals voices. Of course they totally didn't believe that actually happened when I got to secondary school.

 

The thing I most remember about English Lit, was always being a million pages ahead of the rest of the class in whatever book we were monotonously reading out loud. Or having completely finished and actually reading something completely different while they slowly ploughed through it. I had to keep the same book ready with a book mark in for when it was my turn and ask whereabouts they had actually managed to get up to.

 

The first book I loved was 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' by Alan Garner. One day I will go to Alderley Edge and walk the route from the book as a pilgrimage.

 

I also had an interesting incident with the Teachers once, when they decided it was ok to go through all our Lockers and take out the books we were studying for English Lit because they thought we kept losing our copies and pilfering new ones from the main stores. Erm, I may have called them a few choice names at this point and waxed lyrical about privacy rights and so on. Not that I was a rebel at all - and erm - we had totally not been doing what they said anyway, HONEST lol

[Moon Sedai]

I moved high schools in second semester of sophmore year. As I left the old school, we were testing on Julius Caeser, about to read Lord of the Flies.

Day one at the new school, the class was testing on Lord of the Flies and started Julius Caesar the next day.

 

To this day, I still haven't read Lord of the Flies.

 

 

[Lessa Nikia]

I'm going into my final year of high school and I got the teacher I wanted for English class, Ms. Nault. I can't write essay's to save my life and I had her for grade 10. By the end of the semester my writing skills improved dramtically. I also had her for half a semseter last year. I went from her class to another teacher, Mrs. Euston. My grade went from 85 to 65. I did not like that teacher one bit. I was the school newspapers sports photographer, I live close to the football field, and I didn't have time to take pictures for them anymore so I had to quit. She dropped my grades right after I did that.

 

I hate Lord of the Flies with a passion. Terrible book. For a final project I wrote a thirteen chapter and I sent all the characters to a mental institution or psychiatrists.

[Moon Sedai]

Hopefully you'll have a good Senior year in Lit class. :D

[Charis alAslan]

I loved reading A Tale of Two Cities in 9th grade. I havent read it again since then, but I always name it as one of my favorites.

[Moon Sedai]

The two books I hated were "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Scarlet Letter."

All Quiet I was able to fake my way through the test and make a low C.

But I felt REALLY bad about it.

Those were the only two books I "Didn't Read."

 

I had the same english teacher in Jr/Sr year, and we read the scarlett letter Jr. Year, early in the year. When I turned in that Scarlett Letter test, (I got a 34 on it), she looked at the test, looked at me and said,

"Mandy Brooks! You didn't even Read this book, did you?"

 

I felt so ashamed that I never failed another test for her again.

 

The next year, I was in her class, and she would often end up using my papers as her Key. (I know this because I had her for a teacher's aid class Senior year as well and had me grade homework using my own papers as the key.)

[bhskeeper11]

Moon, I was not a big fan of Lord of the Flies either. There is a scene with a pig's head on a pike and well, it's just gross. :'vomit

 

I haven't read The Scarlet Letter, but I loved loved loved All Quiet on the Western Front. One of my favorite quotes ever comes from it... "It is very queer that so much of the unhappiness in the world is brought on by small men." Hahahaha.

 

My favorite book from English class was one I read in the 5th grade (so I was 10 years old). That was Where the Red Fern Grows. That book was the first I can remember that really drew me into a story on a much deeper level than just reading words on a page. I was in the story.

 

I also decided to play a prank on an English teacher in high school once...we turned his classroom upside down.

 

[bhskeeper11]

Day Two: Science

 

 

Here are a few fun (and quite amazing) facts from the world around us:

 

• 
   
  
• Did you know that there are 206 bones in the adult human body and there are 300 in children (as they grow some of the bones fuse together)?
   
  
• The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles.
   
  
• The ears of a cricket are located on the front legs, just below the knee.
   
  

 

What are some of your best and worst memories from science class? Blow anything up? Dissected creepy-crawlies? Do you have any favorite branch of science? Ever had a teacher that was probably a mad scientist behind closed doors?

 

Once again, these questions are merely a spring-board for discussion, feel free to talk about anything related to your science classes!

[Ithillian Turambar]

I've never blown anything up, but I did manage to get our whole science block evacuated once. We were doing experiments with very diluted sulphuric acid, and I wanted to try and make it stronger so that I could burn holes through tables with it. A perfectly reasonable thing to want to do, it seemed at the time.

 

Hmmmm - how best to un-dilute it though. Obviously I needed to remove the water from it, so boiling it seemed the best option. This was going marvellously well until my teacher came along and saw what I was doing. Apparently I was actually creating Sulphur Dioxide, which is a highly toxic gas, and we all got rushed out pretty quickly. The funny thing is, I don't remember getting into trouble at all.

[Moon Sedai]

Oh gods! I hated science.

 

My favorite science class in school had to be in 8th grade, when we watched the 2-3-4 star trek films one week when the teacher was out with the flu. Though I missed part 2, I was sick that day so 3 and 4 made NO sense.

 

Later, we went to a science museum showing off a star trek exhibit.

[bhskeeper11]

@Ithi: OMG! You could have blown yourself up! :notreallysureaboutthat:

 

 

Science was always my least favorite because it required studying whereas the other subjects generally did not. Of course, I really lucked out taking chemistry my 11th grade year (I was 16/17 years old) because my teacher got a new job just a few weeks into the semester and so the school had to find a replacement quick. The replacement was an old elementary school teacher that knew NOTHING about science and was way too nice to make us do any work. My friends and I claimed a lab table in the back of the room and chatted/did homework for other classes every day.

 

To make it look like we were doing something, she had us put all the glassware (jars, vials, and beakers) on one of the tables. After we had done that, some silly football player threw a ball to his friend, who missed it, and it landed on the mass of jars flinging them everywhere. Broken glass is probably still being found in that room today.

[Basel Gill]

I generally wasn't fond of science classes. My worst was biology in 9th grade, which I barely passed. I think I had a 67 and passing was 65. I managed to scrape by better in the others but still didn't care for it. And I really hated lab work!

 

As for literature and English, I didn't generally like any of the stuff we were assigned to read. My least favorite was Billy Budd by Herman Melville. No matter how hard I tried, I found it incredibly dense and boring, and never made it past page 3. To this day, I haven't cared for reading much that academics and teachers would consider "serious literature." Bottom line was, if it sounded like anything I'd be required to read for school, I wouldn't read it for pleasure.

[Dwynwen]

I love English and science. I've had good and bad teachers in both, though.

 

One of my favorite memories from high school English was when we did a class read-through of Romeo and Juliet. Given the length of class periods, it took us a few days to get through it. If we wanted a part, we had to get there early. I remember rushing over so I could be Juliet a couple of those days (I let others do it some days, since I didn't want to hog it). It was fun doing the balcony scene.

 

One of my favorite memories from high school biology was visiting what my brother and I affectionately call the Deformed Babies Museum. There were cyclops babies, babies that looked like they had mermaid fins, and all kinds of things. It's fascinating if you're interested in genetics.

[ed2funy]

The two books I hated were "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Scarlet Letter."

All Quiet I was able to fake my way through the test and make a low C.

But I felt REALLY bad about it.

Those were the only two books I "Didn't Read."

 

I had the same english teacher in Jr/Sr year, and we read the scarlett letter Jr. Year, early in the year. When I turned in that Scarlett Letter test, (I got a 34 on it), she looked at the test, looked at me and said,

"Mandy Brooks! You didn't even Read this book, did you?"

 

I felt so ashamed that I never failed another test for her again.

 

The next year, I was in her class, and she would often end up using my papers as her Key. (I know this because I had her for a teacher's aid class Senior year as well and had me grade homework using my own papers as the key.)

 

:gaspsreallyloud:

 

That book was....amazing.

I read it twice. Once when we got the book, and then with the class.

[Tynaal Consen]

Eeeek! Both days were my favourite subjects so far!

 

I loooooved English and most of the books we read weren't too bad, I agree with lessa about Lord of the Flies being terrible! And everything in Afrikaans was easy, so I enjoyed that, but I HATED German with a passion. I got so sick of having to read books about Nazi's and Jews and death and horror, that I ended up just finding summaries on the internet.

 

 

Science was always my best subject and still is... Well it's kinda the only subjects I'm having at University - Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Genetics, Zoology, Botany, Biometry, Physics, Chemistry, Animal Science and all the others I'm not thinking of right now.

I loved Science cause it was so hands on, learning about everything around you. It felt so much more real than History and subject like that.

[ed2funy]

Day Two: Science

 

 

Here are a few fun (and quite amazing) facts from the world around us:

 

• Did you know that there are 206 bones in the adult human body and there are 300 in children (as they grow some of the bones fuse together)?
• The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles.
• The ears of a cricket are located on the front legs, just below the knee.

 

What are some of your best and worst memories from science class? Blow anything up? Dissected creepy-crawlies? Do you have any favorite branch of science? Ever had a teacher that was probably a mad scientist behind closed doors?

 

Once again, these questions are merely a spring-board for discussion, feel free to talk about anything related to your science classes!

 

 

 

 

8th grade science. Ms. Hormuth. Loved her. Loved the class. Always was in the top 5 in the class (thank the Creator we had no homework!)...

 

And 6th grade science was....eh. I remember the teacher the most, anyways. lol

[rykin]

I loved Science. I had a tendency of creating fire and explosive chemical reactions. It was quite a good time. I never really had to study though. It just came natural.

 

One time in my junior year of high school, we were making and launching rockets. The teacher was bored and had nothing planned for the week. What can i say... Lets just say I blew up my rocket and a 20ft radius. It was great.

[bhskeeper11]

Science was always my best subject and still is... Well it's kinda the only subjects I'm having at University - Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Genetics, Zoology, Botany, Biometry, Physics, Chemistry, Animal Science and all the others I'm not thinking of right now.

I loved Science cause it was so hands on, learning about everything around you. It felt so much more real than History and subject like that.

 

*science overload*

 

Would you like to come take Biology 101 and 102 for me? I have done over 2 years of University and have avoided them yet! However, I will need to jump on that soon... :isnotexcited: I like computer science, but that is about as science-y as I get.

 

And 6th grade science was....eh. I remember the teacher the most, anyways. lol

 

:'vomit

 

Oh, wait... 6th grade? You were probably too young then. >.>

 

 

I loved Science. I had a tendency of creating fire and explosive chemical reactions. It was quite a good time. I never really had to study though. It just came natural.

 

One time in my junior year of high school, we were making and launching rockets. The teacher was bored and had nothing planned for the week. What can i say... Lets just say I blew up my rocket and a 20ft radius. It was great.

 

I would love science if it was all about launching rockets and blowing things up. I did catch a ruler on fire once with a Bunsen burner once, does that count?

[bhskeeper11]

Day Three: History

 

 

Here are some facts from the good ol' days:

 

• 
   
  
• At Andrew Jackson's funeral in 1845, his pet parrot had to be removed because it was swearing.
   
  
• At the height of its power, in 400 BC, the Greek city of Sparta had 25,000 citizens and 500,000 slaves.
   
  
• Captain Cook lost 41 of his 98 crew to scurvy (a lack of vitamin C) on his first voyage to the South Pacific in 1768. By 1795 the importance of eating citrus was realized, and lemon juice was issued on all British Navy ships.
   
  
• First four countries to have television: England, the U.S., the U.S.S.R., and Brazil.
   
  
• In 1892, Italy raised the minimum age for marriage for girls - to 12.
   
  
• In England and the American colonies the year 1752 only had 354 days. In that year, the type of calendar was changed, and 11 days were lost.
   
  
• The ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone.
   
   
  

 

Did you ever have any crazy encyclopedia-like history teachers? Or a Professor Binns that droned on and on forever? What are some of your favorite and least favorite eras of history to discuss? Ever have any crazy historical re-enactments in class?

 

Once again again, these questions are merely a spring-board for discussion, feel free to talk about anything related to your history classes!

[ed2funy]

I don't know much about history.....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF6JMotbHYM

 

 

>.>

*snuggles himself*

[Moon Sedai]

History is my favorite subject.

 

Has a Ba in History and a teacher certification for the subject, and is almost done with a MA in History.

 

But I hated my history teacher. (see worst teacher thread)

[bhskeeper11]

Day Four: Mathematics

 

 

 

 

 

Instead of fun facts about mathematics, here is a fun game to test your math skills! See what you can get as a high score! :onlygota2500: >.>

 

You can play the game

HERE.

 

 

Okay...so I know the question we all want to know is...what have you done so far in your life that used the kinds of math you had to learn, such as geometry and algebra?

 

Do you have any branches of math that you are particularly good at? Anything you were absolute rubbish with? Or are you an all-around math whiz?

[Moon Sedai]

I'm useless at some maths because i'm mildly numerically dyslexic. (I look at numbers and they reverse in my head. It's worse when I'm stressed.)

 

Other than calculating money, math has been helpful.

 

In the army, I used it (and dreaded Physics) in my AIT courses. and never again.

I have used (uncalculated) geometry in the packing of luggage and boxes, and also in the building of displays for work.

 

Plus, geometry is useful in calculating volume of the pool every summer when I need to figure out chlorine.

 

We use math more often than we realize because many mathematical stuff we do in our heads.

 

The classes stink, but the skills learned in my least favorite classes helped me to learn how to analyize data.

 

Oh, I'm 32 and I still don't know all my times tables. I count them out on my fingers sometimes.