TEENAGERS!!!!

I love teens. Yes, I know they can have smart mouths occasionally. They can be messy and otherwise generally drive a person insane. I have had many people accuse me of being nuts for wanting to work with them day in and day out. Sometimes I question my own sanity, but then things like the following incident occur and I remember why I love working with teenagers.

On Tuesday of this week my students watched what is known as an EFT (electronic field trip). Through the magic of the internet and streaming video, my students and I were able to watch a live broadcast from Houston where NASA flies its C-9 plane for astronaut training and research purposes. The plane is flown in repetitive parabolic motion (up and down like a roller coaster ride) in order to experience free fall for a few moments of time.

The students were able to call in on an 800 number or email questions for the astronauts and pilots to answer, virtually in real time. The delay in the feed was only a few seconds. The students thought this was great.

One of my students asked if he could call and ask a question. After I approved his very intelligent question, he proceeded to make the call. When the representative from NASA came on the line, the student was asked to state his question, where he was from and his name before he was transferred to the live feed. "Timothy" proceeded to ask his question and give the requested information. Unfortunately, when he came to his name he apparently had a "brain fart" and said he was "JOHN SWANSON". At that point it was too late to stop him.

When he got off the phone, I asked him why he didn't use his real name. His response, "If it was a dumb question, I didn't want them to know who asked it!" Like they would ever meet him or know who he was anyway, right?

Today I received a phone call from the electronic field trip personnel. I was called out of class to receive the phone call so I figured it must be important. When I answered the phone the voice on the other end explained who she was and asked, "Do you have the student named John?" Knowing to whom she referred I said,"Yes" (What else could I say?) She proceeded to tell me that John was selected from the students who submitted questions to win a prize. She asked for the correct spelling of his name and to confirm the address. I verified the address but then explained, "He prefers to be called Timothy". Fortunately, only his 1st name was recorded when he asked the question.

The prize? One of 4 movie posters to be personally autographed by Tom Hanks. (I thought he might want his real name on it.)