On the Bright Side, She's No Longer My Problem in Six Weeks

Last week Miss B, the other chemistry teacher in my school, did a lab for her classes, and I didn't.  Her lab apparently involved ice cream.  Naturally, there's been no end of moaning and complaining on the part of my students who have friends in her class.

Yesterday, one of them (who's a little whiny under the best of circumstances) was in full-on complaint mode.  As I was beginning class, she called out, "When are we going to do another lab?" I answered something nonspecific, as I was trying to concentrate on attendance and other start-of-class logistical stuff. She wasn't impressed. "Miss B's classes do labs every day. We never do labs in here."

(For the record, I don't do as many labs as I'd like, due mainly to the fact that I'm teaching this class as a new prep this year. I've been pretty much making it up as I go. Next year will be better. But we do some labs, and Miss B does not, in fact, do labs with her classes every day. I checked.)

Class proceeded as usual from there, and I was giving the day's lesson. As is part of my method, I asked the class a question to get them thinking about what we had just talked about. And, as usual for this class, I had very little response. So I decided to take advantage of the moment.

I pointed directly at the whiner and said, "We will do a lab next time in class if you can answer that question right now."

Her answer was priceless:

"Uh, what was the question?"

Yeah, we're not doing a lab tomorrow.