Slice of Life: Day 23
“Mrs. B, what year were you born?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I want to see if you were alive during the Great Chicago Fire.”
“Susie, what year did the Great Chicago Fire happen?”
“1997.”
“Umm… Go check that date.”
In math we continue to talk about are your answers reasonable, do they make sense and seeing if your actual answer is close to your estimate. I guess I should have been explicit in stating that doesn’t just apply to math, but all things in life!
My students were born in 2009 and 2010, so sometimes I forget that for them the 90’s seem like a very long time ago.
“OK. I was wrong. It was 1871.”
“So Susie… how old do you think I am?”
I know I should not have asked this question, but my curiosity got the best of me! And, granted she thought 1997 was a long time ago what number could she possibly say?!”
“Umm… 47.”
So matter of fact. So innocent. Yet so wrong by almost 15 years!
“Umm… not that old.”
“27.”
Well that’s a big change from 47.
So granted, I didn’t feel well today, but I didn’t think I aged myself by 15 years. Lesson learned… don’t play the how old is Mrs. B game and we could use a lesson in estimation! Spring Break couldn’t come soon enough!
The Life of a Mom, Teacher and Wife 
Great dialogue.I was right there in the moment with you, and great humor. Made me laugh.
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Funny. I’d rather not inquire from the kids about my age. Our pre-schoolers offered that their teacher was 18. Then again they believed that their teacher had met dinosaurs.
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Oh I hate when people guess I’m older than I am! I have a milestone birthday coming up- turning 40! I will NOT invite my third graders to say how old they think I am! 🙂
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This is awesome. When I played them my favorite song on Friday I told them I had heard it in my teens and that it has been my very favorite song ever since hearing it the first time. Then I asked them to think about the music they liked and guess when the song came out. Answers ranged from 1980 to 2013. Then a math minded kid reminded them that I was a reen when I’d first heard it. That was clever but the guesses for the 1993 song remained mathematically all over the place. They have no concept of such things I don’t think. Haha. But you are definitely miles closer to 27 than 47 – stick with that one. One day you might be like me and want to go find that 27 kid again! Ha. Excellent writing as usual!
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I love this! To kids, we’re all just “old”. I remember feeling the same way. Sometimes now when I realize how young my teachers actually were when I had them, I’m just amazed.
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I get this from older kids who wonder if I was alive during the Civil War. If it is not in an electronic/video/x-box game, they have a hard time imagining the time. The joke in my classroom is that I am 27 now that I just had my birthday. Some of my students don’t know what to do when they find out that my daughter is 26! Hope spring break is soon for you!
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haha, Great story! I laugh when kids say, yea my mom’s so old, like 35.
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I feel like we have this conversation all of the time in math… does it make ANY sense??????? and no, I am not 35 and have been teaching for 23 years (but thanks for saying 35). I have to remember how naive they are when we play the “How old is Mrs. Strasser” game every year.
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