One Week Down...

Well, the first week of the 2010-11 school year is now officially over.  I have four classes of 8th grade science, and one of 7th grade science.  We had our Back to School night last night, and I had something happen that has never happened before (but explains a lot).  There are typically fewer 8th grade parents that show up for this event, so I wasn't too concerned with the low turnout from my second and fourth period 8th grade parents (first and third period had a pretty good turnout, but there were still a few empty seats).  My sixth period seventh grade parents start coming in, and as expected, it's standing room only - and it's HOT in my room.  The school district doesn't override the A/C system to allow it to come on at night, and even with both doors propped open, it was stuffy in there.  Not a breeze in sight, either.  It's almost time to start, and the room's full.  So, I have parents standing by my back door, near the eyewash and shower station, and I notice one of the dads back there is rather tall and hits the triangle pull handle to the shower.  Why he did what he did next, I don't know, but he actually TUGS on the handle, soaking the shoulder of the guy standing along the wall under the shower!!  What did he think was going to happen?  I'm just standing there, amazed, thinking to myself, 'what a DUFUS!'  I joked and said that if he was one of my students, he'd be on his way to the office with a referral for breaking his science safety contract.  The other parents laugh, he says his curiosity really got the best of him, apologizes, and starts cleaning up the mess he's made with paper towels that just so happened to be right near him.  It's time to start, I go through my 10 minute spiel about what their kiddo will be learning in my class, and I'm thinking, ok, who's dad was that?  So today, my sixth period seventh grade crew comes in, and I mention the incident, and one of the boys, whose name I learned within about the first 15 minutes of our first day (NOT a good sign), speaks up and says 'yeah, that was my dad' and I'm immediately thinking to myself, 'yep, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...'.  23 years of teaching and I've NEVER had that happen before.  It also took this group of parents a bit to quiet down when it was time to get started, and their kids are no different - I'm already nagging at them to close their mouths and open their ears... this is going to be a LONG year, I can tell!