Bargaining for Five Stars

The conversation from yesterday's post did not quite end there...

Eventually, the girl let the listening to music issue go. Primarily because others in the class urged her to. I wasn't really paying attention at that point. But something one of the boys said perked my ears right up.

The boy informed the girl that I do, indeed, leave notes for the teacher. And they are detailed notes.

After some prompting, he informed me that he had been in the class I covered the previous day. Algebra 2.

You may have noticed that I have not posted a story about them. It's because I had no good stories about them. How can I possibly make a story about a class that worked silently without me having to do anything besides pass out the assignment interesting?

So, I didn't think my note to the previous day's teacher was all that detailed. What more was there to say other than the classes did what they were supposed to do?

The boy told me that Ms. C had gone over my remarks. He explained to the girl that I gave the classes a rating.

The girl now wanted to know what sort of rating her class would get. I looked around the room. They all appeared to be on task. (They were doing a timeline of World War II.) They were talking, but I hadn't asked for silence. So, I told her they'd get a 4 out of a possible 5.

The girl felt they should get a 5. I explained that 5s are earned for silent classes. But as I hadn't asked for silence, they wouldn't be in trouble for a 4. She countered that since I hadn't asked for silence and they were all on task, they should get the top score.

I wonder what line of work she's going to go into. Because she certainly argued well.

Not that I gave the class a 5. Each number means something, a something that I include with my note. But she was entertaining.

Barter System

I was roaming around the room. (7th grade core class.) I stopped by this one girl. She was asking everybody if they had 0.7mm lead as her pencil had run out.

The boy in front of her said he did. But he wanted something in return.

Girl: "What color do you want?"

Boy: "Purple."

Girl: "For that, I want three leads."

So, the girl pulled out a small fluffy pom-pom like purple ball and handed it to the boy. The boy handed her his case of leads. She pulled out a bunch, put back all but three, and returned the case to the boy.

Me: "What is that?"

Girl: "It was for a project. It's finished. These were extra."

Satisfied, I was about to move on...

Girl: "I would have given him one for nothing."

As he would have likely given her one lead for nothing. (A student running out of lead for a mechanical pencil and then asking around for a lead is commonplace. Just like asking for paper.)

But, in the end they both got something out of the exchange.

(It was funny how they both felt the need to explain to me how they were bartering, like they were doing something wrong. I was just entertained by how they worked the whole thing out between themselves.)