fact
Dan Grimaldi, who is best known for playing Patsy Parisi on “The Sopranos”, teaches in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Kingsborough Community College, as he has degrees in mathematics, operations research and data processing.
The post Dan Grimaldi, who is best known… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
People can really surprise us once in a while, don’t you think?
For example, I know a guy who was a hardcore punk rock dude when we were young and we all thought he’d end up going nowhere fast.
Wanna guess where he is now?
HE WORKS FOR THE FREAKING FBI.
Yeah…
Teachers of AskReddit talked about the former students who surprised them later in life. Let’s see what they had to say.
“I had a student that used to get into fights and was extremely aggressive and violent towards others, on the last day of fifth grade his last words to me and his class were “f**k you!”
Many years later he came back to the school I’d been teaching at and looked for me so he could give me a big hug and apologize. In his words, “I was garbage when I was here, thank you for putting up with me and I’m sorry”.
I cried like a baby – I was so proud of him.”
“I taught in a low income, high immigrant community for my entire career.
I loved where I taught and still have tremendous fondness and admiration for the community, as powerfully challenging as it was to teach a population with such limited resources.
I had a student in 3rd grade who was sweet, kind, and goofy, but the typical never-do-homework, mediocre-to-poor grades type at the time. When I moved up to teaching middle school and had him again in 6th grade, little had changed—I liked him as a person quite a lot, but academically and effort-wise he was a solid Meh C/D student.
Fast forward a decade or so: I had to retire from the classroom early and a bit abruptly due to a health crisis, resulting brain surgery, and the aftermath. This devastated me. At the time, I posted about how much I missed teaching and my heartbreak over it on my Facebook page.
This now adult student, who had added me as a friend but rarely to never posted anything anywhere on FB, commented the most heartwarming words about what an inspiration I’d been and how he felt I’d started him on the path that led him to a degree in chemical engineering from a major university. He was the first in his family to go to college, nonetheless earn a degree.
His kind and generous words made me weep, and his academic success left me stunned. If you had asked me back when he was in 3rd or 6th grade which student would be the one to earn a degree in engineering, I think I would have gone through 2/3 of the class before I’d have even thought of him.”
“I teach English as a second language and I had a kid who spoke Arabic who barely could master English in the beginning (to be expected of course). Well 8 years later he’s on his way to being an astrophysicist.
He came to school to find me to tell me last year and I’ve never had a prouder moment teaching. He told me I was the only one who believed in him.”
“There was a very skinny quiet kid who was super smart. The other kids picked on him quite a lot but he never stood up for himself.
I always thought he would work for NASA or something as he was so smart. I saw his Linkedin a few months ago and he is now a prison officer at a maximum security prison.”
“I was teaching 3rd grade.
I had a kid that would literally shoot spitballs in class. Through a straw. Kid would bring his own straws to school and chew notebook paper to shoot. This happened every day, probably seven or eight times a day I’d catch him doing it. He would just start f**king with other kids, poking them with pencils and s**t loudly in the middle of class.
Now, I h**e sending kids to the principle because I feel it undermines my authority in the class. This kid was different though. He got sent to the office average twice a week. Just couldn’t deal with it. He goes onto highschool. I don’t hear good things about him. I don’t hear much just that he’d fallen in with a bad crowd.
It’s 2005 when I’m teaching him in 3rd grade. Flash-forward sixteen years and I pull up to a red light on my way home from work. Red Lamborgini. Who is sitting there in the driver’s seat? Of course this kid. No sunglasses, actually he had pretty nerdy/hip Jefferey Dahmer glasses on.
“Mr. Igot!” He says. And he smiled at me. Seemed really genuinely happy to see me. I didn’t even had time to compose myself, realize it was THIS kid and respond before the light turned green and he rocketed off. He had this smile on that I’ll never forget. Good for him!”
“I taught Gym and had a little dude who excelled in my class but was a thug in everything else. My wifes food truck catered for a bike run where a lot of Outlaw MCs took part.
I saw the kid there and he was now the President of his own Outlaw MC… He remembered me and introduced me to his old lady and other gang members..I was super proud of him…”
“Three of my former students went into my field and actually came back to work for me at my school for internships.
One of them was no surprise. One only a little surprise. But the third drove me nuts. He was a huge problem child in class. This was the kid that make me sympathize with Homer Simpson’s str**gling reaction to Bart. But I kept my cool of course!
And he’s now a respected professional in the field. He still credits me for his career path. I feel like all the stress he put me through was worth it!”
“Never surprised by the jobs they do. Some make it, some don’t and there’s little to help you to predict.
I get some surprise sometimes when I see them but even that only lasts for a fleeting moment.
The fit, athletic kid who is now morbidly obese, the tiny, pretty quiet girl with 3 kids at 18 chain smoking at the school gate. The kid who you only remember because his name was on a class list who is now an international Ice skating champion. The fat kid who was always in trouble, coming to collect younger cousins looking dashing in his suit and tie…
You go through thousands of children. You love them and care for each of them whilst they are in your care but, the truth is, whilst you want each and every one of them to go on and live happy and healthy lives (even the naughty ones), you quickly accept that once they leave, they are no longer your responsibility. You don’t ‘track’ them or follow them – you don’t have the time because, once they are gone, another group of needy individuals arrive who require your undivided attention.
Don’t get me wrong – we love it when former pupils become successful (in happiness – not finance) and return as adults to tell us so. It’s our collective dream for all of you. But we won’t be following your lives. We don’t have the mental capacity for it.”
“A student whose social skills were non-existent and whose academics were equally as troubling is now in college taking nuclear physics.
I swear he was easily 3 grades behind when I knew him in junior high.”
“One girl who used to be so shy. Always stay on the last bench. Was friends with only one girl. Barely had any social skills.
She went on to become the biggest superstar in Indian cinema (Bollywood).”
“I taught pre-K, for about 3 years, almost 30 years ago.
I taught, in separate years, two boys who would go on to be m**dered, together, before even graduating high school. They were t**tured by an adult psychopath, in a flophouse drug apartment, naked, bound, begging, in front of a captive audience including some kids they’d known as long as they’d known each other. They were stuffed into the trunk of a car, driven to the gas station, marched to an area just out of sight of several businesses, doused in gasoline, set on fire, and shot ex**ution style.
The man who shot them was mentally ill to start with, but also used meth to the point of near-constant psychosis. He’d just been cleared for discharge after a 72-hour involuntary psych hold, and had only been home two days. He was still in acute, paranoid psychosis, but had been assessed/evaluated by inpatient psychiatrists as safe to discharge home.
They were the same age as my child. They knew each other from first grade on. They had a lot of closer friends in common, some of whom I’d also taught way back all those years ago. Some of whom had been unwilling witnesses to their friends’ t**ture in the hours leading up to the m**ders.
One of them committed s**cide a week later.
Anyway, I’m now a practitioner in ER and ICU, and have been for 20 years. Spent several years at a Level One Trauma and Burn hospital. Got really familiar with the terrible things people do to themselves and others. None of it hit me like these d**ths had. I hadn’t been desensitized yet, and I’d taught these kids how to tie their shoes and write their names, they’d been in classes, on field trips and sports teams, to birthday parties with my son for so many years.
The way their lives ended (or were irrevocably changed) was as shocking as it was gruesome.”
“I started in elementary school. One of my first students I had when she was in 3rd grade.
Her father was ab**ive when she was younger and mom left him and was raising her on her own, but her mom was also heavily involved in gangs. She was very behind compared to the rest of the kids, but she was always very helpful to the other children, me, and the staff. I had a soft spot for her and she ended up being one of my favorites. Teachers will often say they don’t have favorites, but that’s a lie.
A couple years later I was moved to 5th grade and I had her again, she was struggling a lot by this time, but still, I never gave up on her, and she never gave up either. Later, when she was in 8th grade, I was moved to middle school, and once again, I had her again. By this time her mom’s lifestyle had had an influence. She always wore red, threw up gang signs, and used to get into a lot of fights at school.
One thing that was different was she had caught up academically with the rest of her peers, and actually even surpassed many of them. She used to come by after school and started seeing me as a mentor, and we had a connection, as I too was heavily involved with gangs in my teens and early 20s. When she moved on to high school, she kept in touch, her high school was across the street and she used to come by after school all the time to check in.
She eventually got involved in student body, became the senior class president, and was on the honor roll all 4 years. She got accepted into all 8 colleges she applied for. She is currently on a full ride scholarship at Stanford University and plans to continue with graduate school. She is very involved with the community too.
She is currently 20 and a waitress but is planning on doing big things, and I know she will. I’m so proud of her.”
Now we want to hear from more teachers!
In the comments, tell us about the former students that really surprised you later in life.
Thanks in advance!
The post Teachers, Which Students Surprised You the Most Later in Life? Here’s What People Said. appeared first on UberFacts.
People can really surprise us once in a while, don’t you think?
For example, I know a guy who was a hardcore punk rock dude when we were young and we all thought he’d end up going nowhere fast.
Wanna guess where he is now?
HE WORKS FOR THE FREAKING FBI.
Yeah…
Teachers of AskReddit talked about the former students who surprised them later in life. Let’s see what they had to say.
“I had a student that used to get into fights and was extremely aggressive and violent towards others, on the last day of fifth grade his last words to me and his class were “f**k you!”
Many years later he came back to the school I’d been teaching at and looked for me so he could give me a big hug and apologize. In his words, “I was garbage when I was here, thank you for putting up with me and I’m sorry”.
I cried like a baby – I was so proud of him.”
“I taught in a low income, high immigrant community for my entire career.
I loved where I taught and still have tremendous fondness and admiration for the community, as powerfully challenging as it was to teach a population with such limited resources.
I had a student in 3rd grade who was sweet, kind, and goofy, but the typical never-do-homework, mediocre-to-poor grades type at the time. When I moved up to teaching middle school and had him again in 6th grade, little had changed—I liked him as a person quite a lot, but academically and effort-wise he was a solid Meh C/D student.
Fast forward a decade or so: I had to retire from the classroom early and a bit abruptly due to a health crisis, resulting brain surgery, and the aftermath. This devastated me. At the time, I posted about how much I missed teaching and my heartbreak over it on my Facebook page.
This now adult student, who had added me as a friend but rarely to never posted anything anywhere on FB, commented the most heartwarming words about what an inspiration I’d been and how he felt I’d started him on the path that led him to a degree in chemical engineering from a major university. He was the first in his family to go to college, nonetheless earn a degree.
His kind and generous words made me weep, and his academic success left me stunned. If you had asked me back when he was in 3rd or 6th grade which student would be the one to earn a degree in engineering, I think I would have gone through 2/3 of the class before I’d have even thought of him.”
“I teach English as a second language and I had a kid who spoke Arabic who barely could master English in the beginning (to be expected of course). Well 8 years later he’s on his way to being an astrophysicist.
He came to school to find me to tell me last year and I’ve never had a prouder moment teaching. He told me I was the only one who believed in him.”
“There was a very skinny quiet kid who was super smart. The other kids picked on him quite a lot but he never stood up for himself.
I always thought he would work for NASA or something as he was so smart. I saw his Linkedin a few months ago and he is now a prison officer at a maximum security prison.”
“I was teaching 3rd grade.
I had a kid that would literally shoot spitballs in class. Through a straw. Kid would bring his own straws to school and chew notebook paper to shoot. This happened every day, probably seven or eight times a day I’d catch him doing it. He would just start f**king with other kids, poking them with pencils and s**t loudly in the middle of class.
Now, I h**e sending kids to the principle because I feel it undermines my authority in the class. This kid was different though. He got sent to the office average twice a week. Just couldn’t deal with it. He goes onto highschool. I don’t hear good things about him. I don’t hear much just that he’d fallen in with a bad crowd.
It’s 2005 when I’m teaching him in 3rd grade. Flash-forward sixteen years and I pull up to a red light on my way home from work. Red Lamborgini. Who is sitting there in the driver’s seat? Of course this kid. No sunglasses, actually he had pretty nerdy/hip Jefferey Dahmer glasses on.
“Mr. Igot!” He says. And he smiled at me. Seemed really genuinely happy to see me. I didn’t even had time to compose myself, realize it was THIS kid and respond before the light turned green and he rocketed off. He had this smile on that I’ll never forget. Good for him!”
“I taught Gym and had a little dude who excelled in my class but was a thug in everything else. My wifes food truck catered for a bike run where a lot of Outlaw MCs took part.
I saw the kid there and he was now the President of his own Outlaw MC… He remembered me and introduced me to his old lady and other gang members..I was super proud of him…”
“Three of my former students went into my field and actually came back to work for me at my school for internships.
One of them was no surprise. One only a little surprise. But the third drove me nuts. He was a huge problem child in class. This was the kid that make me sympathize with Homer Simpson’s str**gling reaction to Bart. But I kept my cool of course!
And he’s now a respected professional in the field. He still credits me for his career path. I feel like all the stress he put me through was worth it!”
“Never surprised by the jobs they do. Some make it, some don’t and there’s little to help you to predict.
I get some surprise sometimes when I see them but even that only lasts for a fleeting moment.
The fit, athletic kid who is now morbidly obese, the tiny, pretty quiet girl with 3 kids at 18 chain smoking at the school gate. The kid who you only remember because his name was on a class list who is now an international Ice skating champion. The fat kid who was always in trouble, coming to collect younger cousins looking dashing in his suit and tie…
You go through thousands of children. You love them and care for each of them whilst they are in your care but, the truth is, whilst you want each and every one of them to go on and live happy and healthy lives (even the naughty ones), you quickly accept that once they leave, they are no longer your responsibility. You don’t ‘track’ them or follow them – you don’t have the time because, once they are gone, another group of needy individuals arrive who require your undivided attention.
Don’t get me wrong – we love it when former pupils become successful (in happiness – not finance) and return as adults to tell us so. It’s our collective dream for all of you. But we won’t be following your lives. We don’t have the mental capacity for it.”
“A student whose social skills were non-existent and whose academics were equally as troubling is now in college taking nuclear physics.
I swear he was easily 3 grades behind when I knew him in junior high.”
“One girl who used to be so shy. Always stay on the last bench. Was friends with only one girl. Barely had any social skills.
She went on to become the biggest superstar in Indian cinema (Bollywood).”
“I taught pre-K, for about 3 years, almost 30 years ago.
I taught, in separate years, two boys who would go on to be m**dered, together, before even graduating high school. They were t**tured by an adult psychopath, in a flophouse drug apartment, naked, bound, begging, in front of a captive audience including some kids they’d known as long as they’d known each other. They were stuffed into the trunk of a car, driven to the gas station, marched to an area just out of sight of several businesses, doused in gasoline, set on fire, and shot ex**ution style.
The man who shot them was mentally ill to start with, but also used meth to the point of near-constant psychosis. He’d just been cleared for discharge after a 72-hour involuntary psych hold, and had only been home two days. He was still in acute, paranoid psychosis, but had been assessed/evaluated by inpatient psychiatrists as safe to discharge home.
They were the same age as my child. They knew each other from first grade on. They had a lot of closer friends in common, some of whom I’d also taught way back all those years ago. Some of whom had been unwilling witnesses to their friends’ t**ture in the hours leading up to the m**ders.
One of them committed s**cide a week later.
Anyway, I’m now a practitioner in ER and ICU, and have been for 20 years. Spent several years at a Level One Trauma and Burn hospital. Got really familiar with the terrible things people do to themselves and others. None of it hit me like these d**ths had. I hadn’t been desensitized yet, and I’d taught these kids how to tie their shoes and write their names, they’d been in classes, on field trips and sports teams, to birthday parties with my son for so many years.
The way their lives ended (or were irrevocably changed) was as shocking as it was gruesome.”
“I started in elementary school. One of my first students I had when she was in 3rd grade.
Her father was ab**ive when she was younger and mom left him and was raising her on her own, but her mom was also heavily involved in gangs. She was very behind compared to the rest of the kids, but she was always very helpful to the other children, me, and the staff. I had a soft spot for her and she ended up being one of my favorites. Teachers will often say they don’t have favorites, but that’s a lie.
A couple years later I was moved to 5th grade and I had her again, she was struggling a lot by this time, but still, I never gave up on her, and she never gave up either. Later, when she was in 8th grade, I was moved to middle school, and once again, I had her again. By this time her mom’s lifestyle had had an influence. She always wore red, threw up gang signs, and used to get into a lot of fights at school.
One thing that was different was she had caught up academically with the rest of her peers, and actually even surpassed many of them. She used to come by after school and started seeing me as a mentor, and we had a connection, as I too was heavily involved with gangs in my teens and early 20s. When she moved on to high school, she kept in touch, her high school was across the street and she used to come by after school all the time to check in.
She eventually got involved in student body, became the senior class president, and was on the honor roll all 4 years. She got accepted into all 8 colleges she applied for. She is currently on a full ride scholarship at Stanford University and plans to continue with graduate school. She is very involved with the community too.
She is currently 20 and a waitress but is planning on doing big things, and I know she will. I’m so proud of her.”
Now we want to hear from more teachers!
In the comments, tell us about the former students that really surprised you later in life.
Thanks in advance!
The post Teachers, Which Students Surprised You the Most Later in Life? Here’s What People Said. appeared first on UberFacts.
It’s always weird at work or school when you learn about a rule that is very specific…and very odd.
It makes you say out loud, “what the hell happened to force someone to create this rule?”
And today we’re gonna find out the background behind a bunch of these!
Folks on AskReddit discussed the rules they’ve seen that made them question where they came from.
Let’s see what they had to say.
“Years ago I had a queen mattress that had a warning label in all uppercase red lettering stating: WARNING: DO NOT SWALLOW.
Many, many times I’ve wondered who the individual responsible for this warning label is, and how much I’d like to shake their hand.”
“I worked at an office that banned men from wearing women’s clothing, specifically jeggings.
I started wearing a women’s thong under my clothes. It felt pretty comfortable actually.”
“It was against the rules to cook mac and cheese at my elementary school.
For some reason even though teachers were the only ones with access to a kitchen this applied to everyone.”
“In our Catholic high school we are alternately seated so female male female male, to avoid talking to our seatmates and being loud.
Some 8th graders decided to do some lewd stuff not sure what but now all of the females are seated on the left side of the room and the boys are seated on the right.”
“Do NOT climb into the lunch hall rafters.
I know because I’m the dumb f**k who managed to get up there and couldn’t get down.”
“We could not wear leggings without a shirt that goes past our middle finger.
Idk if you count that but I got in trouble for it way to many times.”
“Fryers are cleaned in the morning when the oil is cool instead of at night (like every other location in the chain) when the oil is still hot.
Turns out a dude decided to send it with the fryer cleaning brush one night when they wanted to close and go home within the hour, making hot oil come splashing out of the fryer and onto his body.
He had to go to the hospital for some pretty bad burns.”
“”When showering after gym class always shower with a buddy (like you enter/leave together).
Never to this day know what that was about…”
“No speaking a language other than English in the hallways at an international boarding school.
Turns out some Chinese kids were openly plotting to run away from the school and well…they couldn’t have that.
Can you tell I had a great high school experience?”
“No mirrors in the school restroom.
Apparently the students in the school like to break the mirrors and use it as shank.
A lot of students were st**bed.”
“I worked at a water treatment plant.
There was a 5-gallon plastic bucket there that had this stenciled on it: “Do not use as a hard hat.””
“Physics students here, for our subatomic experiments, our teacher give us a courses about security because we where going to use radioactive sources. On one slide of his courses we all read (and he read it out loud too).
“DO NOT EAT THE SOURCES”
I don’t know what the students years before us tried, but d**m…”
How about you?
Have you ever seen any rules that made you scratch your head?
Tell us about them in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!
The post People Talk About the Rules That Made Them Think “What Happened Here to Have This Rule Made”? appeared first on UberFacts.
Do you ever see a rule at work or school that is SUPER specific and it makes you say, “what happened here to make them come up with this rule…and who did it?”
Yeah, you know what I’m talking about…
Well, today we’re gonna get some answers, darn it!
AskReddit users talked about the weird rules they’ve seen that made them question where they came from. Let’s check it out.
“Our Middle school had a rule:
“No bicycle helmets allowed in the school building!”.
When the weather was nice a lot of us rode bicycles and we all wore riding helmets since it was a school rule and we could get put in detention if we showed up on a bicycle not wearing one. There were hooks above the bike rack outside to hang our riding helmets on, but we all wondered about that strange rule about not bringing them indoors.
Once I was chatting with the assistant principal and I happened to ask him about it, and he said a few years before one girl used hers as a weapon and swung it at and really clonked another girl with it hard enough that she fell against the lockers.”
“This was written for one class I was in and my class only.
Do NOT put your finger in the pencil sharpener
This was an “advanced” class.”
“My university residence first year had a strict “No Octopi allowed in dorms” rule posted at the front desk.
No mention of other aquatic creatures.”
“Do not injure a fellow student…
Regardless if WITH or without their permission…”
“Do not enter the secure corridor and let the first door shut behind you if you do not have the code for the second door.
Some complete idiot got trapped between the doors for five hours.
It might have been me…”
“”Do not put your hands into the machine while it’s moving.”
And “Do not take apart the safety knives to get the blade out.”
Both have happened while I worked there.”
“”No food items permitted in employee restrooms”
I knew who was taking their little snacks in there but I never snitched because it struck me that the perp very possibly had an eating disorder.”
“An escape room I used to frequent had a rule that clothes must stay on at all times while in the room.
I can guess what happened.”
“My employee handbook had a rule that said no sleeping at your desk. I thought that was pretty obvious and wondered why it had to be said.
My first day of work, I realized my co-worker who sat behind me was the reason they included it. I’m working and all of a sudden, hear loud snoring. The dude was full on sleeping and no one batted an eye.
Turns out he bought a doctor’s note saying he has sleep apnea and is prone to random bouts of sleep and management couldn’t punish him for it.”
“Used to work in a warehouse that only employed like a dozen people in a small town, they had a whole handbook of rules with a very thorough section on racial/ s**ual intolerance etc. which is unusual for such a job, at least around here.
It turned out once, a few years before, the owner walked into the shipping room and the pack team supervisor was hosting a “pow-wow” and had everybody prancing in a circle, clapping their hands and chanting “heya-hoya.” I still saw some pretty ignorant s**t while I was there.”
“Do not turn on heavy machinery being demonstrated by teachers.
Told to us by the design and technology teacher with half a finger missing.”
“At the student society: If you’ve been a member for 15 years, you’re allowed to ride your motorcycle into the dining hall.
No one knew why the rule existed and no one had ever made it to 15 years since you can’t be a member once you graduate. People just assumed someone made it up one day while drunk.
Until I asked my dad about it, he was at the same uni in the 1970s, and a member of the same society. He told me it was a special treat for one of the janitors of the building when he had worked there for 15 years. A bunch of students hauled his motorcycle up to the second floor and he was allowed to start it in the staircase, and then ride into to dining hall.
The rule was then added that any student who made it to 15 years would be allowed to do the same.”
Have you ever come across any ridiculous rules and had moments like this?
Tell us your stories in the comments!
We can’t wait to hear from you!
The post What Rule Made You Say “What Happened Here to Have This Rule Created”? People Responded. appeared first on UberFacts.
You never really know where people are headed in life…
Which, when I think about it, is probably part of the fun for teachers because it’s all kind of a crapshoot.
Teachers, which former students surprised you the most later in life?
Here’s how people responded on AskReddit.
“I ran a program for kids grades 4-7 for a local newspaper. I would reach them the fundamentals of journalism, and they would write stories for a weekly kids page.
One of my students got a degree in journalism and was a television broadcaster for a little while. Another went into public relations and works for a university, last I heard. Another runs a really cool vlog and has been getting some notice as an influencer.
And another got a degree in journalism, earned an Emmy just a few years out of college, and now hosts a national television show and interviews famous people on the red carpet.”
“I had a class of 8th graders one year that I SWORE we’d someday see one of their pictures on the front page of the paper because they were arrested for something (small town). That class drove me crazy.
The one that drove me the craziest was hyper, wouldn’t do his work, copied on tests so openly that I had to pass out 3 different tests every time…the list was endless. He ended up on the front page of our paper, though.
He was a top adviser in the Bush administration!”
“I retired from teaching after 36 years of working with special education students of varying exceptionalities. There was one female student that I worked with for several years that displayed a keen aptitude in math but also initially had a phobia for math.
Interesting. I would always approach her with math by using the words, “Okay, we’re going to play with some math.” The shift in her approach to math along with the elimination of anxiety associated with the subject was truly amazing to witness.
Within a half a year I mainstreamed her into a regular education math class and she was out performing other students. She went onto the University of WA and was awarded scholarships for her work in math.”
“Product Design teacher here.
Can’t tell you how immensely proud I am of an ex student who got out of the small time town, emigrated to Denmark, came out and has become a designer for Lego.”
“Two former students ended up playing in the NFL.
I reached out to both and let them know I was proud of them for their dedication and following through on their dreams. Both took time to respond and thank me for making a difference in their lives.
I have so many former students who keep in touch, and I love getting to see how they are doing!”
“One of my kids would only play with Legos and h**ed school because he figured things out far more quickly than anyone else.
He was one of the founders of MakerBot.”
“I teach, and have always taught, in a Title I school. Lots of bad situations, very poor families, lots of things we can not fix or even help.
One of my third-grade boys, many, many years ago, was ANGRY. I mean, not the “pick fights” kind, but the “I h**e everyone, you all suck, there’s no point” kind of angry and far too weary of the world for a 9-year old. He was BRILLIANT. Such a smart kid, and he would work for me, but his fourth and fifth grade teachers could get him to do almost nothing, he did just enough to pass.
They thought I was crazy when I talked about how smart he was. On the standardized test for fifth grade, he basically maxed out the math portion, and won some kind of national award. I wept. Ugly cried. I was so proud for him! He had a rough time in middle school, but by high school, he was doing a bit better. Still angry, still unmotivated, but managing, I guess.
Three years ago, I was in my classroom in the afternoon, and got a call from the office. I had a visitor. I went down, and there he was. With his wife, and the fattest, sweetest baby on the planet. He is in the army, and y’all, he was SO HAPPY, and had a job he loved, and a woman he loved, and a baby. He is still best friends with another boy that was in our class that year. He just radiated happiness and well-being. My heart!
Things could have turned out so much differently for him. Given his circumstances, they should have. I am so thankful he beat the odds.”
“The former student of mine who d**d by s**cide this year.
It was a complete shock to all of us who’d taught her in elementary school. She had really been one of those kids with a constant ear-to-ear smile – not just full of joy, but radiating joy; not only was she well-liked by all, but she really seemed to genuinely like everybody.
When my students leave at the end of each year, they go off to middle school, so every year’s end (though always desperately needed) has that bittersweet, vaguely funereal bite to it. This’ll sound strange, but to me it feels sort of like when a parent’s first child gets married – there’s happiness and excitement aplenty, but there’s also a sense of something ending that naturally brings back a flood of childhood memories, and with them usually some tears.
All of that is to say that I was already familiar with the devastation memory can precipitate when I heard the news. But death really does hit different.
The best I can do to describe it is this: there’s no hierarchy in the memories that come after a person d**s. None of them are insignificant. The first thing I remembered when I heard was that her line number was 11 (that is, that when our class lined up, her spot was 11th from the front – in the days before digital assessment or camera-scanning, there was a real time-saving advantage to having students always hand in assignments in alphabetical order as they walked out the door).
Over the next couple of weeks, other such memories were constantly percolating, to the point where at one point one of my current students asked me why I kept randomly pausing in the middle of my sentences.
I wasn’t collected enough at the time to tell them the truth, so I just brushed it off, but if I could have another go at it, I think this is what I’d say:
You have no idea how much we remember of you. You have no idea how much of yourself you give to a classroom, because you would never think of things like the way you write your name, the way you sit, the way you laugh, the way you smile, the sound of your voice, your accent, the way(s) you wear your hair (or maybe the fact that I had to ask you to take your hood off three times a day).
The way you keep using the same pencil until it’s only about 2 micrometers long, the way your backpack looks like it’s eating you when you carry it, the way you find cool leaves at recess and show them to me, the way you tell me every single day about what your pet bird did the night before, the way you said “Yes!” with genuine excitement when you saw the newest Aru Shah book on your desk…simply put, the way you are – as gifts.
But they are, and I can’t even begin to describe how grateful I am to receive them.”
“I was his sixth grade English teacher. He joined the class a bit late but he was a sweet kid, and eager to please. Along with a cousin, he was now being raised by his grandparents since the state had recently deemed his mother unfit.
The boy craaaaved positive attention, and at school, he found it. He worked hard, was funny as hell, and he was a freaky good athlete. But academically, he struggled. He was very open about his life and talked openly about how few resources he had at home or about times he endured with his mom. I think the other kids felt bad for him, because they’d ask if they could stay after to help him with his assignments. They’d volunteer. He was a charmer.
I was also a coach then, so I’d see him often. He started confiding in me, coming to me for advice, etc. As he was being recruited, I talked him up, “marketed him” , wrote a ton of letters on his behalf, and helped him and his grandparents complete forms, and forms and forms . His grades were a problem, so it happened later than anyone expected, but he accepted a scholarship to a college out of state.
I hadn’t seen him over the summer, but a few days before he left for college, we had lunch together. He arrived disheveled and barefooted. He didn’t eat, and frankly, he “talked crazy.” I was concerned, but wished him luck and he left for college. He was asked to leave the school less than three months later.
From what I’ve learned since, being away was less than ideal. He was a homeboy and being away scared him. He grew anxious, befuddled…couldn’t sleep. Worse, he stopped taking the antipsychotic meds he’d been on since early his senior yr of h.s. Back home, his grandparents insisted on him taking his medication, and he insisted that he wouldn’t.
He was huge and strong and these altercations grew violent and frequent before long Police would come and arrest him, but that was just a stop gap. He’d return home from a night or two in jail and nothing would change. Jail wasn’t a deterrent, because he had become schizophrenic and jail couldn’t do a thing for him or for his family.
I didn’t know a thing about his mental health issues, or that he was even home. So yes, I was surprised by that boy of promise who grew into a man, who through no fault of his own, deemed it necessary to spend several hours beating his grandparents and cousin to d**th using a pool cue and a set of forty pound dumbbells.”
“My wife is a secondary school teacher. The school she teaches at is rough. One of the students she remembers was a gang member and was acting out in the classroom in front of his friends.
He couldn’t go home after school for family reasons so he would come to my wife after school and ask for maths tuition / time on the computer. He came daily and with the support of my wife he founded his passion and it was to work on cars.
Fast forward 5 years, he is now a mechanic (apprentice learner) for Mercedes AMG in Dubai.”
“Am a college professor in India, and well, having fair skin is a pretty big issue here, with fairness equated with beauty and class. One of our first year female students was caught ingesting pills and passing out in class.
Some of the disciplinary committee was for suspension of the student, but me and my colleagues from our Department asked that she be let off with a warning, and we would personally see to her, since she always seemed like a pretty good sort to us. We had a talk with her, and she said that coming from the village to a city college, she felt ashamed of her dark skin and round figure, and she had taken those pills because some friends of hers told her that they were slimming pills and fairness pills.
We told her that she was beautiful as is, that those pills actually did her more harm than good (they were laxatives, diuretics and stomach meds). We gave her some extra attention, and besides, her classmates were also pretty nice kids, and she eventually thrived, getting into fitness and dancing, as well as academics. Fast forward a few years, she graduated with honours both from college and university, and was also the Varsity Beauty queen.
She is also the first from her village to receive a NET (National Eligibility Test for lectureship eligibility), as well as the first to be admitted to a PhD programme.”
“My mom had a student in 3rd grade who was a bit of a troublemaker. She would have pretend trials sometimes in her classroom and made this kid a judge once.
Many years later he nominated her for a big teaching award just because she gave him that opportunity in the classroom, he said it made him want to grow up to be a judge.
Last I heard he was elected as a district attorney.”
Okay teachers, now we want to hear your stories!
In the comments, tell us about your former students who really surprised you later in life.
Don’t hold back now!
The post Teachers Share Which Former Students Surprised Them the Most Later in Life appeared first on UberFacts.
You blink and you’ll miss it.
An older gentleman told me that when I graduated from high school. I kind of shrugged off his words of wisdom but it turns out he was right…
And things are always moving forward, which is good news for all of us here on planet Earth.
In what small ways has society progressed in the last two decades?
AskReddit users shared their thoughts.
“My grandfather has been blind for forty years.
He says people are way more friendly than they used to be, especially younger people are eager to help.”
“I think the majority of the world knows a lot more about other cultures and countries.
Thanks to the internet and learning facilities and the vast possibilities of travelling, people can really get into these topics if they want to.”
“Infant mortality rate in Africa is now the same as it was in Europe in the 1970s.
Absolutely amazing progress.”
“Think about the public’s access to information.
Just Wikipedia is equivalent to thousands of dollars of encyclopedias and almanacs in the 1990s.
And it’s way more valuable than that because it’s constantly being updated.”
“The rapid skill increase across all forms of gaming/sports, art, leisure activities, etc.
The internet really has allowed niche-activity folks to learn the most effective practices collectively, as opposed to independent and un-structured learning.
Hobbyists can (and are) now able to quickly get really good at nearly everything, at a ridiculous rate. Poker, paintball, video editing, computer games, etc…. doesn’t matter what it is, it’s easier now to jump from “beginner” to “pretty good” in nearly anything.”
“The intermet has made it easier to learn almost anything.
When something in my house/car breaks or needs upgraded, I can generally diagnose it with Google and then watch how-to videos on youtube to decide if I should do it myself or just save time and contact a professional to complete the repair.”
“Stressing the importance of seat belts and helmets.
Old TV shows commonly depict no helmets and seatbelts.”
“I took my grandparents to my Grandpa’s sister’s funeral, on the drive back home I had to buy a Pepsi and a coffee because I was tired.
I finished the can of Pepsi, and put the can in the cup holder.
Grandpa said “you know son, 10 years ago that would have went right out the window.””
“Giving more opportunities to people with disabilities.
And this doesn’t mean just work either, but designing more building to universal design so that people with disabilities can access more spaces unassisted.
It’s really great!”
“Way fewer people smoke these days.
Honestly, in my extended family it’s maybe only one of my distant cousins.”
“Wearing glasses has all but lost the negative stereotypes surrounding it.
They often used to make kids suffer through school unable to see.”
“We’re normalizing openly discussing miscarriages. It use to be uncouth to discuss in social settings and was more something that couples had to suffer silently to themselves.
After recently experiencing one, the outpouring of support has been amazing and such a pillar of support for us through this tough time. We were thankful to have others to mourn with us.”
“In my country several efforts have been made to save our only remaining native indigenous language from being extinct.
A decade ago less than 1,000 people could speak it, now I believe the number is closer to 10,000.”
How about you?
What progress do you think we’ve made in the last two decades?
Sound off in the comments and let us know!
The post What Small Ways Has Society Progressed in the Last 20 Years? Here’s How People Responded. appeared first on UberFacts.
It’s really easy to mispronounce words you don’t know, no matter how smart you are. If we’ve never had occasion to hear something said, after all, we can give it our best guess but never know for sure.
You’ll often hear people who read a lot, and widely, mispronounce a word on their first try because they’ve only read it, not heard it, and these 27 words are especially tough.
If you’d rather avoid the situation where you say it wrong in public, here are the correct pronunciations for some really complicated words.
Back in the 13 century, people said it “just,” but the word has evolved (maybe since no one physically jousts anymore) to be pronounced j-oust.
If your’e from the United Kingdom, you probably say “tran-zee-ent”, though that’s also popular in the States.
Some Americans, though, prefer and use the two syllable “tran-shent.”
You can choose here, eee-thur or aye-thur – you can even swap them out depending on your mood and the day!
Go crazy!
Guess what? You’re not saying this one wrong, because both “stay-tus” and “stah-tus” are technically correct. Pick your poison, friends!
I was definitely saying this one wrong – “kwah-zee” – instead of the correct way, which is “kway-zi.”
The difference is subtle, but once again, you can pick between the two choices of “prey-lood” or “prel-yood,” because both are technically correct.
People used to pronounce this word “long-lyved,” but post 20th century, “long-livd” is universally accepted as correct.
This word has evolved over the years, and was originally French and pronounced “val-it.”
In Britain, the word pronounced that way means a butler who helps you dress, while a val-ay is a person who parks your car and/or carries your bags.
Since most of us only employ the second (and only on occasion), the second pronunciation is generally considered to be correct.
This is a person who controls finances, so the “mp” becomes an “n” when you pronounce this management title.
This one surprised me, y’all – if you’re talking about someone’s strength, the ‘e’ is silent.
You only pronounce it fort-ay if you’re using it in the musical sense.
This one is tough, because most of us don’t actually speak Greek, but it’s “yee-roh.”
There are too many wrong pronunciations to count!
In the United states, pronouncing this to rhyme with hair or air is correct, but in the U.K., it rhymes with ‘her.”
Go figure.
This outdated term for food is pronounced “vittle,” not like “ritual,” but only a really pretentious person would need to use it, I think.
Sorry, gal-uh people, but you’re just wrong – this should always be pronounced gay-luh.
Unless you’re in France (where you can order an “un express”), there’s no ‘x’ in this word.
Sorry, y’all.
This one is another choose your own adventure, except it’s more like choose your own emphasis.
Applicable or aplicable are both correct.
If you want to sound worldly and use this term to mean “witty remark,” you’ll want to make sure you’re saying it correctly, right?
Barely pronounce that ‘n’, get all nasally, and ditch the ‘t.’
Another example of why English exists just to mess with us. This isn’t pronounced like the word “sphere-i-Kal,” but instead, “sferr-i-Kal.”
What.
In this French tern, you hit the n a little harder, but blend it straight into the ‘a.’ Also, that last ‘t’ is silent.
Bo-nap-e-tea!
It depends on how you’re using it. If it’s a noun, it’s de-crease, but if it’s a verb, it’s de-crease.
Who has time to parse your sentence before saying it, though?
We all love to scarf these down, but can you say it?
If you’re referring to the pretty-colored sandwich cookies, it’s “mac-a-ron,” and there’s no ‘S’ even if you eat an entire box.
I like that.
If you’re eating coconut haystack cookies, those are “mac-a-roons,” and feel free to pronounce the ‘s’.
“Kar-mull” used to be a regionally accepted Midwestern thing, but has become acceptable worldwide, as is “kah-ruh-mull.”
And don’t let anyone tell you differently.
In Scotland, where these delicious pastries were invented, they pronounce it to rhyme with “cone,” but some other places in England and the like choose to rhyme it with “gone” instead.
In America, they recommend “skoon,” though I’ve personally never heard it.
So you do you, y’all.
Many people think this word rhymes with stove, or use an “aw” sound to make the “au,” but “mov” is safe and actually correct.
The French word for “new” isn’t pronounced “no-vu,” but “new-vo.”
Just a little way to impress your friends and enemies the next time you want to insult someone at a party.
Hold onto your hats, folks, because the first syllable is “ray.”
The second syllable is a soft g still, though.
This is the French word for “without,” and despite the way you hear it most of the time, the last ‘s’ is silent.
Not only that, but the ‘a’ should be long, like in “saw,” and you should barely pronounce the ‘n,’ either.
I’m feeling better about myself already, how about you?
What word do you commonly hear mispronounced? Educate us in the comments!
The post Even Smart People Mispronounce These 27 Words appeared first on UberFacts.
The public school experience: there’s really nothing like it, thank God. But we all remember it. Or most of us do, anyway, and if you spend a little time online, you’ll probably find that your memories don’t differ significantly from those of everybody else.
The true high school journey was nothing like The Disney Channel promised us it would be. The real journey was…well, it was this stuff.
I can smell this photo and I really don’t want to.
Legends would form around its origins. Cults would be gathered. Civilizations built.
Back in my day you didn’t even have social media to save you, you just died in there.
College student gets stuck in bathroom. Posts to "Overheard" Facebook page for help. from Wellthatsucks
How can someone so good at math be so bad at time?
BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL!
Oh, suddenly y’all think knowing stuff is cool, huh?
I’d like to stop thinking about this, please.
This spread throughout the entire United States, if not further.
Murder? A game? A spider? We’ll never know.
That’s just how it be sometimes.
You’re just gonna have to power through.
“What am I gonna do, fix a clock?”
Ok so why do we even have the bells then?
Oh, the memories. Most of them bad. So long, high school. Happy to never have to deal with you again.
What was your strangest school experience?
Tell us about it in the comments.
The post Public School Experiences That Are Strangely Universal appeared first on UberFacts.
The transition to online learning has been hard for everyone – parents, teachers, students, and administration.
There has been big adjustments on every side, and this conversation between parent and teacher only solidifies that fact.
The mother heard that her son’s teacher was rude after he asked her name, and started an email exchange that, though heated at the beginning, resolved well.
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The teacher replied that she’d meant she was sad he couldn’t recall her name and hadn’t meant to be rude, which…idk, y’all.
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Mom wasn’t buying it, either.
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So, she didn’t let it go.
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As she shouldn’t have.
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She replied again, still respectful, but let the teacher know her response had not been good enough.
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The teacher’s reply was respectful, also, and contained an apology.
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Bravo.
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Everyone ended up feeling better, I hope, and the teacher really is thoughtful about where this takes her in the future.
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People on Twitter applauded her efforts and her standing up for her son when he deserved her support.
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Some people questioned whether or not the teacher didn’t need the wakeup call, so good thing it was given in such a mindful manner.
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No one should be made to feel badly for asking honest and respectful questions.
Full stop.
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Proof, if you ask me, that having an open line of communication with your child’s teacher is the best way to go – and even if you don’t want to always stand up for your child or take their side before you speak with the teacher, our kids do need to know that we have their backs when they deserve it.
Have you had a unique challenges with online school? Share them with us in the comments!
The post A Mom’s Conversation With a Teacher Shows That Online School Is Hard for Everyone appeared first on UberFacts.
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