another story i forgot: in the middle of my lesson, i saw a girl finishing up a note. the girl that was going to be receiving the note passed her calculator to the girl that was writing the note. the girl that was writing the note looked at it with a confused look, then looked back the girl and mouthed, "what is this for?" i took over from there. i stopped mid-sentence and said, "look, you're supposed to put the note inside of the calculator so that way it looks like you're passing a calculator instead of a note and then you won't get in trouble! come on! get with it!"

everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at me with amazement, a stunned look that said "he's on to us!" one girl, breaking the silence, asked, "how did you know?"

"i was in middle school once. i know all the tricks." with that, i marched back and proudly took the note from the clueless girl who still had the calculator in her hand.