Pull my gleaner???

Kids these days. The things they will say to try to get a rise out of a teacher....

Marjorie is a new teacher on our hall this year. She teaches math. She tries really hard to be a 'cool' teacher - one that students like and will respect. Problem is, she lets them get away with too much, and it's starting to get out of hand. Case in point:

During lunch today, Marjorie tells us about a student in one of her classes coming up to her and (according to Marjorie) telling her to pull his 'gleaner.' Marjorie hears 'weiner', gets offended, and writes a referral. The assistant principal (who has a reputation of being a little soft on discipline) comes up to her this morning, telling Marjorie that the student insists he said 'gleaner', and that a gleaner is the skin on your elbow. We (our lunch bunch), being the life-long learners we are, look up 'gleaner + elbow' on Google. Nothing. The rest of lunch is taken up with hilarious gleaner jokes. We enjoy our wit very much. Marjorie is not so amused.

When the bell rings, Suzanne and I are on hall patrol when we overhear a group of Marjorie's students talking about what happened. We hear the word 'weiner' several times, and ask the students to stop talking about the incident. One of the boys (who happens to be in my Resource class) says, 'No, Mrs. Lowe! She got upset over the word 'wenus' - and that's what you call the skin on your elbow.' I shoo them all to class, and Google 'wenus.' Sure enough, it's a word, and it means the skin on your elbow.

Next time I see Marjorie, I tell her about 'wenus'. She feels a little stupid, but gleans (get it?) satisfaction in the knowledge that what she heard was still rather inappropriate.

I mean - come on - indiscriminate pulling of the skin on a students' elbow could lead to all sorts of chaos!