Wednesday, February 10, 2010

My Dog Ate My Homework


My neck hurts. It's hurt for about two weeks and now hurts down my right arm and into my hand. When I type, my neck hurts. When I click the mouse on the computer, my neck hurts. Now, I could use this as an excuse for not blogging, but I refuse. As a teacher I have heard so many excuses over the years, I refuse to use them myself. Some of them, however, are pretty good. Here are the ten that I heard most often.

1. My sister got sick and we were in the emergency room all night.
2. I was at my dad's over the weekend and I left all my books and papers there.
3. My homework is in my friend's locker and he's home sick today.
4. My tutor can't help me until next week.
5. I had a game last night and I left my books on the bus.
6. I asked another teacher for help and she confused me.
7. Our power went out last night and I couldn't see to do my work.
8. My mom cleaned my room and threw out a bunch of papers I needed.
9. I spilled coffee all over my homework and didn't have time to recopy it.
10. I got called into work and didn't have time to do my homework.

Amazingly, not one student, ever, used the excuse that his dog had eaten his homework. I, on the other hand, had a cat that like to chew the edges of paper. He would put bite marks all along all four edges of a piece of paper. They were messy perforations and occasionally, he would get hold of a student's paper, one that I was checking. Yes, there were several occasions when I handed back a paper to a student and had to say, "I'm sorry, but my cat chewed your paper." And that was the truth, not an excuse.

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