Kickback

My mom has always said that I should keep a journal of the things my middle school students say so that I can write a book later on. How could I forget when two years ago, one of the seventh grade students who had a crush on me stated, "You could be my R Kelly, Ms. Nettels!"

Today, my students enlightened me on what a "kickback" is. Two of my lovable knuckleheads stopped by after school to inform me they didn't have the work for their portfolios with them (even though they knew they were due today because it was up on my board all week AND it's the end of the quarter). I informed them to get their butts to school tomorrow, or I was going to enter a zero for both of them. They then proceeded to stay in my room...and chat. They mentioned they were going to have a "kickback" this afternoon.

I looked at them clueless.

One of them noticed my expression and said, "Oh come on, don't you know what a kickback is?"

To which I replied, "No, I was a geek in school."

After a big sigh, knucklehead one responds, "It's when a bunch of people just go over to someone's house and hang out."

That sounded pretty boring to me, so I said, "That's all you do?"

After a look was exchanged between the two, knucklehead one said, "No, stuff goes on."

Gross-er-roo I immediately thought to myself! I actually said out loud, "Eww," but then they assured me that THAT was not the stuff that goes on. (Yeah right.)

Truth be told, a little kickback with some fromage and a nice merlot sounds fabulous right now, but I will wait until tomorrow afternoon for that. Happy Thursday!