I had two people observing my 4th period class today.  Channel One comes on at the beginning of the class period -- now, I could have unplugged the TV before they came, but I chose not to.

When the bell rang, I told them -- we start the class period with Channel One that period, so we're pretty informal.

Like most days, some of the students watched Channel One.  Some checked on their assignments that I had graded and returned yesteday.  Some were doing email.  There was an interesting segment with the Govenator talking about how technology and environmentalism can work together to make being green economical which I pointed out to the kids.

When Channel One was over, I answered a few questions about yesterday's work.  Once that was wrapped up, I started the lesson -- we started a new unit, so I showed a Power Point presenation -- did questions and answers, etc.

So then I cut the students lose to work on their assignments.  I see one young man instant messaging -- he says it's his mom.  I read the screen and they were talking about ripping up carpet.  Not normal kid stuff -- so I said:  Well tell mom I said hi -- and that I also said you needed to get back to work.  He typed that in AND did get back to work.

Wonder how the observaters felt about that....