Saturday, March 29, 2008

Boring pictures

I decided to show my students some of my spring break photos, something I do whenever I return from a trip, something I do for two reasons:
  • to get them interested in the world outside of their neighborhoods
  • to use up valuable class time
Of course during second period, as I was mid-way through my slide show, the principal walked in. Probably was wondering why it was so dark and quiet in my room. So I scrambled to come up with an "educational" rationale for my photos.

"And who does this picture remind you of?" I asked the class, clicking to the one of me reading on a rock. Lucky for me, several kids yelled in unison: "Christopher McCandless!"

"That's right," I said, "the guy from Into the Wild." I actually had taken this self-portrait with the intention of looking like the character in the book we had just read.

The principal, of course, got into it and started asking about specific places I visited and talking about East Bay restaurants he's eaten at. The kids eventually got bored.

But there was one picture that they enjoyed, one of a street scene with the Bay in the distance. And one thing they could easily understand--something neither the principal nor I could do--was what's written on the side of the van.

So here's a challenge to my readers. Who can actually read the graffiti? Don't cheat by asking a teenager. First correct response in the comments gets extra credit.

click on picture to enlarge

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keys-HCM

Yay? Nay?

Asad said...

I still get a little scared whenever someone other than a student walks into my classroom.

http://asad123.wordpress.com

teacherman said...

wow, a, that was really, really fast ...

I thought it was 7EFS5

middleson said...

dang, i was going to guess KELIS.

rich the photo guy said...

The graffiti looks about like the verification letters on Blogger!

BTW- Nice self portrait!

( the horizon is a wee bit crooked though. ;-) )


-- rich the photo guy

teacherman said...

Rich, thanks, and you're right, the horizon is way crooked. To get that shot, I actually balanced my camera on a rock (didn't have a tripod with me), set the 12-second timer, made a mad scramble over the rocks, almost wiping out, and squatted with my book just as the camera clicked. When they saw the picture, my students used it as evidence that I had not been traveling alone. But I let them think what they want ...

rich the photo guy said...

Yikes! Good thing you have some good dexterity, otherwise you could have broken your neck.


-- rich the photo guy