What a day!

Every day I learn something new.  Today's class taught me to not trust when students tell me that a science experiment will not explode, spread noxious fumes, and bleach my floor tiles. I asked my students to come up wth something to present to the class.  I didn't give many rules other than it had to be school appropriate and it couldn't be dangerous.  Most of them did an OK job coming up with something safe.  I had a couple read poetry, one led a discussion on whether marijuana should be legalized or not, a letter to a congressman, and a handfull of science experiments.  Next time I am going to make sure I give permission for each specific experiment before allowing it to be presented to the class.

I after the explosion, the other bottles started melting and spewing nauseating fumes.  We had to evacuate the classroom while the toxic mixture spilled all over my desk and floor.  I now have some bleached tiles and a horrid smelling classroom.  Luckily, I had the lens cap on the projector and my laptop closed.  One of my students wasn't quite as lucky.  He got hit and had to go to the eye doctor for a chemical burn on his eye. He is fine now, but it was a crazy beginning to the day.  Maybe later I will post some of the tamer presentations, but after this, they weren't all that exciting.