Body-Part-Verbing

I am on my feet a lot when I teach, moving around the room, answering questions [or not -- read the instructions!], giving advice and demonstrations. This week we’re giving final exams. The last ones are tomorrow. It’s going reasonably well so far. My two least well-behaved classes had their tests on Monday. [Buh-Bye....]

Anyway, I’m on my feet while kids are taking their exams, too, but to keep from being a distraction I usually stand at the back of the room. I walk around a little to monitor their progress and pick up their work when it’s finished. This feels more tiring than teaching. Sometimes I doodle to keep from getting bored.

Yesterday I wrote this:

mind-numbing

Because, seriously, my brain was on situational Procaine*.

I’d rather, I thought, be doing something mind-blowing. To some of my students, though, the test is probably nerve-wracking. Maybe even stomach-churning. [Is that better, worse, or the same as gut-wrenching?] I had an eye-popping list started by this point. Not exactly spine-tingling excitement, but it was keeping me from taking a bone-jarring header into a concrete wall.

And that kept me entertained for a while. Until I saw some of the scores. That was heart-rending.

*On two different sources that I checked “Novocaine” redirects to “Procaine.” I never knew….