Stink Eye...

One of my students (junior) told me the other day that her little sister (eighth grader) was afraid of me. If this had been the first time I'd heard such a statement perhaps I would have been...appalled/disturbed/hurt, etc. Alas, it is not. But, it was the first time I had heard such a statement in quite some time (multiple months) so I questioned why her sister felt that way. Little sister reported to big sister that I had given her the "stink eye"...What? What the heck is that, I asked? She replied it was a mean look. Ohhhh...I had never heard this lingo for mean looks. However, I was immediately taken with the description. How appropriate. Stink eye = yuck.

I certainly give yuck looks. Often, giving yuck looks is the only available recourse in my line o'work. When my kids are taking a test and one of them decides the atmosphere of silence and quite concentration is the best time to wrestle with a unopenable bag of Doritos, I don't want to further the commotion with a swift thump on their head so I resort to the death look...er, Stink Eye. Just today, I had to resort to said look. It's the last day of school and as much as I'd like to say my resistance is still strong (resistance to standard teacher weaknesses like giving up as the school year winds down) it isn't!!!! So, we played Scattergories. For Types of Dance that start with an "L", one lovely darling (boy, of course) said "Lap"...I gave a mean Stink Eye as the laughter started to erupt in order to nip that nonsense in the bud...

When I'm in mid-sentence about Vietnam and someone raises their hand to ask me if I like sushi: Stink Eye. When a student asks me if they can have extra credit for not asking if they can borrow a pencil (after having asked for 29 days in a row): Stink Eye. When a student asks me if I graduated during the year of my actual birth: STINKIEST EYE!

So the stink eye is often appropriate and effective. However, I can't imagine for the life of me why I would have given a innocent little eighth grader the stink eye, in passing nonetheless. I'm sure it was inadvertent. Check out these examples of the stink eye below. I'm pretty sure they weren't inadvertent at all!