Nerd Alert

My husband is commonly called a dork and a nerd.....and not just by me either.

It's an occupational hazard when you are a Physics and Chemistry teacher and a strategy game fanatic.

He does not find these titles offensive in the least and is somewhat proud of his dork status.

Even his co-workers and students have begun to sense his nerdiness. I give you the following examples:

Over the summer Brian got a new clock for his classroom. It's a special Chemistry clock. It doesn't have numbers on it. It only has elements from the periodic table on it. They are in the location on the clock that represents their atomic number. So O (for Oxygen) is in the #8 spot because it's atomic number is 8 and H (for Hydrogen) is in the #1 spot because it's atomic number is 1. See? I told you he was nerdy.

Anyway, he loves this clock and thinks it is so clever. His Chemistry students appreciate it too, but when he had to trade rooms with another teacher for a day her General Science students were extremely frustrated with not knowing what time it was. When they asked, "What's up with that clock?" Mrs. Doll's only possible explanation was, "You know Mr. Grove is a little bit of a nerd." When word got back to Brian and he jokingly confronted her she said, "I lied and said 'a little bit'." Point taken.

The kids that have had him for 2, or sometimes 3, classes in a row (like his AP Bio students) are completely used to his nerdish ways and have come to accept and respect them. In fact when Cainan went in and drew a stick figure like this one on the white board the other day, the students were appalled. They said, "Mr. Grove I can't believe you taught your son how to draw phospholipids."

Ok, he's not THAT nerdy. But I do see the resemblance.