Nitrogen Erbium Dysprosium + Vanadium Iodine Beryllium Sulfer = NErDy VIBeS

That SAT score though

There are so many potential red flags when it comes to work trips. Let's start with expenses. If it's not all-expense paid, there better be a good reason. That doesn't mean the flight and hotels. I'm talking breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, and snacks. That's right, we workers are not playing around anymore. Then there's the issue of the quality of the hotel. Do not settle for your boss getting some janky old room at the nearest motel. The situation needs to be just as convenient and nice for…

This isn't a story you hear every day, but you should keep this petty trick in your back pocket the next time you're looking to dish out some epic revenge.

Is it for the best?

Who will play hooman #1 in the nativity scene?

School group projects are never divided equally, and one person always ends up doing the workload of everyone else. The annoying part in this (besides doing more work than you should), is that everyone still ends up getting credit. When I was in high school, I had to make a movie. Okay, I exaggerated, and that sounds a little more impressive than it actually ended up being. We were put in a group of 4 and were told we had to come up with an idea for a 10-minute film. Then we had to pick a locat…

School might be a hub for education engagement and socialization, but it can also be a place where some of the most mildly infuriating scenarios life has to offer can occur. That's because when you walk into a school, you've got a number of power dynamics at play: teachers, administrators, and then, of course, the hierarchical social structure among students. Furthermore, schools of all sizes come with sets of rules to be enforced by faculty and staff. As we have seen with many other kinds of i…

No workplace or school is without some drama, and we've got our popcorn buckets ready as we read these stories. Gossipy places aren't always the nicest to work at, but there will be some great stories. A little bit of drama can spice up any boring Thursday afternoon. Whether it's two coworkers who can't agree on the heat, or the entire office waiting for someone to have a meeting with HR, it certainly breaks up the monotony. I'm fascinated with the story of the office where no one could agree o…

Raising a well-rounded child is always a conundrum. I can't speak from experience, but I imagine it would be particularly difficult to keep your teenager grounded if your family is affluent. Teenagers are inherently entitled, but imagine throwing a couple million dollars in their bank account along with the latest iPhone.

send this to your teacher friends

Sending an angry letter to my 3rd grade teacher

"Mommy, I want a pony!"

We all had a teacher back in the day who claimed something was true that occasionally made you suspicious. As you have gotten older, you have learned that your skepticism was not unwarranted and that you were absolutely right to question some of the nonsense this so-called educator was spewing. Over the years, we have all collected these bizarre “facts” that we have since disproven. They're often fun anecdotes to share at a party. For instance, did you know I was taught that I was taught that I…

We should really just let kids be kids . You only get so long to have a carefree childhood. As a child, you avoid adult responsibilities and can spend all day either playing or at school (and then playing once school lets out). That's your time to frolic in the grass, make up games, play on the playground, and run around with your friends. Knowing that you only get to be a child once, some teachers and parents are still crazy strict with their little ones. People who answered the question poste…

Imagine taking a test where the factually correct answer was irrelevant and what actually mattered was saying what the majority of the class said. This might be a fun exercise. Perhaps it could be a lesson about plurality and group decision-making. However, facts should matter, and just because the majority of the students in a class may think that the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1776, that doesn't make it true. Just in case you're curious, the Constitution was devised in 1787, ratified i…