Another Brilliant Moment

I had to sub 6th grade today. During the 6th grader's recess, a really sweet girl came up to me and asked if she could warm up her cocoa in the microwave. It's another cold/wet gray day here so I assented to her request. Hot cocoa on a cold day--what could be more perfect? A few minutes later I smelled something terrible. I went to the microwave and I saw something terrible--SMOKE. Ahh! The microwave is on fire! What should I do? I had quick panicky thoughts of fire alarms going off, or having to get my sixth graders somewhere far from a fire and then I looked a little closer and discovered--the microwave was not on fire. Nope, it was just a little bit of smoke coming from the top of the plastic/metal mug my student had heated her cocoa in. Her parents had sent her cocoa in a metal mug with a plastic covering. As a general rule, microwaving metal is a bad idea. Microwaving metal with a plastic covering is an even worse idea. The metal heats up and melts the plastic. Voila! Plastic hot chocolate. The student who had thus heated her chocolate milk had conveniently disappeared while this was all occurring. I found her and told her that the prognosis was bad; her hot cocoa was inoperable.* We tossed the mug and the only dire consequence was a really nasty plastic smell and a glob of melted and then coagulated plastic in the microwave.

Yes, it was just that--another brilliant moment in my life.

*Technically the hot cocoa survived, but both the girl and I agreed that maybe drinking it was not the best idea.