Today I had the perfect opportunity to teach the students what irony means. A girl found a spider, freaked out, picked up the nearest book and smashed it to death. The book? Charlotte's Web.
"Now, you would expect someone who is reading this book to revere spiders. To see one and scoop it on to the book gently then thoughtfully toss it back into the outside world. But instead we have this," and I pointed to the mushed torn apart spider bits and guts. "Irony is when you expect one thing and instead the complete opposite occurs."
Some of them actually got it and laughed.
Anyway, poor spider. They're my favorite.