Team 4 turns itself around

 

Team 4, in the midst of a professional development conference, began questioning the posted vocabulary example of a "steer" as a male cow. 

"Wait a second," I protested, completely missing the big picture of whatever it was I was supposed to be learning (as usual), "A bull is a male cow." 

Team 4 was off and running. We discussed horns. Long horns. Short horns. Unicorn horns. And trumpets. We made the distinction of cow as a general category with heifers as the female counterpart. 

"John Wayne would herd steers to market across Texas. You're telling me that was a herd of all male cows?" I argued authoritatively.  The Cowboys was one of my favorite John Wayne movies after all. 

Finally, we looked it up. 

A steer is a castrated male cow. 

What? That's crazy! 

"Know what's even crazier," Rachel interjected. "A male castrated turkey is called a hokey." Team 4 was silent for a moment as we stared at her, dumbfounded. "Why would you even know that?"  I asked ("Why would anyone ever castrate a turkey?" my husband asked later, wincing.). 

Kelly suddenly began giggling. "It's actually pretty easy to remember," she said. "The hokey doesn't have a pokey." 

We always learn so much during professional development sessions.