| Tuesday, November 08, 2005 |
| Embarrassing Teacher Moments |
This morning Resa posted a very funny story about her day teaching. Well, funny to me, and certainly funny-to-her-later, but not so much now. I countered with an embarrassing story of my own, and figured I might as well post it here for all to see. Where's the fun in making an ass of yourself if you can't share it with your friends?
A couple weeks ago (when it was actually COLD out) the temperature in the band room was still set somewhere between "Hang Meat" and "Arctic Plain." We have two boxes on the wall that LOOK like thermostats, but are little more than decoration as they don't do ANYTHING temperature related besides tell us how cold it is. There's a little black box in the bowels of the school somewhere that controls it, and we are forgotten. Often. Anyway, suffice it to say that it was friggin COLD in there. I was conducting the kids through the half-time show music, and while conducting keeps ones arms busy, the hands are just sort of waving around in the cold-very little hand/finger action going on. My poor fingers were FROZEN.
At one very emotional part, the baton goes FLYING out of my hand, and the whole world suddenly goes slo-mo. I see it flying, point first, of COURSE, toward the clarinet players in the front row. Luckily I have dreadful aim and it flew between two of them at about head-level. They looked up at me wide-eyed. In the meantime, I had completely stopped conducting, and was staring, aghast, at what I had nearly done. The kids that had actually been WATCHING me (hey, it happens from time to time) had lost it and were laughing. The kids that were NOT watching were just now realizing that they were the only ones still playing, and when they finally stopped nobody could talk to tell them what happened. Everyone was hysterical. When I finally regained my composure, I stood up, help up my hands, and bowed deeply. The clarinet players returned my baton to me, we all decided that it would be best for everyone (especially those in the front row) for me not to use the baton if it's less than 40 degrees in the bandroom. One of the trombone players asked me if I did it on purpose, and I told him that if I were going to throw my baton at ANYONE in the room, it would be the low brass, so NO, it was an accident.
So now when I'm hollering at someone, one of the kids in first period will toss out, "Yeah, and if you don't do what she says, she'll THROW something at you!" Har! I'll never live that one down. |
posted by Jen @ 6:38 PM  |
|
|
|
| who's here: |
|
|
| jen reads: |
Blogroll Me!
|
| where's jen: |
|
| photo album: |
| Click here to go to my online album. Registration required to view images! |
| relatively current: |
|
| the 'previouslies': |
|
| Template by |
|
|
