Have I had any wacky experiences in the classroom? Sure... but only on the days that end in '"y".

in steemiteducation •  7 years ago 

Thanks to a brilliant suggestion by @alvinauh in his very clever post here, this week's @steemiteducation homework assignment is incredibly fun.

The assignment is to describe the wackiest thing that you have ever witnessed (or caused) in a classroom.



This was an extremely challenging assignment for me. Is it because I never do anything wacky in my classroom?

Oh my gosh no.

It is the exact opposite. I am such a goofball that I am constantly creating lifelong memories for my students. Yeah that's what we will call all of my gaffs, screw-ups, and other incredibly embarrassing bloopers. We will call them "lifelong memories".

The reason this assignment was so difficult for me, is that over the span of my 19 year teaching career, I have had many ridiculous things happen in my classroom. I'm pretty sure if I listed them all, no one would believe me. Because it was too difficult to choose which event to describe, I decided the only way to tackle this would be to do so chronologically.

After graduating from college, I applied to many schools. Because there is a shortage of special education teachers, I was fairly confident I would find a job. However, convincing an administrator to take a chance on a new teacher and give them their first shot in the classroom is not an easy thing to do. Like in any field, you often have to aim a little bit lower than your dream job and work your way up. One of my goals was to have a position sewn up before leaving for my honeymoon in July. Therefore, I took the first decent offer presented to me.



That was a mistake. Although I gained valuable experience and enjoyed working with the students, the school was a mess. They actually petitioned the state to cut the school day the following year to the bare minimum: 4 1/2 hours per day. Luckily the community eventually convinced the school not to make the move... but I didn't stick around to find out. I had to start looking for another job.

Surprisingly, my dream job had an opening. I met the head of the Special Education department at a job fair and we hit it off famously. She said the next step in the process was to send in a video tape (yes we still had actual video tapes back then) of me teaching a lesson at my current school.



Back in my day, this camera was considered compact.

No problem.

I figured the physical science class I was teaching would be the perfect place to record a spectacular hands on lesson on the efficiency of simple machines.

After gaining permission to record the class, I set up some brilliant demonstrations (at least to me they were brilliant) of simple machines found around the house. It was quite a while ago so I don't have a perfect recollection of all of the props I used but I know there were window blinds, a pry bar, a chair with wheels... and a potato ricer. I will never forget that damn potato ricer I borrowed from my grandma for this demonstration.



This is how a potato ricer typically works.

The potato ricer was my grand finale. Not only did I think it would look cool, I would get to share a little about my family and our traditional Bohemian food with the students. After a quick story, I took out the ricer and showed it to the students. Then I asked them many brilliant questions in order to get them to figure out what it was and how it was going to make my life easier.

The answers were flying fast and furious. I was on fire! Not only was this a great lesson, it was the GREATEST LESSON IN THE HISTORY OF TIME! Someday, my grandchildren would come and sit on my lap and say, "Grandpa, tell us the story of your perfect lesson again. You're brilliant!" Researchers would want to do government funded studies of the lesson. I would become the first teacher in history to win "Teacher of the Year" in his first year teaching. Have you ever heard of Jaime Escalante? Confucius? Aristotle? Morons! All morons compared to me and my brilliance.



I'd like to thank all of the little people...

And I had it all on video! I just needed to nail the grand finale and accept my prize.

I took a potato, dropped it into the potato ricer, and I squeezed.

Nothing.

I squeezed again.

Nothing again.

I squeezed harder.

Nothing (but I was starting to sweat).

I squeezed as hard as I could.

Snap!

I broke the metal handle (I was lifting weights a lot back then). The jagged edge I created sliced into my forearm. Blood began to pour out. Miraculously I didn't swear. While still teaching, I calmly walked over to the sink, grabbed some paper towels and put pressure on the wound. Within seconds the blood soaked through. But I soldiered on.



A young lady raised her hand.

"Yes Jenny", I said.

"Did you boil the potatoes first?", she asked.

I paused, smiled and said, "I guess we've learned two things today. Machines are awesome and make our lives easier... but they can't make up for human error."

And it was all on video.

I have no idea what possessed me to do this, but instead of creating a new video, I sat down and wrote an explanation of the lesson. I included what I had learned, what I would do differently next time, and one final statement. I wrote:

"If you are looking for a teacher who will use any situation as a teachable moment and believes the show must go on (even while bleeding) I hope you consider hiring me. If not, you are still always welcome at my house for some potato dumplings."

(See I even overused parenthesis back then).

To my and my grandma's amazement (I did have to explain what happened to her ricer) the day after dropping off the tape, the Division Chair called to offer me a job. When she retired three years ago, I presented her with a very special gift...



a potato ricer.

Images 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

If you have ever witnessed or taken part in any classroom wackiness, please share your story with us. Make sure to use the steemiteducation and steemhomework tags so the @steemiteducation team can find your post.

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No more like you know when your in trouble when your teacher calls you by your full name

The crazy thing that I remember that I did in class is that my teacher asked me to do some reporting on the ASEAN summit.

What I did was about the Olympics.

My submitted papers have a big "?" after.

LOL. Brilliant! You wrote what you felt like writing about. If one of my students did that but it was good paper, I'd laugh and give them credit. Probably knock off some points but I would definitely give them something for it.

The incident I still remember is that teacher asked me to tell the full form of SAARC. I thought he was asking about the shark fish and I explained about the fish. The face of the teacher was worth watching at that time.

Oh it is quite amazing story. I thanks for explaining all the hype about hard work and patience to achieve dream . Seems quite interesting

stimmt

Hmmm, those days in school. If you make little mistake they give you name for it. Most nicknames were formed from the person's mistake in pronounciation and they had to bear it by force. It used to be fun though, cuz some folks would'nt talk much again to avoid having funny names. @greatness96.

i have been teaching in an university until some months ago, i was teaching OOP(Object oriented programming). I have to admit that i lost patience few times, and i said things that i know that i shouldnt said,. I used to live in great country(i moved on) where education system is free, but this have its drawbacks. you can find some students that do not care and they are just there wasting time, without knowing how many people in the world have to pay and get into debt for being in their position. that they are privileged...

@hanshotfirst , greater things doesn't come easily, we need hard work and patience as the master key because without that we get to end up with nothing, so no matter what it takes to achieve that dream of yours, just hold on with that master key👍
moreover when we achieve it, It get to add up to those our successful storys we have to tell our children/grand children😊😊😊

Hahahaha. That's an amazing story. You should post up the video on here so it can live on in the Blockchain forever!

Oh I am so sad but I lost all t when we moved houses a few years back. I am so mad!

Hmm, did you "lose" it? Or did it really disappear unknowingly? ☺️

LOL. Missed the joke. Yes. foul play was involved for sure.

It was on an actual physical VHS tape. It might be in my house... somewhere lol.

Those things are hard to lose. They're bigger than most paperback books! Plus, they rattle and make tons of noise.

Just start picking up each of your old boxes and shaking them. You'll find it!

Good thing you were not applying for some cooking class position. (We actually had cooking and sewing classes back when I was a kid!)

I forgot to mention my dream job is home-Ec teacher! Kidding but I did take it in junior high. I’m actually upset my son doesn’t have it. I learned to sew on a button. Might be the best thing I learned in junior high.

where I grew up there was wackiness all the time... we had stoner.surfer clowns throughout the school. I will have to sit and try to remember some in detail.....Because as David Crosby said if you remember the sixties you didn't experience them....

for me the wakiest experience was seeing a girl run for she had a feeling of vomiting, as she closed her mouth with her hands, man

Just like me. I am a lifelong blooper.Thanks for writing about it. Wonder what the same kids said afterwards

I bet a few remember it. If I ever happen to run into one. I will be sure to ask.

What got you the job for the video was honesty and your desire to teach and do it in the best way you can. It all depends on honesty, devotion and conviction, no matter what. Great post

Thanks! I was hoping my future boss would think the same thing. I got lucky!

Oh my goodness! That was a story!

It had everything! - the human element, tension-building, a beginning, a middle and an end and a goal to be achieved or dashed onto the rocks of disappointment and you nailed it!

I'm SO pleased you got the job!

Thanks! That means a lot especially coming from a pro like you.

LOL And if it helps, I actually laughed in the right places too. You sure can tell a story.

For the ability to create teachable moments out of anything including situations that cause profuse bleeding without swearing I would have hired you pretty much on the spot too XD

goatsig

Thanks! That is a really cool cartoon.

Laughing my ass off I remember back in the day the stupid things that we did One thing I can say is hard work does pay off . reading your post brings back great memories of my past. I sincerely thank you for sharing keep up the good work my friend until next time .... upvoted

Outstanding story. Really like how you closed the circle on that with the potato ricer gift.

In high school, junior year, I had a physics teacher named Mr. Melnichuk. To get our attention and let us know his was no ordinary class, he set fire to a table on the first day of class. Of course it was done with great care, and a fire extinguisher in hand. I doubt that would go over well nowadays.

He remained my favorite teacher of all time, even including college professors. After waking all of us up from our zombie stupor, he managed to retain our attention and teach us some meaningful science. Will always be grateful to that mad lunatic for the practical and amazing ways he taught.

That is fantastic! And it worked! You didn't forget him.

wackiness on class room npt bad!

i up vote to

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Really great post also
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Well I am a teacher and I have a good one..
We have a kid this year who likes to eat and swallow entire #2 pencils! LOL
Now that's gotta hurt coming out :)

Nice picter

gut

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Good thing you were not applying for some cooking class position
upvote back

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@hanshotfirst
this narrative made my day... you amazing, especially from this section where you wrote-
quote
After gaining permission to record the class, I set up some brilliant demonstrations (at least to me they were brilliant) of simple machines found around the house. It was quite a while ago so I don't have a perfect recollection of all of the props I used but I know there were window blinds, a pry bar, a chair with wheels... and a potato ricer. I will never forget that damn potato ricer I borrowed from my grandma for this demonstration.
unquote
and how the potato ricer ruined your flow before Jenny came to the rescue! ( that lady needs an award) and i cannot agree more... machines are awesome and makes our lives easier but will not make u for human errors! quite right and i must confess you are genuinely amazing to continue with your potato ricer video.
very nice and interesting post.! glad to be following for more

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The crazy thing that I remember that I did in class is that my teacher asked me to do some reporting on the ASEAN summit.

haha the true story :D

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Really funny and interesting story

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