Classroom Comedy: Kids ARE the darndest things! :)

The Background:  My students were working in partners on math.  It ended up that this one little guy who has some trouble with math (and school in general, who was purposely paired a another little guy that was good in math) had already completed part of the assignment on accident.  (Obviously, part of him not doing well in school is that he has trouble with directions.) 

Anyway, so I suggested he sit and “help” the other guy catch up (who really needed no help at all but at least they would be discussing math). 

A few problems later, the boy who is good in math asked me a question that really could have been answered by his partner.  They were sitting close and just asked it from where they sat.  I looked up and said, “Well why don’t you just ask your partner?  He can help you.”  (wanting to give the little guy with math issues some self-esteem).

The Laugh:  The little guy with the math problems looked right at me and said sure.  And then he WINKED at me.  Twice!

Had I been anywhere else, like a restaurant or Walmart, I would have thought it to be very inappropriate.  But, I was in my classroom.  And for one of the few times in my life, I was speechless.

I don’t think he meant it inappropriately.  But it sure was  . . . well, I guess I am still speechless.

No, not the movie.  MY hair.  I often wear hairpieces to accentuate a bun or ponytail.  Even though my own hair is super long, I find hairpieces to be an extremely quick fix to looking half way decent.  Well, it’s supposed to be a quick fix.  But then yesterday in our zombie-like states from emotional toil (see last post), my husband and I searched high and low for 30 minutes to find my “curly hair.”  He finally found it.  Because of this ordeal, I remembered a hilarious story to share.  Yes, it’s a hair story.

The Background A:  I was student teaching and loving it!  I also wore what I call “fake hair” back then too.  The fake hair of choice was a long curly ponytail that attached to a claw clip with velcro.  Inside the thick curly ponytail was a mesh bag to hold your real hair.  I often made mine as small as could be to make the look “seamless.”

The Background B:  During student teaching, my favorite subject to teach was math because I enjoyed it and the classroom teacher didn’t.  I often became extremely animated in the 5th grade classroom while teaching math.  For days, I had been showing the fifth graders many different ways to perform multiplication.

The Laugh: I was using the overhead and had become very animated in my presentation of the “peasant method” (which is silly and long but another way and it might help SOMEone).  I whipped around to look at the screen the kids could see . . . and my ponytail flew off.  Yes, no lie.  My hair was flung halfway across the front of the room.  I began laughing hysterically, walked over and picked up the hair, and threw it on the overhead cart shelf.

The End:  But, I was the only one laughing.  (????)  And I remained the only one laughing.  The kids had frozen and seemed to be mortified!  (which really didn’t seem normal for a bunch of 5th graders).  After the lesson I talked to the teacher about it and we both came up with the idea that maybe they thought I was sick/having chemo.  So, I explained to them that afternoon that I was healthy, and thanked them for being so kind.  Those kids were seniors last year and TWO of them scored perfect on the ACT’s.  I guess I didn’t traumatize them too much!