An act of mercy

I teach awesome kids, I want to start off by saying that. There is one in particular that makes me laugh in the most inopportune moments. Once when I was feeling especially stylish and wearing one of those "belted" shirts (the ones where you wear a thick belt at your natural waist), he blurted out in class, "Is that a belt?" I answered yes, and he replied incredulously, "How high do your pants go?!" First of all, this is not something that you are supposed to ask your teacher. Second of all, I'm a little offended that someone would think that I wear my pants a good 5 inches above my belly button! Needless to say, he's a piece of work.

Well today, I was being observed by my supervisor. This is a big deal because this lady is one of the leading people in Neuro Psychology. I was a bit nervous, and I purposefully didn't tell my students that she would be coming in. I wanted them to act completley natural. I start off the class period with something called a "Caught Ya". Basically, I write a sentence incorrectly on the board and my students are supposed to fix the mistakes. When they are finished, I go around the room and check for one specific mistake. If they get it right, Woohoo! If they get it wrong, I simply say, "Caught Ya". As an incentive I tell them that if everyone catches the mistake, I will do the "Chicken Dance." Remember the Chicken dance from middle school? Hang clapping, booty shaking . . . Yup, it's the one and the same. I did this when I taught sixth grade classes that had 30 students. I didn't end up doing the dance very often, chances of every kid catching the mistake are pretty slim when you have that many in a class. But when you have only 5 students, your odds a little bit different. This year, I have only had to do the dance three or four times (I make my sentences really hard).

Ok back to today - two of my students were out when the supervisor came into observe. We did the "Caught Ya" and the first two students caught the mistake. I wasn't even thinking about the implications for me if the third student got it right. Well I get to this gem of a student who was worried about how high I wear my pants, and he missed it. We went on with the lesson. When I had him in my class again at the end of the day he informed me that he missed it on purpose. I asked him why, and he said that he didn't want to make me dance in front of the lady at the back of the class. I am thankful that he was considerate enough to save my reputation. I've got good students.