New Year, New Laughs

Yes, after a long hiatus from the blog, I'm back. I know that technically the name of this blog is "Team McIntyre", which may lead you to believe that you might occasionally read about Scott, but it seems like entertaining and/or embarrassing moments at school are often my writer's muse. Today was the first full day with students, and the muse already made her appearance...twice.

First, second block English 11 Literacy Enrichment. This is a small class (currently 12 students, but I have a feeling that number will grow after first semester) with multiple teachers. The other teacher suggested an icebreaker game where everyone writes down three pieces of information on an index card: 1) favorite place or a place you'd like to visit, 2) favorite movie or tv show, and 3) something unique about you. Everyone (teachers included) participated. The point was to draw a card from the bucket and guess who the person was. The person whose card it was then drew out and read the next card. One student drew out a card, read the first two, then paused at the third, "I like to.....crotch it?" I couldn't hold it in. We all burst out laughing. Luckily the kid was a good sport when I kindly told him the word was "crochet"...you know, like knitting. Even better was the fact that we could all laugh without the humor suddenly taking a turn for the worse, if you know what I mean. Nice to see the juniors are more mature than freshmen.

Second laugh of the day took place during 4th block. We again were playing an icebreaker: three truths and a dare. One kid in the back row said, for one of his truths or lie, "I only weight 87 pounds."

"Wow," I replied, "I feel like that's the lie because you maybe look small but not that small..."

Strike one. Probably not good to tell a kid that he looks small, especially not a freshman boy, eh?

Strike two. I try to recover by saying, "I mean, I think you weigh more than that but I'm not sure. It's not like looking at...." scan the room for someone to use. Spot "Joe" a junior in this class who realized last year during registration time that he's short English 9 credit because of a move, so he's in my class for the semester. We had chatted yesterday. Seems like a nice kid who I think can help me out with this. "....like Joe, I can tell he weighs more than 87 pounds."

Hmm....did I really just say that out loud? Joe is not a huge kid by any means. What I meant is that he looks a bit more the football type (not even a huge linebacker, but at least someone who weighs more than 87 pounds), but of course everyone groans/laughs. Why didn't I just use myself as a example? Stupid Mrs. McIntyre!

Luckily Joe laughs we I profusely apologize/ask for his forgiveness/try to dig myself out of this hole. The year is off to a good start, don't you think? :)