Mini and Curly were doubled over the other day. When they could finally breathe, they filled me in on what was so dang hilarious: Curly's science teacher, Mrs. North.
It just so happens that Mrs. North lives in our cul-de-sac, two doors away from us. I know, I know, more neighbor news. As teachers go, she ranks pretty low. As a neighbor, she's friendly and nice. We don't really socialize with Mr. and Mrs. North, who are our age, other than to chat in passing. I imagine she steers clear of fraternizing with parents of school kids. Or maybe she sees us delivering Mary Ann packages and she's jealous.
The junior high is blocks away from our house. Mrs. North rides her bike to school sometimes and since we are on the corner, the back of our house has a great view of people coming and going in and out of the neighborhood. Over the years my kids have gotten a chuckle out of seeing Mrs. North drive a car or walk her dog, but they especially enjoy seeing her ride her bike to school.
I'm not gonna lie, someone usually hums Wizard of Oz bike scene music as a backdrop. I remember as a kid being totally surprised to bump into a teacher outside of school - like the grocery store, but seeing a teacher while playing in your yard brings it to a whole other level.
Our school had an amazing science teacher for grades 7 & 8, but they didn't replace her a few years ago when she retired. They rely on Mrs. North, who used to only teach grades 5 & 6, to handle ALL of the science lessons. She is weak at best. Nice, but weak.
Um, her control of a zoom classroom is the stuff sitcoms/movies of the future (when film makers portray 2020) will be made of.
Curly has been telling me how some teachers suck at zoom. I am laughing at this but I will be the first to admit that I would be one of the teachers who couldn't figure out the technological side of all of this, so I feel their pain.
Back in the spring I witnessed the suckiness. I heard Curly on a social studies zoom while I was at my desktop. She was sitting behind me on the couch in the study.
The teacher (not Mrs. North) told students that she had called on more than once in a frustrated tone, "Un-mute yourself," which made me chuckle.
Then a few minutes later the teacher said something like, "OK, well I guess that's it." Not sure what happened, but she didn't come back and class still had 15 minutes remaining.
I sat and listened to the students getting unruly and call out to each other across the internet. It sounded just like a classroom without a teacher despite the fact that it was not taking place in an actual building. Curly was like 'what the heck?'
Back to Mrs. North . . . Curly explained (while her computer was on mute during her science class) that Mrs. North started class with a guitar, pushing she and Mini over the edge with gut-splitting laughter.
Mrs. North: (this bit of dialogue was sung by her while strumming a guitar) Class, sometimes it helps to memorize things if you set it to music.
She went on to explain that she had a guitar with a broken string, so there wasn't much she could do with it, and she doesn't know how to play it anyway.
Curly then described how Mrs. North doesn't know how to screen share. She puts something on an overhead on her board and then walks in front of it, making it hard for students to see it. Plus the camera on her computer only captures a portion of what she has on the screen - leaving the kids to guess about the stuff at the perimeter.
The class was winding down, so Curly asked Mrs. North if she would play the guitar again as a fun way to end the class. Whose bold child is this?
I took a video of Mrs. North with the guitar and of her walking across the screen. If you watch the video you can hear Curly scolding me for leaning in too close, fearing that I could be seen videoing the class.
That's all I need, to get in trouble with yet another neighbor.
One more e-learning tid-bit . . .
Last week (this was actually a few months ago, so Tank didn't have covid yet) Tank insisted on driving to Culvers for lunch. He found a coupon that NEEDED to be used because it was about to expire. Why not eat the lunch meat that I buy so IT doesn't expire? When he came back he asked me where Curly was because he bought her lunch. No idea why Reg was left out of the fast food deal. He was the only other kid home since Mini usually e-learns at a friend's house.
Tank: Where's Curly?
Me: I think she's upstairs in a gym class.
If you had told me a year ago that those words would have come out of my mouth or that I would be spying on my neighbor playing a 3 string guitar for a bunch of bored 7th graders, I would have thought YOU CRAY-CRAY!
Anyone else have a memorable teacher run-in out side of school from their past? Or anyone have a zoom story to share?
Coming next week: the behind the scenes fun while we quarantine and how Reg made the BIGGEST mess ever. I still can't believe it.
10 comments:
You are so naughty, you should be put in the corner with a big dunce hat. ;) The poor teacher, the guitar, that's so weird, but so funny too! You are gonna be on the neighborhood shit list soon. Is that your goal?
I've only done zoom twice, once with two friends while we had a margarita and celebrated my Mom's bday and once for my cuz Patricks birthday. Coach did tell me to MUTE myself during Patrick's bday because I kept talking to him during it. I DO NOT KNOW HOW THESE THINGS WORK.
"upstairs in gym class"....so crazy, right?
I hope you're not losing your mind in your lockdown and that Tank is feeling better!!
Suz - Since I drafted this post, I have another Mrs. North story. SO DANG FUNNY. Look for that with a side of more zoom hilarity - so get excited.
I was on a zoom for a writing group early on in pandemic and one woman DID NOT get the importance of 'mute'. She kept yelling, as in YELLING, to someone in the next room about what they were eating and was it any good. This made it impossible to hear the lady who was reading her writing. I thought I was going to die laughing.
Tank feels fine, no taste or smell but has had no feel sick symptoms since day 1. I am super anxious about keeping Curly healthy as she is supposed to dance in championships in Indianapolis Thanksgiving weekend . . .2 weeks.
Why does this make me think of Ken Jeong wearing a big sombrero in Community. IT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL. I am in love with the singing teacher! It fits this year perfectly!! OMG.....Sigh...
How is everyone feeling over there, by the way?
Kari - She's a little loopy but sweet. Long term issues might crop up when my kid starts high school with no science knowledge at all.
Everyone feels fine, but some people are getting on my last nerve and risk being beaten with a wet noodle . . . looking at Reg and his MAJOR MESS from a few days ago. Lawdy, you won't believe it. Almost bumped this post but never got around to writing about Reg's disaster as I am OVERLY focused on completing my projects that didn't get done during the initial pandemic lock-down, since I have no babies and no Irish dancing driving.
My mother was a teacher. We lived in a smallish town. For me teacher run-in stores are from the perspective of the child of a teacher. And can be summarized by saying there was wide-eyed wonder and complete astonishment on the faces of the kids who'd see us out being real people. She'd smile politely, as would I, then we'd giggle about for hours afterward.
Ally - I can so relate to a different perspective too. My mom went back to teaching when I was in high school, but not in our town. I was like a celebrity when I showed up to help her in her classroom as a college kid (I taught the kids to make soft sculpture Christmas ornaments). Plus my mom and I were invited to luncheons and things at her students' homes from time to time and it was so funny to see how her students related to her.
I remember when Man-Child was doing his student teaching at the local school - it was hilarious to see the schoolchildren's reaction when they saw him out and about.
Gigi - Come to think of it, that did happen to me occasionally when I was subbing at a nearby grade school.
Geez, thanks for confirming my suspicion that if I was trying to teach over Zoom all the kids AND parents would be making fun of me. I am over here buying teachers all the Christmas presents, because teaching is hard, yo, and this year it is just stupidly difficult. I was working in the office at my old school yesterday and one of the autism unit teachers came in and of course they have to wear full PPE because they can't distance from their students. Maybe the silver lining is that when it DOES go back to regular teaching it will feel easier?
Ali - Very true - I have zero tech know how, so I would be one of the teachers walking in front of the board and not knowing how to screen share. My kids shared with me a few funny ways that they've tried to avoid getting busted for not knowing stuff while on Zoom and I see a whole new trend in student behavior that only their generation will understand, hopefully. Our schools have some kids in class now while others are at home and they have to manage both the in person people and the at home people. I think I would only be able to focus on one group. So distracting.
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