I suspect I am in trouble when the dog starts peeing on the camera at the 3 minute and 46 second mark of a 5 minute video.
I know I am in trouble when the human in the video says, Shit! Don’t pee on the phone!
I am certain I am in trouble when that human enters the screen laughing, Fucking dog!
It wouldn’t be so bad if I was at home where I watch most of my YouTube videos. But I am in class. In advisory block. With a bunch of 7th graders who don’t miss a beat.
I had actually previewed the video looking for the very thing I’d just let into my classroom. Vulgarity. Swears. Shit.
I had rejoiced upon finding the perfect funny pet video. It wasn’t easy. Once you start watching one funny pet video, they just keep coming, playing almost without pause in between. So finding the perfect one was a relief. I knew that spending five minutes laughing about the cute antics of furry friends would set just the right tone for our day, the first live class for my Cohort B kids in almost three weeks. It would open up conversation and sharing and make us smile. I found the perfect video and attached it to my morning Google Slide. And then I shared that slide with the other 7th grade homeroom teachers. Because teachers are like that. We share. We ease each other’s burdens.
Now, technical glitches are nothing new, and it turns out, if you let the video keep running while trying to attach the URL into a Google Slide, sometimes you’re too slow. Sometimes you end up attaching the next video, the one you’d previewed and nixed due to questionable content.
And now here I am, rushing to click the pause button on a video that actually wasn’t the one I’d so carefully selected. But I’m across the room and it’s wrapping up just as I get there. I hold my breath waiting for it. For someone to tell me what a terrible teacher I am. For another teacher to rush into my room with her hand across her mouth, and a look in her eyes that says, Thank God it wasn’t me.
It’s really hard to hear myself thinking with all the laughter and chatter around me though.
So, I bet you weren’t expecting that, I say.
That was the best!
Did you see that dog do a flip?
My dog can do that!
My cat jumps off refrigerators too!
That cat…
That dog...
No one says a word about the swears.
I’m not actually convinced they even noticed them.
I live to teach another day.
I know I am in trouble when the human in the video says, Shit! Don’t pee on the phone!
I am certain I am in trouble when that human enters the screen laughing, Fucking dog!
It wouldn’t be so bad if I was at home where I watch most of my YouTube videos. But I am in class. In advisory block. With a bunch of 7th graders who don’t miss a beat.
I had actually previewed the video looking for the very thing I’d just let into my classroom. Vulgarity. Swears. Shit.
I had rejoiced upon finding the perfect funny pet video. It wasn’t easy. Once you start watching one funny pet video, they just keep coming, playing almost without pause in between. So finding the perfect one was a relief. I knew that spending five minutes laughing about the cute antics of furry friends would set just the right tone for our day, the first live class for my Cohort B kids in almost three weeks. It would open up conversation and sharing and make us smile. I found the perfect video and attached it to my morning Google Slide. And then I shared that slide with the other 7th grade homeroom teachers. Because teachers are like that. We share. We ease each other’s burdens.
Now, technical glitches are nothing new, and it turns out, if you let the video keep running while trying to attach the URL into a Google Slide, sometimes you’re too slow. Sometimes you end up attaching the next video, the one you’d previewed and nixed due to questionable content.
And now here I am, rushing to click the pause button on a video that actually wasn’t the one I’d so carefully selected. But I’m across the room and it’s wrapping up just as I get there. I hold my breath waiting for it. For someone to tell me what a terrible teacher I am. For another teacher to rush into my room with her hand across her mouth, and a look in her eyes that says, Thank God it wasn’t me.
It’s really hard to hear myself thinking with all the laughter and chatter around me though.
So, I bet you weren’t expecting that, I say.
That was the best!
Did you see that dog do a flip?
My dog can do that!
My cat jumps off refrigerators too!
That cat…
That dog...
No one says a word about the swears.
I’m not actually convinced they even noticed them.
I live to teach another day.