Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

The guy in the adjoining trailer to me is a great teacher, definitely, the best teacher in the school. He is absolutely brilliant and can teach any subject (and I do mean any subject) if he is just given 20 minutes to prepare. Most things he can just teach off the top of his head. This brilliance is not what makes him the best. That, combined with the way he relates to kids does. He can teach the top (BC Calculus class) and the bottom kids, He knows how to break things down to their simplest parts so everyone understands. He never talks down to anyone or makes them feel inferior. He spends hours every day preparing work sheets and worked out solutions to home works in his Math A class because he knows the Prentice Hall book he is required to use is worthless.

So, why do I write about him now? I just want to point out that being a great teacher does not mean you always have great classroom management. Yesterday was an interesting day. He has a very difficult ninth period class. Some days they are great, but others are just too stupid to be believed. Yesterday was one of those days.

The noise from his side was loud, even for that class. Next thing we see is a kid in the back of the room opening the door between his room and mine yelling "HE FARTED, HE FARTED!!! WE NEED AIR!" The kid kept fanning the door back and forth. My class, not an easy one either got themselves worked up over this event too.

We finally got our classes back to work when my back door opened again. This time only a rear end could be seen. The kid in the back of my room yelled "HE"S FARTING ON US!" Thankfully by the time we walked to the back of our classrooms, things settled down. I guess the kid finally finished relieving himself.

I always think, if someone wrote these things into a situation comedy on television, would people outside the teaching profession think the writers had gone too far? Would anyone believe that stuff like this could actually go on in our schools?