Want to Get Away?

Posted by Barb on February 24, 2010

Ok, we have all had those moments when things aren’t going right in class.  But have you ever had a time when you really just wanted to be beamed up and transported to another planet – far, far away?

I was the teacher on my team who always got stuck teaching the sex ed talk to the 5th grade students.  All the other teachers (mostly women, but there was one man) were afraid of the topic.  Well this one year in front of about 40 fifth grade students (both male and female), I was explaining the changes that these tweens will go through as their bodies mature.  The school provided overheads with diagrams and illustrations to help me know what to cover during the lesson and provide a visual for the students to better help them understand.

Well, I got to a flow chart that explained these changes in the female body, and I said, “At about age 13, girls begin to masterbate.”  Boy, did that come out wrong!  The word was supposed to be menstruate not masterbate.  Now as soon as I said it, my face turned red.  However, I didn’t miss a beat though.  I just faced the board and continued the lesson.  I restated the sentence, this time using the correct word.

As a side note, I did go into tell the principal about what I said.  That was embarrassing, but I needed to inform her just in case a she got a phone call from a parent later.  She actually laughed out loud and told me some of her “want to get away” moments.

Even though you would rather be anywhere else than in front of your students at that time, remember it can happen to most teachers, even the good one.

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