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Movement break leads to off-the-cuff crisis management
The challenge
Maintain integrity of person and property while executing an emergency barrel roll.
As a middle school French immersion teacher, I spend a lot of time listening to French-language music to find tunes that I know kids will relate to and enjoy. I have background music playing throughout much of the day while we work.
One day, while taking a movement break, my students and I were playing a ball-throwing game where we have to always throw the ball to the same person, but at the same time, someone is throwing another ball to you. We keep adding more and more balls until we can’t keep up with the pattern. And what game is not made more fun with music?
On that Friday afternoon, I crushed the play button on a Google Music playlist called Pop with Drops. Perfect, I thought. Electronic dance music, no lyrics, good beats to keep us passing the balls at a fast pace. I cranked up the volume and got back to playing.
We had five or six balls being thrown around in our circle of 12, so things were getting complicated! Everyone was having fun and grooving to the music when, in one star-crossed moment, three things happened.
First, everyone went simultaneously silent. Second, in that same silent moment, the electronic dance music suddenly decided to add a vocal layer: a man rhythmically chanting an obsenity while, third, a dress-wearing Mme Sarah shape flew through the air, barrel rolled over the desk, slid onto her chair and ripped the cord out of the speakers.
This all happened in less than five seconds and left a puddle of Grade 6 students laughing on the floor.
And what are the memorable lessons here?
- Playlists may not be what they seem. Preview them carefully.
- I can barrel-roll across a desk and not injure myself or destroy school property.
- Unanticipated events can produce memorable moments.
Got an idea? Maybe you created a lesson that totally flopped or were on the receiving end of a lesson that was truly inspiring. Whatever your story, please summarize it in up to 300 words and email it to managing editor Cory Hare at cory.hare@ata.ab.ca.
