It's official: I've lost my voice. I have that cold crud that's going around, the kind where your throat hurts and you lose your voice and you pretty much feel like you were hit by a truck. No fun. But life goes on...and life includes teaching.
So I had to make some adjustments to my lesson plans today when I woke up and had no voice. I made a few minor changes in the actual activities, but I'm not so much of a stand-up-in-front-and-talk-for-85-minutes-straight kind of a teacher, so I was mostly okay. However, giving directions became SO difficult with no voice. Solution? Microsoft Word and my projector. I turned my projector on and typed everything I would've said to the kids when giving directions. And you know what? You could hear a pin drop in my classroom all day. It was amazing! And they all knew exactly what they needed to do...and we didn't have the usual 20-question game from my 6th graders who want to know everything about anything (and they want to know it RIGHT NOW).
People say middle school kids are wild and disrespectful...but mine were GREAT today. Several tried to hug me, I had a few cough drop offers, and at practice even one of my soccer girls tried to console me by telling me that at least my voice went along well with Halloween coming up. A couple students said, "Wow, you're so funny when you type out what you're going to say." I am many things, but funny is not one of them. Goofy, yes. Funny, no. So I found it interesting that they thought my words were funny when typed, but I'm sure if I'd said them aloud, they wouldn't have been so amused. All in all, it wasn't so bad having no voice today. I had fun. I love my job.
That's awesome- you're so creative to find a way to make it work! I use an awesome throat spray that numbs it so much, even when it's terrible, but I'm going to use that idea next time. Also, I've trained my kids to laugh at my jokes by the end of September :)
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