Here is a song about annunciation. It is nonsense lyrics meant to sound like English. See if you can guess what they are saying. If not, the second video has subtitles :-)
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
What did you say?!
A story that just has to be told is this one. At Roosevelt, the kids don't like to work very hard so it takes a lot of motivation, explanation, and force to get them to sing. The seventh graders are singing "Fame" from the musical "Fame." Their performance was okay but nothing was really interesting about it. It was flat. So me being a student teacher I was standing off to the side not saying much. I thought I had an idea for how to get them to sound more like the song intended them to. The girls at this school are often very sassy which is normally a problem but works to sing this song. So I took the lead and tried to tell the girls that they should use their attitudes to their advantage. TRIED being the important word in that phrase. What I wanted to start with was, "This song is all about sass!" And I still swear that is what I said. However, my CT and all the students claim they heard, "This song is all about sex!" Needless to say, things went south and I turned a shade of red that I did not even know existed. I was quiet for the rest of class and have since been very cautious about annunciation when I speak. This can be translated to an even broader message, know what you are going to say before you start talking. It is helpful for life and teaching. I did not have a very structured plan for what to say and I word vomited something I had no intention of saying. Do not pull a Mr. Wilson.
Here is a song about annunciation. It is nonsense lyrics meant to sound like English. See if you can guess what they are saying. If not, the second video has subtitles :-)
Here is a song about annunciation. It is nonsense lyrics meant to sound like English. See if you can guess what they are saying. If not, the second video has subtitles :-)
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Loved reading your story! During my first placement I had a very similar experience. I was trying to say sects (such as religious sects) but a few of the students had never heard of the word before and thought I said sex. Needless to say we got off topic as some students laughed and others were trying to tell the laughing students that sex just means a person's gender. We got back on topic but fun was had by all. I blame it on saying Herbert Hoover over a hundred times that day. You can't always have perfect enunciation or have the perfect thing to say all the time. Do the best you can do. Then if you make a mistake find a way to laugh about it and then move on.
ReplyDeleteOh my! I'm sure that was a very interesting experience that you won't soon forget. I often find that I really havev to ground myself when I'm teaching, or I get over-excited and can jump arond a lot; which has a lot to do with the high energy I try to bring to the classroom. While I haven't had any incidents like yours, both of my CT's have had similar experiences while I've been with them. The biggest thing to remember is that this is your classroom and you are "in charge" here. It's okay to have a short break of focus and laugh for a second, but don't let the students take over and control the situation; especially if the focus is shifting to an inappropriate subject.
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