Comedy is All Around Us

One reason I began this blog was to share the laughter being a 7th grade teacher brings me. Each day provides another slip of the tongue, embarrassing situation, or perfectly timed joke. Though I could bombard this blog with a hundred tales, I would like to share them sporadically, intermixed with other rants and raves and details on whatever writing brings.

The first story I would like to tell you is my signature story, my favorite tale of all. I share this one with my students when I know they need a good laugh, because to be frank, they love to laugh, especially when it involves laughing at me.

By about December of each year, my students figure out where I live. Sadly, it is anything but a mystery. And last year, it was downright blatant. One of last year’s students’ parents manages the apartment complex we live in. Creepy, right? To make matters worse: they live cattycorner to us. We’re upstairs, they’re downstairs.

Again, by winter of last year, the majority of my students knew this vital piece of information. In fact, I heard “Hi, Mr. Jacobs’ apartment!” on a frequent basis while watching TV. Well, one fine day in Academic Lab, one of my students decided to ask the question, “Have any of your students ever ding-dong ditched you?” Of course, my immediate thought was “we don’t have a doorbell.” Unfortunately, this is not how it came out. Instead, I said, quite proudly, “I don’t have a ding-dong!”

Needless to say, I backtracked faster than you can say “where’s the cream filling,” but it was too late. The damage was done. To this day, I still get, “Mr. Jacobs, I hear you don’t have a ding-dong!”

There’s a lesson to be learned in all of this. Several actually. First: think before you speak. Second: in order to survive as a teacher, you must be able to laugh at yourself. And finally: it’s time to invest in a doorbell.