It’s Thursday again! Yes! I just finished teaching. Today’s lesson: grammar! My students were overjoyed. Can you sense the sarcasm just dripping from my narrative voice? I had one student, who, hilariously, was sitting directly to my right, literally put his head right down on the desk and go straight to sleep. He was sitting right BESIDE me! In my experience as an undergrad, the best way to sleep in class is to find the perfect angle at which you are the least noticeable and then practice resting your head in your hand so that when you close your eyes, it appears as though you are merely pondering the oh-so-interesting contents of your book. Or, just wear a baseball cap. But to place your head directly on the desk and doze off directly beside the course instructor without even the vaguest attempt to camouflage what you’re doing, practically drooling on the TA’s textbook, is just flagrantly disrespectful. Even the way he was sleeping reflected laziness and a lack of effort. At least try to pretend like you’re not sleeping! Also, in my experience, the best and most heart-attack-esque way of waking up someone who is sleeping in class is merely to use the verb “to sleep” in a sentence. So mid-sentence, when I noticed this student sleeping, I used the sentence “Sleeping in class, my notes were not sufficient for the final exam” as an example of a dangling modifier. I stared at him as I said it, and he woke up with a start. For some reason, when sleeping in class, students are oblivious to everything except the word sleep. It is as though they’ve programmed their brains to respond only to this word. It’s hilarious. I had a hard time containing my laughter. I’m not normally in the practice of humiliating students, but in this case, he was sitting right beside me, and if I let him away with it, I may lose the respect of the other students. I then instructed the students that if they really must sleep in class, perhaps it would be best to sit in a place other than right beside the instructor!
I guess that’s all. I have to go update my participation grades record now!!!
Posts
Geoffrey Chaucer
5 years ago
4 comments:
At least it made what could have been a potentially boring class about grammar a little exciting? Right?...Next time throw something at him...I think that might be even MORE fun...and MORE hilarious!
Hey Karen,
Was it a Monday morning class? Weekends can do that to young dudes! Of course, so too can grammar! Who would have thunk someone would fall asleep in YOUR class!
Dad
I would have taught him grammar wrong. His punishment for falling asleep would have been to always think that red is a limiting adjective.
You were nice to him. I would not have let him off so lightly! That is very interesting about using the verb "to sleep" to wake some up in class. One student fell asleep during the first year lecture this past week and the prof stopped her lecture and asked the students sitting by him to wake him up. That caused quite a stir!
Post a Comment