Have you ever been embarrassed while teaching?

Years ago I bought a tight shortskirt with a slit up the back. As since the sixties I've dressed in long hippy style skirts, it was a bit of a departure. Unfortunately, it also meant I hadn't learnt how to walk in it, and my long inelegant strides meant that the slit just split even further. As the lesson progressed i was aware of a sort of subdued giggle from the class every time I turned to write on the board. but I didn't realise why until after the lesson. needless to say that was the first and last tight skirt I ever wore in my life.

That was a big one too Sue. Were they kids or older students? The kids don't mine. They would come up to you and tell you straight what is going on. It's usually the older ones that make it embarrassing.

Adults 😮

Had the zipper let me down too. Still to have problems with a skirt but I guess that would be on another thread!

I suppose my most embarrasing was when I kept on correcting a guy on his use of tenses in an elementary class. He kept using the past tense when talking about his wife and I'd correct him with the present. It hadn't even occured to me that I was making the mistake until he very quietly and politely informed me that his wife had died the previous year. I didn't know where to look.

Errr! I once gave a PowerPoint presentation to a class & followed it up with a worksheet that was for a completely different lesson. They were confused, but I think I got away with it.

Hmm...

I'm not really sure how to answer this one. On one hand, I feel like I must have been embarrassed countless times. On the other, nothing springs to mind. I'm sure I've had my zipper down, but I don't remember a particular time.

Clive - your example makes me wince. Ouch.

I think, early on, I was probably embarrassed every time a student pointed out a mistake that I had made. Now that never happens, and not because I've stopped making mistakes.

Hmm...
Dave

Talking about students pointing out mistakes Dave that happens so many times that sometimes it is no longer embarrassing - spelling mistakes especially.
A friend of mine was reading this thread and really wanted contribute this one since he doesn't have an account here on this site.

From Jeff:
I had had a bad meal of some vegetables mixed with potatoes. The next day in class I messed the air - though unintentionally. It just came as I stood up from the teacher's table. All the students heard because they were doing an exercise and there was silence. The smell was really bad. Anyway, I managed to say sorry. But what really killed me was this naughty guy who opened the window next to where he was sitting. Teaching sometimes sucks folks! Things done everyday by everybody become scandals if it is a teacher.
Nice thread Denis.

The next day in class I messed the air - though unintentionally.

Heh, heh. I once had a teacher who would 'mess the air' all the time. And he would stamp his feet while doing it to try to hide the sound.

Here in Malaysia, farting in public is a really strict taboo. It would be akin to running around with your pants down!

Once I had a 12 year old correct my spelling of badminton. Another time I had an adult student grab the chalk from me and write all the rules about the pronunciation of 's' when it comes at the end of a word. It was quite impressive but overall very embarrassing.

I was embarrassed today, in fact.

I was showing a DVD and it stopped working about five minutes before the end, and I couldn't get it working again.

That has happened to me many times Eric. Students reciting grammar rules to the whole class when they find you fumbling over something they happen to have learnt so well somewhere else.
During my first years in teaching, I was so embarrassed when students corrected my mistakes but I have learnt that teaching is also a learning process.

Emile, your post reminds me of something that happened to me last week. I wanted to show a movie, so I requested the multimedia room. I unlocked everything, and got the projector and computer all set up. Then I realized that the blinds on the windows were totally inadequate. It was impossible to see the movie because the room was so bright.

"Why would a school spend a lot of money on a computer and projector without spending a little money making the room adequately dark?" In China, that type of question gets blank stares.

Not embarrassing for me, I realize, but anyways...

emile wrote:Heh, heh. I once had a teacher who would 'mess the air' all the time. And he would stamp his feet while doing it to try to hide the sound.

Here in Malaysia, farting in public is a really strict taboo. It would be akin to running around with your pants down!

That's funny Emile. A good trick😂
Farting seems somehow a very normal thing to do among people here in China.
Just curious to know why?

emile wrote:I once had a teacher who would 'mess the air' all the time. And he would stamp his feet while doing it to try to hide the sound.

OK, that might, just might, hide the sound (if your feet are big enough) but there remains another slight problem. What did he do to hide the other by-product of expelling gas in this way? Open the window loudly?? 😂

emile wrote:II was showing a DVD and it stopped working about five minutes before the end, and I couldn't get it working again.

I was once using video and couldn't get the machine to work. The TV was on, but just showing static. Tried everything - took off the lead connecting to the TV and tried it in different positions, tried every channel, gave up with the remote control and opened the control panel, went and got a different cassette to see if that was the problem. Nothing - just fuzz on the TV screen. In the end after about 15 mins, gave up and pushed the TV/video trolley aside. The video plug trailed after it. I'd forgotten to plug it in.

Christ Susan!😂
That was one of those crazy days I guess.😂 😂

The most embarassing moment....BAR NONE:

I didn't have a class so the art teacher asked if I would be a model for her JHS art students. Everything in Japan is about presentation so I had to stand outside the class and wait for the ultimate moment of my introduction, at which time all the students were enthralled by my presence and started clapping upon my entrance into the classroom.

In the middle of the class, were four desks slammed together. This was my platform to stand on. Upon climbing onto the desks, the teacher instructed me to do a pose. Naturally, I awed them with my basketball 3-point shooting pose with my arms extending over my head like I was about to release the ball.

Just then, I heard giggling from in front of me. A group of boys were laughing their asses off. One of them finally had the courage to tell me that my zipper was down.

I immediately jumped off the desks, ran into the hall and zipped it up. Upon reentering the class, I nonchalantly called him a liar and returned to my awe-stricken pose.

That's funny!😂 The zipper thing again.

Years back, I was a substitute teacher in one the schools not far from my house. The students in my class were rather naughty and they usually would not obey my instructions. I kept telling them no eating in class during lessons and if you want to drink, just go outside. One day, after recess, I was quite in a bit of hurry that I forgot to spit out a sweet which I chewed it in my mouth. I didn't realized that the sweet was still in my mouth that I spitted out during my lesson. I became a laughing stock and a few found it disgusting! I was so embarrased of the incident. Since that day, when I walked past them, they would whispered to each other and giggled. It lasted until a few months.

It's embarrassing when our own rules screw us.
Last year I had a rule in my class of Korean students not to speak any Korean during English lessons. The penalty was a yellow card; twice = two yellow cards = a red just like in soccer. Two months later they gave me a red card when I couldn't get them to understand a sentence and said it in Korean. It's a lot of fun to them to see the teacher caught in the rules and embarrassment to us.

I once stayed up pretty late making last touches on a lesson for the next day. It got pretty late so I guess I wasn't quite awake! I finished everything and packed it up for school. The next day in class all of my flash cards were perfect but the vocabulary words were backwards, upsidedown, sideways, and some were just plain unreadable! NIGHTMARE!!!
Another time I planned everything perfectly and got up the next morning to realize it was all a dream!!! Yet another time, I was really prepared for my four 3rd-6th grade classes one morning. I arrived at school to find that I had grabbed the wrong bag and that my WHOLE lesson(flashcards,props and worksheets) was at home in another!!! AAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Well, I have been embarrassed several times. Sometimes you get silly in front of kids, teaching them with all kinds of monkey gestures, knowing that they find it fun. When observed by adults I save a lot of my silly monkey gestures. I was doing a really silly one once and didn't notice the principal looking at me after having silently sneaked into the back of the classroom and looking at me as though I had lost my mind.
He later asked the HOD of English Department if their foreign teacher(me) had some mental problems .Typical Chinese headmaster - students should just sit and listen to a boring teacher.

hartinimohdsirat wrote:Years back, I was a substitute teacher in one the schools not far from my house. The students in my class were rather naughty and they usually would not obey my instructions. I kept telling them no eating in class during lessons and if you want to drink, just go outside. One day, after recess, I was quite in a bit of hurry that I forgot to spit out a sweet which I chewed it in my mouth. I didn't realized that the sweet was still in my mouth that I spitted out during my lesson. I became a laughing stock and a few found it disgusting! I was so embarrased of the incident. Since that day, when I walked past them, they would whispered to each other and giggled. It lasted until a few months.

Teachers always getting caught in their own rules. The problem is, the people we teach look on us to be some kind of models.

Whoops! Today I spent like 5minutes trying to spell the words "Ryhme" and "Rythme" It was just ridiculous. Oops, I still got them wrong. Rhyme and Rythm. Jeez!

In my first few weeks of teaching in Thailand I got angry with a grade 1 kid for writing an X instead of his name on a worksheet. I erased it, but he defiantly did it again. I was about lose it when my teaching assistant informed me that his name was in fact X. I felt pretty embarrassed after that.

When he groes up he will understand.

Cleavage, buttonholes too big for buttons. It started off at the bus stop, I wondered why this young man kept starring and smiling, now I think it was a smirk. It was hot so I kept leaning on things throwing my arms in the air, just making the gap wider. Well after I realized it, got on the bus , he did wave goodbye I thought about it, I had on a nice bra and I have reasonable breasts and after that, mortified doesn't come into the equation. A button upopened but don't think I was that cool at the time I thought of suing Walmart for embarrasment. (briefly)
It happened again in class a student gestured to me. Respectuful, now I use safety pins
on all my button up the front shirts and use candlewax on the zippers of my pants, gives it more grip
I think if I was younger it would have but I think it is the way you carry it off these "embarassments" normalise it,brush over it and thank the student for pointing it out make a lesson plan out of it.
Spelling is wrong on the board, makes you human and makes the student feel clever .
Turn it to yours students advantage.
Ones I hate is when the bloody computer doesn't work and you waste time trying to get it right, now that's embarrasing

Yes, it really makes us human. I really hate the idea of students think we are a kind of perfect being.

Denis

I always have to check my spelling with Ryhme,I don't no why.

I do one song a year, The Rose. I give them the lyrics with 20 words missing. They listen and try to fill in the words, play it again then we go through the missing words words that rythme, ask questions about the song.

Does the songwriter think that you should be careful about falling in love?
So many times they confuse what the writer is saying and what other people think.

I get a bit tired of students asking me to sing a song. When they do I give them this.

I chose this song because I like it and it has lots of metaphors especially good when you are teaching something is like something else.

If they want more English songs they can go to Karaoke.

Ps I think singing songs can improve your pronunciation but do that at home. Class time is too valuable

Yeah.
There is a girl in my class who can sing Celine Dion's "My heart will go on" from the beginning to the end without missing out a word. But she is my worst in reading as well as speaking. One day I felt so angry she couldn't read a simple text that I rushed back to the office, printed out a copy of the song's lyrics and brought to her. You won't believe it but she still had problems reading the song.

Settle down Dennis,
I know one Chinese song by heart but if I had to read it I would be struggling and that is in Pinyin.
This is not the point I know. She loves the song she is proud that she can sing it.
Great to work with that, if you can but probably not, class sizes to big and so on.
Cheers

If grammar rules for example were turned into songs, would our students master them?

Hi Denis,
Grammar rules turned into songs Hmmmm. Need to think about that. Could be a lot of songs.
I remember as a child we had such things as "i before c except after c" and some others that I can't recall. More to do with spelling but I still use it.
Cheers

I also had an ambarrasing momment.I taught listening and in that text,there is a phrase that is new to students "a bar of soap" but I wrote "a par of soup " instead.

Hi Thanh,
Yes embarrrassing students will lose confidence in you fast if they pick it up. When I make spelling mistakes I cover it up by praising the students who have picked up the mistake and say, I did it on purpose to see if you were paying attention.

On Monday I was talking about the weather and temperature and drew a thermometer on the board. The student's started laughing. I caught on pretty fast why, because it looked like a penis.
I blushed and started laughing myself (hey we are all adults).
I rubbed it out and went onto clouds.

Hahahaha, yeah poor drawing is really embarrassing. It happens to me all the time.