Funny Moment of the Day

As I sit at my desk extremely focused on the planning of a Shackleton Exploration/Antarctica Unit, the students are working very quietly (almost too quietly) at their desks. Out of the corner of my eye I see one of my students, who is a consistent class clown and most of the time absolutely hilarious, coming up towards my desk.

I do not raise my head to look up, but rather question, "(Student), what do you need?"

The student responds with, "I need help with my zipper...it's stuck."

All so quickly, the class goes into a roar of laugther and I'm thinking, dear God, he's in the 6th grade, I can't do this...but then I look up and see my "class clown" standing there in a panic and he repeats himself, "My zipper's stuck. Can you help me?"

I look up at him and try not to laugh, but the entire class is in an absolute uproar. (Insert awkward-teacher-moment/panic-stricken-6th-grade boy). The student then starts laughing, realzing what he just asked of me and can barely get out, "Not this zipper (pointing to his jeans), this one here on my binder."

The class starts laughing even harder and I begin to cry I am laughing so hard. A few seconds pass, although it seems like 5 minutes, and then the class calms down. My student is still standing at my desk and then says (trying not to laugh half way through), "No seriously, can you help me with my zipper...on my binder."

The sound of laughter from the class rises and I replay laughing, "Of course."

Student then returns to his desk...somewhat sheepishly, while everyone is still snickering.

The teacher in me pipes up, again trying not to laugh, and says, "Okay, back to work."

Note to self: I need to remember these funny teacher moments when faced with more challenging times.