Teachers say the darnedest things, too!

Some of the funniest things that have ever happened, happened during my teaching day! One of those things happened today.

I begin each ensemble rehearsal by giving the group a chance to practice matching pitches. I hum a note and ask them to hum or ooh it back to me. Then I follow a few of those by singing a short melody to the class and asking them to sing that back to me. It gets everyone's focus where I want it and it also gives those few singers who struggle with matching pitch an opportunity to improve upon that skill.

At the junior high school today, I entered the class about seven minutes after it began - there is a schedule conflict that prevents me from being with the class on time and Mrs. Carpenter starts the period by taking roll and supervising the kids until I arrive - anyway, I played "Be My Mirror" with the kids, then moved into the daily practice of matching pitches. I said, "Can you sing this pitch" and sang "Ooh" on a G. One young man interrupted me, blurting out, "WHAT did you SAY?" His face was all wrinkled up with a look of astonishment. I looked up and realized that he thought I said, "Can you sing this, bitch?" If you are offended by my typing the "b" word, I apologize but it was such a humorous moment and I have giggled about this all evening. Of course, I turned this into a teachable moment and quickly reviewed what "pitch" meant with the class, but the damage was done and I finally just had to go on to something else.