My First Year Teaching

"What are you doing out of class Melanie?"

"Mrs. Anderson, my water broke!"

So if this sounds crazy, it was. My first year as a teacher was anything but traditional. I had just graduated from college with my teaching certificate when I landed my first teaching job. It was at an all girls alternative school called the Teenage Mothers' School or TAMS for short. My students ranged in ages from 14 to 18 where I taught Freshmen English through Senior English. What a year it was! Besides just graduating from college, I had also just gotten married and now had to prepare four different lesson plans. My poor husband was lucky to see me before sundown most days. Still I had so much fun with my students. We all cried, laughed and learned together. The lessons went beyond English Language Arts and literature. I always used humor to lighten the mood and break the ice. So one April Fool's Day, I decided to play a joke on my students. However, little did I know that the joke would be on me.

Melanie, not her real name by the way, was 16 and about 8 months pregnant. Lately she had been walking around real slowly and real uncomfortable-like; so, I felt like she might deliver early. Melanie was also suffering from a broken heart as were many of my other students since most of their boyfriends had broken up with them. Then there was also the guilt of being pregnant at such a young age and unmarried. That's when I came up with the April Fool's joke.

It was the end of the six weeks and the end of the semester and the week of April Fools. The girls were really stressed out and working real hard to make sure their grades were up to par. April Fools hadn't even crossed their minds. So that's when I decided to pull a prank on them and lighten the mood. It was simple really, and I figured they would get it right away, but they didn't.

"Ok girls, pull out a sheet of paper and prepare to write a timed essay. Be sure to add your heading and a title. This will count as the last test grade for the six weeks. So make it a good one."

"Aw Mrs. Anderson! Really? C'mon!"

"Girls, no complaints or whining. Follow directions and get this done. Now, did everybody ready your papers?" I asked as I went looking around the classroom.

"Ok great. Now you will have to begin your essay like this, 'One sunny afternoon in Mrs. Anderson's classroom, I had to write about how my teacher pulled an April Fool's prank on me by getting me to copy all this down before asking any questions.'" Then I paused and waited.

Some of the girls asked me if they needed to add any vocabulary and if so should they underline them. Trying not to laugh, I answered yes. Then I waited some more. Then one of them asked me to repeat the sentence. Finally, one of the girls responded in surprise.

"Wait, what? What's today? Did you just say April Fool's prank?"

Then a few more girls looked up from their papers and said, "Hey, what are we doing?" Oh Mrs. Anderson!"

"April Fools girls!" I said laughing not thinking the joke would go this far.

Well, I should've known that they would eventually plot to get me back, and they did, with the help of another teacher no less.

The next day seemed perfectly normal. The girls seemed a little happier today than yesterday and I was happy to learn that they didn't hold any grudges. As I took attendance, I noticed one student missing, Melanie. I found this to be strange as I had seen her in the hallway just a few minutes before the bell rang. So I asked the class if anyone had seen her. With nothing but shrugs and "I don't know's," I decided to look out in the hallway. There was Melanie standing in the middle of the hallway all alone looking down.

"What are you doing out of class Melanie?"

"Mrs. Anderson, my water broke!"

"What! Wait. What! Oh my gosh! Ok don't move. I'll get the nurse. I mean, wait. Can you move? Are you in pain? Is the baby coming? Oh my God! Ok it's gonna be ok. Just wait right there. I'll get the nurse."

Mind you I asked all these questions and made all these comments running back and forth to her, to the classroom, back to her, back to the classroom and then finally to the nurse's office. Of course the nurse was more concerned about my health than that of the student's.

"What? Don't worry about me! Melanie is about to give birth in the hallway!"

I swear the nurse was as slow as a turtle and not a bit worried. So I left her and ran back to Melanie in the hallway realizing all along that I shouldn't have left her. I should've gotten another student to get the nurse so I could stay by her side, but I panicked. However, to my surprise, Melanie was now surrounded by all the students and by the math teacher, Mrs. Smith, (not her real name) and they seemed to be laughing.

"What's going on? Why are you all laughing? Melanie are you ok?"

"April Fool's Mrs. Anderson!" said Melanie and the students.

Suddenly, Mrs. Smith interjected, "Melanie's water didn't break. She just used a bottle of water to spill some of it on the ground above where she was standing. I came out in the hallway to see what was the commotion and Melanie told me that she was just getting you back for the fake essay yesterday."

Then it hit me. "Oh...why you little...Melanie! Well, I guess I had it coming but c'mon! I was really worried about you."

"Don't be mad Mrs. Anderson. I'm really sorry." Melanie said half sorry and half laughing.

Then we all started to laugh together.

After all was said and done, I gave Melanie a hug and as we all started to walk back into the classroom, the nurse appeared.

"So where's the baby?"

"Seriously, nurse Jackson! (not her real name) Now you come?" I said.

"Ya, I knew Melanie was going to play a prank on you, but then I decided to make sure there wasn't placenta and a baby on the hallway floor. By the way, Happy April Fool's day."

"Thanks a lot."

That was my first year teaching and a year I will never forget.