Students playing tricks

So, today the Concert Choir (my meets-every-day, teaching-them-the-basics choir) played a joke on me.

A girl that I didn't know came into class, and a couple of the students told me she was a French exchange student and was going to sit in on class. The beginning of class tends to be total pandemonium, so I was like, "Fine, whatever, can someone make sure we have a chair?" And then I didn't think about it. So 20 minutes into class, she raises her hand and says, "Je mange?" And I said, "Um, you didn't have lunch yet? Who's she partnered with? Who's her host?" And someone raised their hand, but said they hadn't eaten lunch together, and the French exchange students just basically did whatever they wanted and went wherever they wanted. Which seemed strange, but I said, "Well, OK, this is second lunch, so I suppose you'd better go. Bye." And she left.

I proceeded to try and get on with rehearsal, but the whole class (it's 42 kids) was cracking up, and it was little pockets all over the class, not localized, and I was starting to wonder what I'd missed, and so I said, "OK, guys, what's so funny?" And it turned out that she wasn't an exchange student at all, but just someone's friend who wanted to sit in on chorus before she went to lunch. They told me she was an exchange student as a joke, and didn't expect me to believe it. One girl said, "Don't tell me you actually believed that awful French accent!" I have a feeling they are not going to let me live this down. I did tell them the story of two friends (twins) who swapped places in their college classes on April 1st and fooled their professors.

When I told my boss, the full-time choral director at the high school, she said, "Oh, they're playing tricks on you? That means they're starting to like you!" I'm not sure this makes an entirely huge amount of sense from where I'm sitting but I can hope!