Sometimes things like this just happen

Today in one of my sophomore world civ classes, I was trying to explain the Allies strategy in WW2.

And this is how I started the sentence: "France thought that Germany thought that France thought that Germany was going to...."

All of the students freaked out and told me to start over--that I had confused them all (duh).

So I started saying it again, this time slower.

The sentence totally made sense...but was just the most confusing way to ever say it.

But for the life of me, I could NOT think of any other way to say it.

Ask me now, and I can phrase it five million ways--but on the spot, that was all I could think of.

So as a class we worked on this sentence for like 15 minutes.

I was trying to explain it to them and they were "yelling" at me to stop--telling me that I was hurting their brains.
I think English teachers might have hated me during this 15 minutes.
It was the funniest thing to watch everyone's brains and expressions as they tried to follow this.

A few students finally understood, and so I asked one of the students who understood my craziness to explain it to the class.

I figured he would be able to explain it differently.

And he ended up drawing thought bubbles within thought bubbles.

Which I think might have confused everyone even more.

(please notice the French and German mustaches)

Ha!

Finally a student exasperatedly yelled out, "Mrs. Gilbert! Stop! This is like inception in REAL LIFE!" And then he put his face in his hands and collapsed on his desk.

It was possibly the funniest 15 minutes of my life.

Oh. Today in the same class, two students "danced for dictators"

Don't ask me how this started--but I was teaching them a funny way to remember the alliances in WW2.

One thing led to another, and the next thing I know, two boys are in the front of the classroom dancing in front of the rest of the class who were the "european dictators."

The dictators got to decide whether their dance deserved execution or whether they would spare their lives.

 I really don't know how this happens sometimes.

But it keeps us laughing.

It keeps us on the same team.

And it keeps us learning!

 I must admit, I truly love these moments and these students of mine.

Welcome to Mrs. Gilbert's class.