Sure, we could discuss the serious lessons we learned or we can reflect on the really heartfelt moments and recognition of human vulnerability we stumbled across, but sometimes the thing that really got us through the day were those moments when we said to ourselves “Did that really just happen?”
Many of us experienced small moments along those lines as cats, dogs, and children made cameo appearances in our Zoom meetings. (I don’t believe for a second that there is anybody that didn’t have that happen in at least one meeting over this past year). Some of you had experiences that made us laugh out loud. Need a moment of jocularity today? Read on:
- I was doing a class on Child Abuse for my Psychiatric Nursing course on Zoom and at the very end one of the students held up her adorable baby niece that she was babysitting for the day and said. “Yes people, it’s really hard to take care of kids without going bonkers!”
- Probably when my (unclothed, basically feral) toddler was incessantly interrupting an online class so I tossed an open bag of chocolate chips into her room and closed the door so that I could lecture about attachment theory in peace.
- Assigning students to breakout rooms and popping into one just as one student loudly proclaims “FUCKING OLIVER TWIST!”
- My computer went crazy in the middle of class where all sort of things just kept popping up on the screen. I couldn’t even see the students. I took that computer into my bedroom where I hadn’t made my bed. I turned on my office computer to work on that and there was a terrible feed back sound. I went back to the first computer and tried to get control, but couldn’t. I dropped the f-bomb forgetting that my students could see me and hear me. It was a mess.
- Carrying my laptop down a hallway while bending down and trying to show my remote students markings on a 10-meter measuring tape laid out to illustrate geologic time, and not knowing that Preston was filming me.
- I like to think I am an expert at Zoom… but sometimes, we all make mistakes! During an inservice with our staff, I was drinking out of a mug with a slogan. One of my CAs privately messaged me asking what my mug said, and I accidentally messaged the entire Zoom (with no context!!!) “I’m a plumber, what’s your superpower?” Took the Zoom off the rails for a few moments, but it was just too funny!
Thank you for sharing your moments of hilarity with us! While at the time they may have led to mortification, I think we can all agree that they really brightened our day today (and reassured us that we weren’t the only ones that things like that happened to)!
[…] What made you laugh? […]