November 13, 2008

Rat Attack

I arrived at my campus classroom at exactly 8 a.m. this morning. As usual, my students were all seated quietly and the room was completely dark. They groaned as I turned on the lights, shielding their eyes like vampires, some complaining to their neighbor how this teacher never misses a class.

I am a creature of habit, so I walked to the computer desk and went to sit my bag down beside the desk where I always put it. And that's when I saw it.

RAT

A huge rat, teeth sharp and forboding, a matted furry body, and a grotesque tail to match. I jumped back in horror and screamed, "What the. . . " as my heart started to race and I leaped onto the nearest table.

Half of my students burst out laughing. The other half were innocently wondering what had just happened.

As my heart raced and my hands shook, I asked who had done it. I felt like I had just run a mile on the treadmill. No one volunteered, but there were two girls who were laughing a bit too much. Finally, one of them raised her hand.

Reason #1 of why you should never tell your students you are deathly afraid of rodents. There will be no additional reasons. This one should suffice.

Once I had calmed myself down, we started class. I made my culprit put the offending stuffed rodent back into her school bag because I was not about to touch that thing, real or not.

Later in the class, my students asked me when the final will be for the class. I told them that with the exception of the rat-bearing girl, we weren't having a final.

I have to hand it to her though. She got me. She got me good.

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Posted by on November 13, 2008 in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Comments

6 Comments on Rat Attack

  1. Avitable on Thu, 13th Nov 2008 3:18 pm

    2. Hahahahaha! That’s awesome!

  2. Renovation Girl on Thu, 13th Nov 2008 6:30 pm

    3. I guess this is where high school and college are different…after laughing at how clever this student is, I would have called the parents and slapped her clever personality with a big detention! Embarrassing me in front of my class-so not cool!

  3. Perpetual Beginner on Thu, 13th Nov 2008 9:59 pm

    4. You would NOT have liked my first job out of college, BBM. I worked for the Medical College of Georgia, running a neuropharmacology lab, complete with 80-200 rodents, usually 2/3 mice and the rest rats. I didn’t just see rats and mice daily, I gave them shots, acted as a rat breeder, fed, cleaned, and dissected the brains of the little suckers.
    I will say that rats are far brighter and sweeter than mice are. Mice are mean little critters.

  4. Martial Arts Mom on Fri, 14th Nov 2008 7:43 am

    5. I agree with Renovation Girl – I’d be quite…peeved..yeah, that’s the PC word for it. College kids – you’d think they’d be a little more mature. Oh, wait a minute, my 18 year old daughter is in college…never mind what I just said. LOL!

  5. sizzle on Sat, 15th Nov 2008 1:31 pm

    6. Aack! That would have made me scream. Rats creep me out.

  6. karrie on Sat, 15th Nov 2008 9:49 pm

    7. Ha!!! You were punk’d! What a way to take it in stride, though. I’m not sure I’d be that upset. It was pretty funny. She really, really got you….

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