First, I forget to separate the students into numbered groups until about a minute before they arrive in the morning. Then, I realize that the way I numbered the seven groups of desks makes no sense whatsoever as #5 isn't anywhere near #4 nor #6.
As soon as the students file in for the first class, I panic because I forget to send the attendance electronically, so I must run to my computer and send the information before the office calls me on the room phone and starts chiding me.
"Sorry," I say hurriedly. "Hand them in, hand them in!"
Finally, the attendance has been sent, and the correct papers are being handed back while the incorrect papers (both piles) have made their return trip to my desk. Right about now, I'm looking like a flaming lunatic.
"You see this?" I say, making a sweeping motion to my own desk. "What you are witnessing is a moron in action right here. A blithering moron."
A little humor plus a lot of embarrassment later, we are deep into the day's lesson. I avoid the dreaded office phone call, the students all get their own corrected papers back (though I repeat the "wrong papers" trick to a second class a little later), and after several failed attempts, I finally get the computer program to run the correct student reports, though it costs me my twenty-minute lunch break.
It's okay, though. After all, this is kind of the way it should be for the blithering moron I turn into for the day.
