School Memories - Fall Back Into Blogging

Five important things I remember about my 9th grade Geometry teacher:

1. Ms Geometry was the volleyball coach.
2. She was more than a little obsessed with origami. Each week we had a special origami project assigned to us that took hours to complete, because she was convinced that the secret of geometry was origami.
   I still get a little twitchy when I have to fold paper. 
3. She wore overalls every day. Pink overalls. Blue overalls. Orange overalls. Olive green overalls. Denim overalls. Black overalls. Flower patterned overalls. Khaki overalls. Red overalls. White overalls. The woman owned at least twenty different pairs of overalls. 
4. There were two kids who fell asleep in her class when I was present. She wrote on both kids with permanent marker. The first kid was the recipient of "DORK" on his cheek, and the second kid was emblazoned with "I AM A LOSER" on his forehead. 
5. She had the largest collection of overhead projector markers I have ever seen. Each day she would carefully choose ten markers out of her drawer, and line them up on the table next to the projector.

One cold day in January I entered Ms Geometry's class, and sat in my usual seat in the back corner. Ms Geometry walked in wearing her olive green overalls and a white, long-sleeved shirt. She joked with a couple of volleyball players sitting in the front row while she lined up her overhead projector markers. After collecting all of our origami lotus flowers and placing them in a large cardboard box, she began the lesson.

Ten minutes into explaining some new concept (probably how measuring a triangle relates to paper cranes, and how best to construct a paper box in which your paper crane can live), she suddenly picked up all of her overhead projector markers, held them up in front of her face, and stared at them.

She stared at the markers for about a minute, eyes huge.
Then she started to scream.

She pulled the caps off the markers, one by one, throwing them towards the class, and scribbled on the projector sheet with the fistful of markers, yelling, "No. No. No. No. NO!"

Ms Geometry banged on her desk with her fists, and then opened up her drawers to pull out more markers. She ran back and forth across the room, yelling and throwing the markers.

We all sat in our desks, shocked.
No one said a word.
No one moved.
(except to dodge flying markers)

When she had exhausted her supply of markers, she moved onto pencils, handfuls of paper clips, and books - throwing everything she touched, until her desk was clear. Yelling things like, "I can't take it anymore. They are all so stupid." and a lot of nonsense words. She tried to pick up her desk to throw it, but only succeeded in lifting it a few inches off of the floor.

Ms Geometry then punched the wall, and ran out of the room. We could hear her screams echoing off the hallway walls for a few seconds, and then she was gone.

The entire class stayed seated, silent, until the bell rang.

The next day, I walked into Geometry fully expecting to see a substitute. Instead I found Ms Geometry sitting behind her desk, which was piled high with origami creations.

No one ever mentioned her freak out in class, but for the rest of the year everyone flinched a little each time she pulled markers out of the drawer.

Did this happen in your Geometry class?
Are you a talented origami artist?

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Rach from Life Ever Since and I are Community Leads at The SITS Girls. We have organized a fun event for this week, with daily prompts to help you get back into your blogging groove after the long summer, and allow us to celebrate the wonderfulness that is fall. Today's prompt: School Memories.
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More School Memories From Tracie:
Days of Color and Warm Milk
The Alamo, Fresh Bread, and a Spiral Staircase
Locker Room Haircut
She Told Me I Could Write

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