12th grade English. 2nd period. They had a vocabulary assignment based on The Crucible. The main point of my instructions had to do with the kinds of sentences they were to write--ones that demonstrated an understanding of the meaning of the words.
"Good morning, my name is..."
And that's when I was interrupted by the sound of a large jackhammer. So, I waited. When the noise stopped, I continued.
"...Original means it's your sentence. You know Ms. M will read..."
And another racket with the jackhammer. Again, I waited it out.
Amazingly, I only got interrupted twice. I guess that's because my intros tend to be short. (I figured trying to talk over the racket was pointless.) Because the noise happened sporadically all period.
At the time I thought it was just the guy on the roof. But no. Turns out they also started tearing up the street that day. (And the back of the classroom is mere feet from the street.)
It's a miracle I didn't get a headache.
The other miracle: the class worked silently the whole time. Not that they could actually hear each other over the construction noise. Or, it could have been because they all had their earbuds in and were listening to music. (Please don't judge me on this. I find that they work better independently if they can listen to music while they work.)
