Can you hear me now?

I survived my first day as a substitute teacher! Oh, and the kids did, too! That's important, right? (I've been working in one of the schools for a couple weeks now, but instead of subbing, I've been working on another data based project.) The highlights of my first official day as a substitute teacher included:

-two trips to the nurse (Relax. Only one involved blood.)
-wearing not one but two microphone packs
-getting hives on the insides of my legs

The best part of my day took place when one of the two kiddos who use hearing devices came into the room after retrieving his pencil from the playground. (I didn't even ask why he took his pencil to recess. Believe me, it is not worth it.)

He walk in and said, "Do you have your mic on?" I looked down to my packs and saw that it was.

"Can you hear me?" I asked. "I toggled my on/off button and asked again, "Can you hear me, now?" Nothing.

Eventually, we figured out that his was on mute. When he turned it on, my first response was, "Can you hear me now? Ha. I feel like the Verizon guy."

As soon as I said it, I got real nervous, real quick. Thankfully, he had a great sense of humor, laughed, told me I was funny, and hugged me.

I'll probably have swine flu within a week.