I stood at the front of the class and rolled my eyes. It was second period, and it was time to show the video announcements, but another teacher had occupied my room for testing the day before, and I was now unable to connect my laptop to the projector. So I announced that we’d be skipping the announcements.
“Mister,” one of the girls across the room said. “But Mister, it’s disconnected.”
I looked at at the two VGA connectors, and sure enough one of them was hanging loose. I hooked it up, and my laptop screen instantly appeared on the screen at the front of the class.
“Ok now, we’ll watch the announcements,” I said. “Thank you, Juli.”
I stood there for a second and then turned to the class.
“You know, I used to write software for a living,” I told them. They know this, but I had said it by way of transition to a digression, which they recognize. The class was silent. “I used to write computer software. … I was good at it.”
Someone in the back of the room said, “Well, I hope so!”
“But…” I said, “the last thing you’d ever want me to do is touch computer hardware. I’m not good at it.”
“How’s that possible?” a boy asked.
“I know. It’s sad. But it’s true. You’ve just seen proof,” I said.
And then we watched the announcements.