Yesterday had to be one of the funniest days in my teaching career, as I got punk’d by a pair of identical twin-sister-drama-loving students of mine.
Picture this:
- I send an identical twin from my class to her twin sister’s classroom to get a USB from her, so we can show a video of a lunchtime school performance
- She swaps places with her twin while the other teacher isn’t looking, gives instructions to her sister and sits down at her twin’s desk, while the other twin leaves her classroom
- The class laughs under their breath because they know what took place
- The wrong twin deliberately heads back to my class with the USB to show the video
- I get a little suspicious because I notice bright pink runners and ask if she is the wrong twin? (I now know my twin left in a skirt and blazer while the other twin arrived in a physical education tracksuit)
- I check her student photo on the school database on my laptop, hold it up against the wrong twin’s face like I’m on border patrol and confirm all is correct, as the wrong twin keeps a straight face
- I later realise this was a futile effort, because of course the wrong twin is going to look exactly like her identical twin sister’s photograph! (am I a complete idiot?)
- Meanwhile, as the wrong twin loads her sister’s movie on the interactive whiteboard in my classroom, my twin puts her hand up and asks permission to leave the other classroom to go to the bathroom
- Within a few minutes, my twin arrives at my classroom door, now I have both twins in my class and I realise I’ve been punk’d!
- The other twin decides to go back to her classroom and returns like all is well and nobody except the students there are any the wiser
To top it all off, you’d think I would have worked this one out, as I have identical twin sisters of my own…