Best Intro Ever

I'm going to be picking up a leave replacement next month some time, and the teacher had an appointment yesterday, so she requested me as her sub. Most of her classes are inclusion, so she teaches with another teacher, who was also there yesterday. It was a perfect situation for me to introduce myself to the classes and try to get to know them a little.

As I was introducing myself, I heard one student whisper something to the other teacher. She responded excitedly, "yes I know, I was just thinking that!" What were they talking about?

Next, she explains, they've been reading Tuesdays with Morrie (one that I need to read still). In one part of the book, apparently they do trust falls, where you fall backwards and trust that the other person or people will catch you. Ok, cue my heart beating a litttttle faster. I am immediately having flashbacks to a 7th grade field trip in which I was blindly led through a forest, and my partner let me trip over rocks and walk into trees. I tell them about this, they laugh with me. But with 22 kids in front of me cheering me on, waiting to see how I'll react, there's only one choice.

I go to the back of the room and about 8 kids line up in 2 lines. Then the teacher pulls a desk over in front of the line. I have to get up on the desk?? "Ok, Ok, you'll definitely catch me, RIGHT??!" I ask them, about 5 times. "Yes, we definitely will."

I step up, they give me a countdown. I fall, they catch.

As I return to the front of the room, and the students to their desks, the kids are smiling. One of them says as he is sitting down, "You're one of us now."

I can't imagine a better introduction to a class.