Playing for the wrong team

I had one of those Oh.My.Gosh. moments today.

As my class was taking their morning restroom break, one of my students from last year walked by and said hi. He told me that he had a football game tonight, so I asked him about how long he had been playing and what position he played. He then told me that they were playing a team called "The Dragons."

I said, "Ooooh, they sound dangerous. What's the name of YOUR team?"

He replied, "The Mancocks."

While a circuit within my brain suddenly burst into flame and began to smoke, my mouth filled in as best as it could. Trying to relate it to another unfortunately named South Carolina team, I asked, "Oh, is that a type of bird?"

A responded, "No, it's just some name that my coach made."

I admirably refrained from asking, "And is your coach, say, a raging pedophile??"

When I got home, I looked up the word, to see if it really was some kind of animal. After skimming past about 40 adult sites of questionable content, I found one that said a mancock is a type of birch bark container that some villagers use to store rice.

I'm sure that's what the coach had in mind...


In other news, this week's Mr. Teacher column over on education.com is titled, "What Was That Middle One Again?" It's all about my learning curve as a brand new language arts teacher.

Check it out while you're eating your leftover rice!!