Paging Mr. Noodle

I have decided that I shall henceforth teach in the style of Mr. Noodle, from Elmo's World via Sesame Street.

For anyone unfamiliar with Mr. Noodle, he is a character that (apparently) lives in Elmo's window and has a very unique style of interpreting questions. Allow me to give you an example...

Elmo will roll up the shade, "waking" Mr. Noodle (the similarities to a peep show booth stop -- for the most part -- there.) Elmo will then ask Mr. Noodle about whatever the topic of the day is. Swimming, cows, lightbulbs, whatever. Elmo may say, "Mr. Noodle, how do you put on your shoes?"

Mr. Noodle will then do something outrageously stupid, ie, put a shoe in his mouth, making Elmo wonder if he has an IQ below 30.

At this point, unseen kids will join the fray, shouting, "NOOOOO, that's not right, Mr. Noodle!!"

Senor Noodle will then do something only slightly less "touched," such as put the shoes down his pants. Again, the kids will patiently yell, "NOOOOO, Mr. Noodle! Shoes don't go there!"

Typically, Mr. Noodle will perform a third troglodytic act, maybe balance a shoe on his head. At this point, we're all waiting to hear the kids shout, "Are you EFFING SH!TTING me???" but they always seem to be inhumanly restrained.

Anyway, enough of the wikipedia article about Elmo's World. The point I am getting at is that I am going to reverse my whole teaching style and try to Noodle it up a bit more. No more probing questions and accurate answers. Instead, when we talk about Perimeter, I am going to randomly make tally marks and wait for the kids to realize that I'm doing the wrong thing and shout, "NOOOOO!" at me. Then I will start dividing a circle into wedges until they again shout at me.

Maybe I will have more success with this technique than ever before.

I'll let you know. For now, I'm going to post this by touching my monitor. If that doesn't work, I'll turn around 3 times in my swivel chair and hoot like an owl.