April Fools!

I didn't really do anything for April Fool's Day this year. Usually I look forward to tormenting my college students on this fun little holiday. It's especially effective since April 1st is right at the end of the semester, and they are all a little tightly wound anyway. :)

One semester, I sprang a dictation test on my musicianship students. They wouldn't have bought it, but I got two or three other students in on it, so we managed to panic quite a few of them for a few minutes.

Another year, one of my classes was schedule to have a solfege test (you know, do re mi fa, etc.) on the hymn If You Could Hie to Kolob. When the first group stood to sing the test, I "reminded" them that they were supposed to do it memorized. There were a few panic attacks in the room before I let them in on the joke.

I also teach a Music History class to Juniors and Seniors. On April Fool's Day one year, we happen to be having a review session for their final test. They all knew that the review questions were representative of questions that would be on a final test. For the first few minutes, I asked the most detailed, difficult questions possible. I was completely serious when I asked the questions, and the students reactions were priceless. Needless to say, I could 0nly keep them going for so long before I felt to badly for them. :)

My favorite April Fool's Day memory was when I was a little girl. I woke up one morning to find myself in my brother's pajamas. My parents had switched us during the night! I was young enough that I just thought it was funny. Unfortunately for David, though, my pajamas were all frilly nightgowns. The best part of this is that my parents have it all on video! We all broke into David's room to find him cowering under his covers. We bugged him for a while, trying to pull off the blankets. We all thought he was pretty embarrassed. Little did we know that he hadn't even yet realized that he was wearing a lovely red nightgown. When he did figure it out, he let out a horrified shriek, and a red streak flew out of camera view. That is some priceless video.