Practical Joke Gone Bad

          A new custodian came into my classroom today!  Suddenly he was motioning towards the front of the classroom and very upset!  I had no idea why he was excited as everything he was saying was in Spanish.  My first thought was, “I wish I had paid a little more attention in my Spanish class!”  All I can remember are simple things like hello, goodbye, and crazy.  Ok, so I have the foreign language skills of a preschooler.  As he is frantically gesturing towards my computer at the front of the classroom, I try to look like I am in control as I approach the computer.  Ah…..there it was…..whiteout spilled on top of my computer.  I tried to explain that it was just a joke…..not real, fake! It looked like I was playing a one-sided game of charades. I even showed him that I also had a bottle of fake red fingernail polish spilled on my desk.   He did not seem at all amused……actually he probably thinks I am a little loco.   As he left, I said, “Gracious!”  Only, I instantly knew that I had not pronounced it correctly…..I said it a little too drawn out…..like a Southerner.