Teachers Share Their Funny Zoom Moments

Aryan Mittal, Staff Writer|November 11, 2020

Nate Taylor

Various Portola High teachers share their amusing Zoom-related stories and why they made them laugh. While virtual learning may cause a few mishaps and difficulties, these teachers believe it is worth it to keep students and staff safe.

Zoom has played an integral role during the transition to learning models that require increased technology use, and many teachers have had positive and negative experiences on the service. From language bombs to lost classes to alleged black market dealings, teachers have had some wild experiences using Zoom to teach their classes.

A strong internet connection is a necessity for teachers to host large Zoom meetings, but this is not always guaranteed on-campus. Science teacher and head girls’ soccer coach Jeralyn Newton remembered a particularly entertaining experience when her internet connection suddenly went out during class.

“I didn’t realize that the internet had dropped, and all of my students were dropped from the Zoom call, and I continued to teach to nobody for a good five minutes before realizing I had lost everyone,” Newton said. “Can’t help but smile when things like that happen.”

Students are generally cautious to make sure they are muted during Zoom calls to prevent embarrassing mishaps. However, mistakes still happen, as Spanish teacher Kari Tubbs shares.

“It’s always funny when someone forgets to mute themselves, and they use words that they would never use in class,” Tubbs said, smiling. “We all had a chuckle after that.”

Thankfully for the student, Tubbs did not know which student made the mistake. She said that in situations like these, she just makes a snarky comment and moves on because she is sympathetic and understanding. She knows her students would not do it on purpose to cause a distraction.

The students are not the only ones making mistakes. On the first day of school, Tubbs had her classes dance and didn’t realize she had to share her sound as well when sharing her screen for a music video.

“So, I was dancing at my house like a crazy woman trying to get them to do it to an upbeat Shakira song, and they couldn’t hear the sound,” Tubbs said. “It wasn’t until my third class that a student told me the sound wasn’t on.”

Literary and language arts teacher Kate Avery was slightly concerned after noticing that her students were using the public chat feature in Zoom for purposes other than discussing literature.

“I had the chat on so that everyone could talk publicly to each other, and there was some black market dealing of toilet paper happening in the first couple of days,” Avery said. “I didn’t notice it until later. I don’t know if it was real or fake. I still don’t know, and I won’t ask.”

Avery has since turned off the public chat feature in her classes.

“I turned it off not because it wasn’t entertaining, but I also didn’t want to distract from what we were talking about as a class,” Avery said. “I also have a very short attention span. If I see something I immediately get distracted by it.”