Note to Self...always preview movie before showing to class

The great thing about being a teacher is that we get to bribe motivate our students to behave and learn with popcorn and a movie. Plus with having twenty-some kids in the class it is a pretty safe bet that one or two will always have the latest kid movie on DVD so I don't have to go buy or rent them. However, this proved to be not so helpful recently.

Right before spring break a student asked if he could bring in Alvin and the Chipmunks. Of course, I said, you can watch it with the substitute the day before break (since I started my spring break a day early!). When we got back from spring break they told me they hadn't watched it so I told them we could watch it for our next party. Well the big day rolled around so I put in the DVD, passed around the popcorn, poured the juice, and went to settle in for the movie. That's when the comments began...

Student A: "Mrs. Tuttle, this looks different than when I saw it in the theatre."
Teacher: Well this is a DVD and not in the theatre."
Student B: "Mrs. Tuttle, why are the colors funny? They aren't very bright."
Teacher: "I think "Johnny's" mom may have made us a copy for our classroom so when it copied it may have messed up some of the color."
Student C : "This is a bootlegged copy of the movie!!"
Student D : "Mrs. Tuttle, this is illegal."
Student E: "Mrs. Tuttle, listen you can hear the audience laughing"
Teacher: "It looks like a beautiful day outside why don't we take our popcorn and juice outside to have a picnic!!"

Oh yes, I did show my class a bootlegged copy of a movie or at least the first 5 minutes of it! I know I'm pretty naive considering the DVD came in unmarked inside a color copy of the cover of the movie. A student later told me he thought it was strange that somebody had a copy before spring break when it wasn't supposed to come out until during spring break. Yep, just trying to keep my classroom real!