So This Happened in Math Class Yesterday

I mean, I should have known better. We were working on geometry proofs and one of the kids asked me how to find the area of a triangle, which isn't exactly rocket science but it’s always good to go over these things. So there I was at the board, drawing out an example when... I don’t know if you’ve ever felt this way before, but I just sort of zoned out for a second and started talking about how triangles are actually super important in architecture and design (true story) and then I got so caught up in explaining that it’s the same basic idea behind a roof's shape (which was kind of random to bring up at the time), and... oh god, here comes the worst part. So you know those awkward silences where everyone just looks at each other? Yeah, well there were a couple of those and suddenly I realized that no one had even written down my original example for finding triangle area. Instead, we ended up drawing all these random triangles around our desks to see which one looked like the roof of an igloo (because why not). And guess what? We never did get back to the actual assignment. But you know, on some level I felt better explaining something interesting to them. It’s just that they probably didn’t learn anything useful and I’m pretty sure I’ve failed as a teacher for at least half an hour there. Maybe next time we’ll stick with the basics.