The Best Practical Joke Ever!

This week I played the best practical joke on my students.

It all started when I was bored last weekend and started playing around on this website called "Face in Hole". You can check it out here. The idea of this website is for people to be able to place their faces into the bodies of athletes, models, celebrities, and various advertisements. When done well, it can be very fun.

While playing around, I made this:

I posted this photo on my Facebook account and one of my co-workers saw this picture and strongly encouraged me to use this picture as a joke. I will do my best to re-play what transpired this week as what I refer to as being one of my favorite weeks at school.

While having my 8th graders in class, we were sharing what things we had done over the weekend. I began to share with them that I had shared something very personal with one of the other teachers, and she encouraged me to share this information with the students. I continued to tell them that this is something I chose not to share with them because I didn't want it to come across as being arrogant or prideful. This was when I showed them this picture. (With the "Face in Hole" label cut off the bottom) "I am this year's Mrs. Colorado," I said.

The astonishment, amazement, and disbelief was almost more than I could handle. For those of you who know me well enough know that I am a HORRIBLE liar. It has always been very difficult for me to keep a straight face whenever playing a joke on someone. Thankfully, I was able to be very serious when speaking about this. Because all my students know that I am a horrible liar, I was quickly met with a lot of "Are you serious?" and "What was your talent?" I couldn't believe I actually pulled it off. We talked for a little longer about some of the questions they had (I was amazed at my ability to make stuff up and it still be believable).

I was so excited about my ability to pull this off, so I decided to share this with my 6th graders too. I used the same approach as before. I thought I did a good job with the humility approach. They were just as easy to fool. Most of their questions were regarding whether or not I have used my power for good. In my opinion, most of their suggestions were for blackmail and totally illogical reasons, but it was pretty entertaining to hear what sorts of things I should be granted just because I have a nice, shiny, crown. (With a sash too, of course).

My 7th graders were a lot less gullible. I think part of that has to do with the group of students in that class, or maybe because they couldn't imagine someone like me could win something like a Mrs. Colorado pageant. After leaving their classroom, I quickly went into the 8th grade class and said, "I am so upset at those 7th graders! I tried to share with them something so personal and they don't even want to believe me! This is exactly why I didn't want to share something like this with you guys!" I was soon met with many sympathetic, "We believe you, Mrs. Gordon!" Way to milk it, Leslie.

The next day I was met by one of my 7th grade students who had actually gone home and researched the current Mrs. Colorado and found me out to be a liar. I got really defensive and upset at him (all an act) and told him that he got the wrong person. He later approached me and apologized about being a jerk about things. That is when I shared with him my secret. He was now going to be one of the people who had to make sure students kept believing my lie.

Later that same day one of my 8th graders told me that he saw the picture that the other student printed off about the real Mrs. Colorado. He said that he didn't believe the other student because I told them with a straight face about me being Mrs. Colorado. "That's how I know you weren't joking," he said. It's funny how even my students know that I am a horrible liar. It was at this point that I knew that I had just successfully pulled off the best practical joke...ever.

The rest of the week continued with everyone believing my story. I was frequently met with comments such as, "Mrs. Gordon...I mean, Mrs. Colorado..." I soon discovered that I needed to tell the truth about the whole thing when one of my students came up to me and said, "Mrs. Gordon, I was at volleyball practice last night. I told my coach and teammates about you being Mrs. Colorado, and they all thought it was so cool!" Uh, oh. Now it's gone a little too far.

I decided that I needed to share the truth, but I was going to do it in a fun way. I put together a bunch of pictures together into a slide show and here's how it went.

"You guys rocked my world this week. You believed in me when I was in the band, "Evanescence."

"When I was in The Bee Movie. "

"When I was Taylor Swift."

"When I was Shakira."

"And when you believed that I was Mrs. Colorado."

It was priceless. I did hear a lot of comments like, "I knew all along. I knew you couldn't be Mrs. Colorado!" Considering how well they had been duped, I think it was all just a cover to act like they weren't hurt that I had actually pulled a good one on them. It was awesome.