We had a (i'll just say "foreign") science teacher in year 8, and he didn't exactly have full control of the class...
It was always noisy and stuff, we didn't get much done. One day he'd had enough and said STOP TALKING FOR ONE MINUTE. For once we agreed with him (it was the day after Steve Irwin died), so we said "1 minute silence for Steve Irwin", the whole class decided to stay dead silent for just 1 minute, no moving, no speaking, not even breathing... (the teacher wasn't too fond of the idea and kept going on with his talk while we proceeded).
A few seconds passed, and it suddenly got very awkward for everyone. It was the first 15 seconds since the beginning of the year that no-one in the class was talking, shouting or even tapping a pen. It was a new experience for everyone, so the teacher continued his speech.
The next 15 seconds passed, we were all just looking at each other trying not to laugh, because by then the teacher couldn't even handle it being so quiet (the lack of constant noise was even out of his comfort zone), so he started to ask the class questions about the topic. No one answered him, so he kept asking but everyone just stayed silent. With 10 seconds to go he said "I like the noisy class better, at least they get some work done".
So once the minute passed, we said "whats that sir, you like noise better" "
Yes" "OK then, lets have 1 minute of constant noise in memory of Steve Irwin!!!!" "
NONONONO, You must not do that just now...".
Too late
, we completed the minute of noise. And liked the concept so much, we did the whole "minute silence/noise" thing at least another 20 times that lesson.
Looking back at how annoying some of us were, i wonder how teachers do their jobs. They should let them use violence IMO
