So I am a TA this semester, and I'm teaching intro to geology lab, i.e. Rocks for Jocks. I don't actually have any jocks in any of my 4 sections, but this did happen:
I was walking to lunch a week ago when I passed a booth set up outside an off campus bookstore/general store. There were a couple girls sitting behind a table and a few guys surrounding them and talking to them. Then I heard a girl's voice say, "hey, that's my lab instructor!"
I turned around and took off my sunglasses to look at the girl sitting at the table who had just spoken and I recognized her.
"Oh, yeah, I am your lab instructor," I said, walking up to the booth. "How's it going?"
"Good," she replied. It was at this time that the awkward outside of classroom student-teacher interaction feeling became overwhelming.
"So," I started to say, "what's with the-" I was going to say 'booth', but it was mid-sentence that I noticed the sign I was standing next to. It read
"Playboy Girls of the Pac-10 magazine signing. Meet the ASU playgirls!"
I looked at the sign. Then back at my student, sitting behind the table, pen in hand, with a guy waiting next to her holding the girls of the Pac-10 Playboy issue. I looked back at the sign. Then I looked back my student (or lab-ling, as I have taken to referring them).
"Oh," was all I managed to say.
She smiled, then asked "So, can I get an 'A' now?" A long awkward silence followed as I stood mouth slightly agape in awe of the awkwardness. Everyone in the area was starting at me, both girls, the guys waiting for autographs, and the girls' handlers/bodyguards.
"Uhhhhhhh, no comment," I said, and quickly walked away.
So yeah, I don't have any ASU athletes in my classes, but I do have a Playboy model. I think I win.
