This essay examines teaching failure in the context of COVID-19. It uses autoethnography to convey and explore the impact the pandemic has on teaching, as situated against and within my life-long dream to be a teacher. I explore four performances as a teacher that resulted from the transition at my institution from on the ground to fully remote instruction. Overall, I consider the ways COVID-19 has disrupted what it means to participate in communication instruction and to be a teacher, more generally.