The Spring Grinder

Tonight was our school's Spring Formal. MFT was the primary organizer, and she and I and another teacher stayed after school to set up the massive amount of snacks and ziti and soda and helium balloons in the gym. We had a DJ come in to play radio-edits of hip hop and slow-jams and we all got jazzed up in our dance shoes and party dresses. But the children, they truly blew our minds. In addition to the three piece suits, pinstriped blazers, baby blue and pink ties, ball gowns, baby phat coats and sunglasses, mega high heels, halter tops, cleavage boosting, wedding/prom frilly get-ups, I have some spectacular footage of little Kenny doing some two-step by himself on the gym floor, Chanya gyrating like she was trying to shake a whole lotta water off of her body with out a towel, Laquan in a pimp-daddy black and white striped suit with white patent leather shoes and gold buckles battling with a kid half his size, and the Incredible Hulk looking like a 30 year old man posing with teachers in a black suit and red-on-red tie and dress shirt. The kids had a blast, and while they managed not to grind on each other too much, there was a lot of shaking and vibrating that might have been mistaken for epileptic seizures were there no music in the background. I don't know how they learned to dance like that but they are good at it and it's kinda yucky. I would post those videos somewhere but I fear they'd end up on YouTube and I'd end up in jail. Sorry...

We also had a Shakespeare-for-kids performance at our school today which was colorful and lively and mostly enjoyable but it did go on a little long at the end and some of the kids got restless and whiney. It was great to hear other's analyses of A Midsummer Night's Dream and the themes and lessons of love and life. It didn't help that our Parent Coordinator fell asleep three times and the kids all saw her and she said "I can't help it--It was boring!" Very mature.

I did very little actual teaching this week between an excessively lengthy three part assessment we had to administer to our kids and these plays and this group of actors that are coming in weekly to do community building and advisory-type stuff with our kids through dramatic arts. It made it feel like June. In time, in time...