I spent the first three classes this morning setting up and preparing for the assembly today. The last two weeks have been a big production. In 1st period the boys were trying to construct sombreros from wire and brown paper. One of my other students was lying down across a couple chairs. He started talking to me about what had been going on at home, and I decided to let him talk. I hope that he is starting to realize I want to help him. Once he got out what he wanted to say, he got up and started painting. I'm trying to learn the art of balancing getting to know students while keeping them engaged in learning. With these kids, I don't think they'll listen to a word I say until they believe they can trust me. The Spanish teacher was supposed to send the kids that were in the assembly during the last 20 minutes of class. He forgot that we were on a different schedule on assembly days and didn't send me kids until the last 5 minutes of class. We rushed going over stuff and I was definitely a little stressed at that point.
2nd period the students continued to make posters to decorate the wall. Mr. I'm Not Going to Do What You Say So I Had To Ignore Him is really coming around. Not only has he not been giving me attitude, he volunteered to be in the scene and even let me paint a fake battle wound on his neck. When the next group of kids came in to work, things went a lot better. We choreographed the battle scene and it was actually pretty good.
3rd period I warned the kids was going to be a bit of a circus. I was proud of how well they handled it. Started out getting the last of the backgrounds together along with the fake weapons for the battle. Then we went to set up the portable stage, students in the skits started arriving in the cafeteria, I took students to pick up costumes, and kept the sky from falling. Some students had not picked out costumes and I just started handing them things like funny brown chap looking pants...and they actually put them on. What they swore they'd never put on a few days earlier they put right on with little to no argument. One student even asked if he could wear his costume for the rest of the day. I hoped to run through the battle once with all the students together, but we didn't quite make it. Students started pouring into the cafeteria.
The assembly celebrating Mexican Independence Day was quite an adventure. The skit went pretty well considering. Two of the girls were supposed to run away screaming but never got up. We tried to encourage them to move during the skit, but they just sat there. They were so nervous. The leader of the Mexican army started with shouting "Viva la Mexico!" and then moved to "Viva la taco! Viva la quesadilla!" After that the Spanish class presented the Top Ten Reasons to Celebrate Mexican Independence Day. I think the favorite was the principal's belly roll. One of the students dressed up like him and danced to some hilarious music. I ran into one of the student in the skit after and told him he did a good job. "We couldn't have done it without you, Miss." So sweet. I told him it was all them.
After lunch my 4th period helped take down the stage. As we were walking down the hallway, one of the boys asked what we were doing today. My response: "We'll talk about it when we get back to class." My thought: "I have no idea." I had been so focused on the assembly I hadn't thought through what I was doing with the students who were not getting ready for it. The other students had so much fun with the costumes that I decided to head over to the lab and go through them. I asked the students to go through, find something they liked, even try it on if they wanted to. Then they would describe the costume and create a character that would wear it. Who they were, why they were wearing it, etc. At first I heard comments about not wanting to play dress up. In just a few minutes some of the boys had vests or skirts on while the girls were trying on dresses. Then I heard music to my ears from one of the new girls in the class. "Can we like do a play at an assembly?" I tried to contain my happy dance. Another girl said she'd be interested in doing something too. Baby steps folks, baby steps.
In 6th we set up for the football game. Why you ask? Well last game I saw the principal doing it, so I decided to give my students points for helping set up. The visiting team playing at the high school uses the cafeteria as their locker room and enters the field through our hallway. So we have to move tables and lay out tarps so the floor does not get damaged by cleats. We got it mostly right. Saw the custodians had fixed some of our work. Next time. Then after we got back to class one of the boys asked, "Are you going to have another skit at next week's assembly?" Next week we are having guest speakers on careers, so I told him not yet, but we could another week. Then he told me he wanted to do something. Remember when no one wanted to even read anything in front of the school?
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