All homeroom classes are supposed to decorate classrooms for Halloween tomorrow. I'm really dreading it. For weeks now, last year's members of 6E -of the epic Thriller Dance Halloween win- have been seeking me out to ask, "Ms. Marjorie, you're not going to teach this year's class the Thriller Dance, are you?"
Of course, I get very serious and answer them, "The Thriller Dance was OURS. I will not share it with ANYONE!"
Usually I get a response like "Yeah! It's OURS! Thank you Ms. Marjorie. You're so cool!" (here's the story:
http://marjiebowker.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html)
Well, my homeroom this year has only seven students - six girls and one boy. They heard that my sixth grade class won last year so they are putting pressure on me; they have high expectations that the sixth graders can pull it off again for another shocking win.
I've given it my best shot, but for one week, all they want to talk about is what they can rig up above the door entry to fall on the judges when they enter the room. Homeroom conversations have gone something like this:
Me: OK, listen up everyone. The thing that impressed the judges last year was that we had something different than everyone else. What can we do that is different?
Nhung: We should put something up above the door so that when the judges open it, something falls on their heads!
Whole class: Yeah!
Me: Well, OK, we can do that, but that is just one thing. I was thinking that we could read the Halloween stories that we are writing out loud; that would be really cool and different.
Jessica: Maybe we could put a bunch of fake spiders in a box and that could drop on the judges' heads!
Whole class: Yeah!
Me: OK, well, I guess that would be good. But I was thinking that to set the mood for the stories, we could find a Halloween track of scary noises to add a spooky background.
Maria: Or we could put a bunch of black streamers in with the fake spiders and all of that could fall on the judges' heads when they come in!
Whole class: Yeah!
Me: That would be funny. And we can dress up to read our stories and have special lighting on us so that the room looks really creepy. We could cover the windows with black material and put white blinking lights behind the material.
Truong: Maybe we could put red paint above the door, so when the judges open it, blood will fall on them!
Whole class: Yeah! That is so cool!
Me: Well, I'm not sure about the red paint, but...
You get the picture.
I'm just not convinced that I will be able to uphold my reputation this year.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
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5 comments:
Sometimes you need to have examples at both ends of the spectrum in order to teach future generations. Maybe this will be the class that didn't win because they didn't work together, or didn't look beyond the single gag.
Maybe you could write a spooky story about two classes that entered the Halloween contest - one that thought outside the box and made an elaborate, interactive experience for the judges and won, the other that just dumped spiders on the judges heads and lost. Then you could read this spooky morality tale (in costume) to future classes to scare them into better cooperation.
Or you could just wait till the day after the contest and rig up a box over the door that dumps streamers that say, "You Lost!" on the students' heads when they enter! That would be so cool!
Brian = Genius.
Humm, in deference to Mungoof, I was thinking, "There is a reason Brian is not a teacher..."
We waited.
We waited.
Which of the "dropping stuff on heads" options did you choose?
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