Just Call Me Whoopi

As you may know I am a Family and Consumer Science (aka home ec) teacher at a fairly small populated school. The school building is actually quite large but the enrollment is small since it is only two years old. Having such a low student population allows the school to have a certain number of teaching positions. Therefore, I have to teach two other elective classes that are not my concentration. One of those classes being "Communications". Now, this is "Communications" for a middle school. The students that are in the class don't really choose it because they want it. It's chosen because it is one of the few free elective courses offered. My regular classes have a fee of $25 because of grocery & sewing bills. Art, band, and chorus also have this fee. That being said, they really don't have much passion for communication and all the class holds. I have a few...well A LOT of misbehaving and outcast students. I constantly have conflicts between students because it is such a strange make up of students.

A few weeks ago we were studying famous movies & plays that used dancing or singing to communicate (another teacher gave me this idea). We would watch a movie and then recite some scenes from the play version. The first movie/play reenactment was West Side Story. If you haven't seen this before there is a lot of dancing and singing in it. The kids laughed at the movie and said it was stupid. They said that nobody "cool" dances like that and that the songs were geeky. The day before we read the script I showed the students Michael Jackson's video, "Beat It", which is inspired by West Side Story. He actually pulls some of the dance moves from the movie, of course, he added a little more provocativeness to the scene. Anyway, my kids had a little change of heart for the production. The next day as I passed out the script, I told my students that when they came to a singing part that they could just read the song, because the song had a message for the play. When they started reading I was blown away with their enthusiasm for the script. When it got to the first song, the boy who was suppose to read it said, "Mrs. King, can I rap the song?" I said, "Sure". Some of the other boys in class started giving him a beat (by tapping the table and making noises with their mouths). He rapped the song really well. All the kids had smiles on their faces. When it came to a song that a whole group was suppose to sing, the kids sectioned out parts and each took a turn rapping. Even the little Autistic boy who gets picked on rapped. When he first asked me if he could try, I'll admit, I was hesitant. Kids constantly pick on this boy. (Just so you know, he's VERY smart but behaves like a 5 year old which the students don't understand how he can be so intelligent and act the way he does.) Anyway, I let him try and the whole class cheered him on and he actually did a better job then some of the "cool" kids. I was so proud of my whole class. The way they were getting along and into it all and having fun with it and rapping....I for real felt like Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act 2. I know it's cheesy, but I had tears in my eyes.

Today was "Read Across America" and for the class I found a small script from a television show that is on Nickelodeon. Again, the kids impressed me with their acting skills and made me feel like that cool from "rags to riches" inspirational teacher.

Just wanted to share about a time when I felt nice. :) I have not had time for many crafts lately because the other class that I have that's not my concentration is a Publications class, which produces the yearbook. It is due very soon and has been taking up most of my time. Anyway, I hope all is well and that you have a dandy day :)

Just in case you were wondering what I would look like as a nun...not too good.