Lip Sync Your Way to Happiness

I've been working like a demon all week trying to keep my ducks in a row. However, they just keep flapping around and quacking, and more seem to show up all the time. Sometimes I feel tired, nibbled, and covered in feathers! Perhaps that is why the mood at school today is so welcome.

First of all, most of the kids are in ecstasy over football. The Super bowl is not remotely special or important to me, but I love it that they love it. The student activities advisor ran a contest this morning for the class with the most "spirit" (he went around counting the number of kids in blue and green) and the outfits were very impressive. One kid sprayed his hair green and blue, wore a jersey, and wore a cape made from a Seahawk blanket. He was beaming ALL day.

Second, we had the lip sync assembly today. Now I know this is not the most common type of assembly for a middle school to have, but it has certainly become tradition around here. I believe the whole thing started years ago (I can still say that without involving myself!) when they had try-outs for the talent show. It seems that they had so many lip sync acts that they decided to ban them from the talent show, and have a separate assembly for them instead. Now our talent shows mostly consist of dance and classical music, and we have the lip synch assembly too. This year we had some hilarious performances of both modern music and a few "golden oldies."

To begin, we had a group of girls doing their best impression of Michael Jackson's "Thriller." They danced around in artfully torn white shirts and totally failed to look ghoulish. One of my boys honestly wanted to know if that was a song they played when I was in high school (No! I was only about seven when it came out!). We all laughed at the boys who did an enthusiastic performance of "Yellow Submarine" and we cheered when two girls did a wonderful version of "supercallafragelistic." In short, it was great fun, and not so long that your bottom fell asleep on the bleachers. The kids are so buoyant; you can't help but feel good along with them. Days like these remind me why I love being a teacher. Now, if you happen to see any of my ducks, please let me know...