Pot 'O Gold

     While I always enjoyed days that invited teachers and students to dress in costume or some other silly fashion, one of my favorites has always been St. Patrick's Day.  Because of the timing of my leave, in 2013 I didn't get to dress up like a leprechaun and dance a jig, which annually delighted some students and confused others.  This year, I was interested to see how 7th graders would respond.  While their initial comments when they walked in were less than positive ("You've sunk to a new low..." and "This is way over the top") at the end of class, when I was going to deliver on the jig I promised, I could tell they were more "into" it than my 10th graders had been in years past.  That is why the actual footage of me doing a jig is only one second long.  That was literally the maximum length I could share publicly without there being at least one student clapping, laughing, jumping, or actually dancing along side me.  I did the jig for 63 seconds, and my lungs didn't let me down!  Was I a bit winded?  Sure!  But wouldn't you anyone be after a minute long jig?  ;)

 

 

 

 

My Lip Sync Debut at the 1994 Pumpkin Festival

     When I was in 7th grade, I participated in a Lip Sync competition for the first time.  My best friend at the time, and both of our younger brothers (who were also best friends) collaborated on a performance of Ace of Base's "The Sign," which was incredibly popular at the time (and is still a solid pop song, if you ask me).  We won 3rd place, and I was officially bitten by the "lip sync bug."  Please forgive the quality of the video-- sometimes something is trapped on a VHS tape and your mom records it from the TV with her camera.

Here's the link to the video.  I'm the short person dancing like a fool in a blonde wig...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3KshiLGurU

Middle School Talent Show

I was honored to be a part of the Middle School Talent Show last Friday, along with several other teachers, all of whom did some sort of lip sync performance.  Lip syncing is, by far, the type of performance most in my wheelhouse.  I am a terrible singer, but I've done lip sync performances in competitions (my first was when I was in 7th grade) and have performed a lip sync for my students each time I taught Drama and Speech at the high school (to help inspire them before they did their own).  I allowed my 7th grade students to vote on which song I would do, and the top vote getter was "Single Ladies" by Beyoncé.  I was grateful that the runner-up song (which only lost by two votes) was one that was more doable.  I could probably handle the dancing for Single Ladies (I danced to it while following the choreography on a large screen when chaperoning Prom last year) or just the lip syncing, but not both.  So, "Wrecking Ball" was the song I did, and, as the video shows, I was able to win over the students despite their initial uncertainty, and the fact that, out of everyone in the crowd, only 35 of the students actually know me, since I teach only one class of students each day.

Please enjoy "Wrecking Ball," with the Physical Education teacher making a surprise appearance in the background.  (His role turned out to be my son's favorite part, as he requested we re-watch the video to see his antics multiple times.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gilwTifM43k