Love is in the air for the Sadie Hawkins Dance!

      

In case you have a preference for only some of the topics that make it into my blog, here's what you'll find in this post:

1. Asking Mr. Keller to the Sadie Hawkins dance
2. Meeting my student's newborn daughter
3. Hilarious propaganda projects with my freshmen
4. Doodles on the board

Sadie Hawkins Dance!
In order to get the students excited about the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance, a few of the female teachers volunteered to ask male teachers to the dance and have the video production kids record it! These hilarious proposals will play on the announcements leading up to the big dance. Ideally they will encourage the shyest girls to get up their courage and ask their crushes to the dance! (I'm sure at this point your flashbacks to high school dances are resurfacing in your mind, and for that I apologize! -Unless of course you are married to your high school sweetheart. In that case I say "how sweet"!)

Mr. Keller is the band and choir teacher at my school. We ARE NOT a couple in the least, but good friends who are consistently poking fun at each other through our students! (We write passes for kids that need to go to another part of the school and you can bet when someone needs to go to the band room they get a special funny note on the back of their pass!) In fact I won't be able to actually go to the dance because I am getting my wisdom teeth out that day... I can't wait.


The proposal was a blast. I created a big sign that read "Hey Mr. Keller... Sadies?", but the Sadies was spelled out in musical notes and symbols. (Corny I know, but just wait it gets better) I asked during my prep, which is third period. Mr. Keller teaches a music appreciation class at that time and seven of my freshmen are in the class. Of course I made use of my awesome students, taking them aside during English and teaching them a little "rap" (really just a chant/tone-less song) that we would all sing when I walked in the next day. The kids got such a kick out of it and each of them told a friend or two in the class about the plan so we would have a singing group! It went really well and hopefully I'll get a copy of the announcement so you can all see how it happened! (Check in my post next week)

 Meeting "Hannah's" Baby
If you read my post last week you know I was surprised and overwhelmed to learn one of my 9th graders had missed school due to maternity leave and about a month ago gave birth to a baby girl. Hannah has returned to school and is more determined than ever to succeed in my class. One day this week I pulled up around 5pm to see the flag football game (which my student dominated in by catching the game-changing winning touch down in the last 40 seconds of the second half!). As I locked my car I saw two of my students sitting outside the school, perhaps waiting for their ride home. It was Hannah and one of my students from a different 9th grade class. I walked up to them and when Hannah turned around she was holding her daughter. I smiled and complimented her; the baby was adorable. Hannah was incredibly proud and showed her baby off to me. It was quite the moment and one I did not anticipate ever having with her. Knowing that one of my other students not only knows about Hannah's child, but is supportive and helpful makes me feel much more at ease. I'm glad to know she is not alone or in any way excluded by her friends. After chatting with the girls for a few minutes I headed to the game with a sense of relief and lots of confidence in those young women.

The Fantastic Flat Football!
As we read Animal Farm I taught my 9th graders eight propaganda techniques and we found examples of them both in the book and in modern media (commercials, magazines, and billboards). In order to challenge them I created a group project in which one teammate picked a product and a technique out of a hat. This made for some pretty funny pairings such as the group that had to use plain folk to sell bunny slippers and the group that had to use logical fallacies to advertise a spork! But my absolute favorite was the group that sold me a flat football using the techniques of fear and name calling (you can click on the picture to enlarge and read their funny pitch!). It was perhaps the most enjoyable grading I've done yet and I especially appreciated their illustrations such as the elephant sitting on the football to flatten it!

                                                                                                     Doodling on the Board (Click on picture to enlarge)
One of my favorite parts of the day is looking at my board at 2pm. AMAZINGLY enough, my students stay a minute or so after the bell to doodle on my board. Since I am usually setting up for the next class or meeting with a few of my students I don't always see this happen the moment it does, so the end of the day can be quite a surprise. The students never draw inappropriate things, I hope, because they respect me, my materials and their own freedom inside my classroom. To the left you'll see one example. At the end of the day on Wednesday I had three little doodles awaiting me. They were well titled (thank goodness), so I knew I had a "sun pig", a "little potato", and a very accurate caricature of me!



Well that's it for this week in my life. Last weekend I had a blast on Fremont Street with my friends and when I saw a bicycle sculpture I just had to stop and take a picture. If I had spinning instructor business cards, this would have to be on them!

I've heard from so many of you both in and outside the education community about how my blog has made you stop and reconsider the issues our students face every day in the classroom. I'm so grateful that you continue to read and connect with me about my experiences, so thank you, sincerely.

Sending love from Las Vegas,

Ms. Landau