dia del alumno

Thursday is the eye of the storm at school. There are no classes in the afternoon and the teachers get a few hours to plan, meet, and work. And I get the internet! Which is good, because I am supposed to be teaching a unit on Romeo and Juliet to my 10th grade elective class and I have no idea how to do Shakespeare with ESL beginners.

Back to today. Well, today wasn't an ordinary Thursday. May 11th is celebrated in all of Chile (possibly other places too?) as Students' Day. The kids got chocolates (along with the appropriate hugs and kisses) from teachers as they filed into school this morning. The first three periods were held as usual. At noon, the kids piled into the gym for a special assembly organised by the teachers. There was a speech by the director, a song by some of the teachers -- and then, the surprise act. Seven female teachers, including myself, barged in through the side door, with some horrendous reggaeton tune ('rompe, rompe, rompe...') blaring. We were wearing full uniform (knee-high socks, ugly blue bag-dress with a dress shirt underneath, complete with school tie), with the costumary campus modifications. Obnoxiously high pony-tales with dozens of colorful clips, bright blue eye shadow, pink blush and lollipops (the kids here always seem to have lollipops in their mouths). We did some cheesy reggaeton moves and then ran off, much to the kids' amusement. There were awards for something-or-other, and then more reggaeton. The hit of the event, though, was definately James. As the kids were walking out, James busted his dance moves. It couldn't have taken more than a minute for packs of students to surround him. James dances like a bendy toy on speed. 'Super bien!!' as all the tenth graders who have crushes on him said. Good fun had by all!

I'm going to get back to finding activities for R and J. Maybe I can get away with just teaching them West Side Story instead...