Wood Sprite

My decision to write something (however small) at least once a week has failed yet again. It’s not because I don’t have anything to say, it’s more like I haven’t used my down time properly.

Plus some of the things that’ve been going on at my school aren’t really blogable (how do you spell a made up word? blogible?).

For instance, there was some drama with one of our foreign teachers who got in a fight with a Korean teacher. Not fistfight (though that’d be interesting), but more of the screaming variety. It’d be pretty awful of me to go into details about just how *ahem* extreme this foreign teacher got that day, but it sure made for an interesting week.

We also had our “New Year’s Show.” This is a very big deal at our school, and the kids had to prepare for a play, several songs, and speeches. We rented costumes that fit with our plays and had props and songs in the middle. There was even a costume change for the “speeches,” which were a reprisal of the Halloween stories they memorized months ago. The kids sang, danced, and acted. If you think this was a little much for a bunch of six year olds, you're right. But my kids were happy through all of it. They had the best attitudes, and I hardly had to bribe them with candy or anything (until the last day).

My class did “Shepherd Boy,” which is the story of the boy who cried wolf. I didn’t pick the play or the parts (I wasn’t teaching them yet). But I can tell you, the child who played the Shepherd Boy was typecast. He said his lines with such glee, there was no doubt in my mind about what he’d be doing if he were in charge of sheep. Unfortunately, he’s the biggest child in the class, and the wolf was played by the smallest. However, the wolf was so adorable it didn’t matter at all.

Plus the Shepherd Boy wasn’t exactly wearing an intimidating costume. I picked out a shepherd costume for him, but my partner teacher didn’t think it was cute enough (no comment). So this poor kid had to wear what I could only describe as a wood sprite costume. I.e: Brown spandex with a tiny grass skirt. He wasn’t pleased, and I couldn’t blame him. I can only imagine the look on his face when they pulled out the brown spandex suit. He’s a big kid, and that was a tiny jumper.

Anyway, I guess I did have something to talk about. The show went off with a couple hitches, but nothing disastrous. Plus now I can just relax with my kids and do art and science, etc in the afternoons. Yea! We’re teaching instead of rehearsing!