dum, dum, dum, dum-da-dum, dum-da-dum

Last week was, as I mentioned, a doozy. It left a faint bad taste in my mouth, and I certainly went into this week very grumpy and "I want this over now."
The kids, as usual, jollied me right back into a better mood. We are currently prepping for a grade-wide undertaking: a complete performance of A Christmas Carol put on with each scene divided between two or three classes. Last week, I was convinced that this would be an unmitigated disaster. This week, I couldn't believe I wouldn't get to play with my kids for at least another week--we're having that much fun!
The highlights:
1) My toughest, most "ghetto" (in his own opinion) student singing the first two lines of "God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen" over and over until the entire class had learned them and was singing along. This kid (the same child who had the "what you doin' in my FACE?!" incident last week) sang and sang and sang--sweetly and well--for at least five minutes until everyone had joined in. Plus, he was using a pencil as a microphone stand-in and got totally into it. Fantastic!
2) My girl who has turned herself around and (okay, not totally--she's been great, but yet she still got suspended for egging)--she has really taken over the role of the Ghost of Christmas Past. Her voice has inflection and her body language is fantastic. I'm starting to push drama for her for high school--it could be her ticket to some amazing places, I think.
3) My entire second block coming up with a really cool way to indicate scene--and my most nervous students volunteering to do it!
4) And funniest of all, my second block coming up with the brilliant idea to have the Ghost of Christmas Future introduced with Darth Vader's theme song. It was so funny we had to take a break to get our laughs out--our scene is certainly going to be campy.
awesome
I knew there had to be a reason I love my job!