T.G.I.F.!

Wheeeeeewwww.... I am so glad it is Friday.

This week was great but SO crazy. I had Glee Club auditions and was at school every night until 7 or later. Vocal auditions were Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and dance callbacks were today. I got to be bosom buddies with our custodians, Glen and Clem. So many talented kids auditioned- about 80... had to narrow it down to 30. Ended up with 33- 11 boys and 22 girls. Each boy has 2 dance partners.

Lots of drama this week (as always when you're working with hormonal chipmunks from outer space)... but things ended on a wonderful note. I played a rhythm review game with each of the choirs and brought candy for the winning teams. We ran our fall concert songs.... most of which are nearly concert ready. I may need to add another song to keep them busy... possibly a combined number? In the last ten minutes, I let the kids watch some of my favorite scenes from "Singin' in the Rain" while I passed out papers. They LOVED Donald O'Connor in "Make 'Em Laugh". I've never seen them so hypnotized by a movie---even when I let them watch Shrek last week. The class that won the free day today wanted to watch my high school's version of "Singin'" in which I played Kathy, the lead female. Their reactions were hysterical: "Ms. Taylor-- I didn't know you could sing! I didn't know you could dance! Is that REALLY you? You were so much prettier then!" Thanks, guys. Gotta love middle school.

The "class gotcha" reward system is still working pretty well. I am afraid my seventh grade classes might give up in a couple of weeks, though. They always lose by a mile because their class as a whole is SO rough. Lots of behavior issues. Lots of special needs. As I said before, it doesn't even work to move them because they can't stand to sit by anyone. Several kids have notes from their parents saying that they're not allowed to sit by certain students. Several kids have to sit near me or near the front of the room. It makes shuffling things around rather tricky. Hoping that I can finally find a seating chart that works and keep them motivated to win.

One last thing-- created a website for the choir this week. It's so cool! Here's the link. Check it out!

http://www.eschool.henderson.kyschools.us/laurentaylor/