Well, tonight my middle school students did their play. It was our only showing, which was probably for the best. The kids did a great job, in spite of the sound issues, some forgotten lines, and a few tears. They took it seriously and wanted so much to do well. In spite of the fact that there were some wrinkles, I'm so proud of them! I just wish that I could see them tomorrow. I won't be seeing them until Tuesday. Our sound issues, we were suppose to have a couple of doorbell sounds and a gunshot sound. Well, for some reason, the sound system didn't play it over the speakers, although it worked perfectly this morning. So, here's my "Belinda" standing in the wings on the opposite side of the stage and trying to tell us to do her cue, and I'm trying to tell her that it's not working. One girl behind me yells, "ding dong!" and out comes Belinda in all her wonderful, glorious attitude. For a girl who was about to "freak out", as she so eloquently put it, she did a fantastic job. She remembered her lines and even helped others remember theirs, too. Anyhow, when it was time for the other sound effects, my kids were wonderful and jumped right in and made sure there were some. Got to love them!
All week I've been saying to my colleagues how there are 7 1/2 weeks left (yes there are for us), and now that I've had this opportunity to get close to these kids, I'm not so excited about it. I had a couple of eighth graders ask if I could let them still be in our middle school drama next year. I'm going to miss those kids. I'll still have this year's 6th and 7th graders next year, and a new crew coming in, but these 8th graders are special in their own way. When I first started teaching, they were in the 3rd grade and I would go in their classes to help Limited English Proficiency students. When they were in the 5th grade, I was going in their classes to work with a couple of students for English as a Second Language (ESL). Now, they've been in my class for almost the past 2 years for language arts and I've seen many of them grow and mature. Of course there are a few who need to mature further, but there are some gems in there just the same.
I guess my role as a teacher is very much the same as a parent. Our roles are to prepare them to eventually leave us. Something to think about.
