Melissa's Place

Meet the Teacher While She Dances A Jig

Every fall, our school hosts a Meet the Teacher BBQ. The fundraising committee (composed of community parents) does all the work. We, as teachers, just need to sign up to lead some games (toss the bean bag into the hoop) or hand out burgers and then be available and smiley all night.

I wore a skirt and some nice, strappy heels, in order to impress. This made retrieving flung bean bags rather tricky. (The strap on my left shoe wouldn’t break until 8:20 that night when I’d be heading out of the building.)

And at 7 o’clock, I made my way to my classroom, like a good little teacher, and the line-up of parents began to form. For an hour, I perma-smiled and optimistically told parents that I enjoyed their child’s energy or that their son had a lot of potential or that their daughter is encouraged to participate more in class discussions. I had folks who were worried that there was too much homework. I had folks that wanted more homework. I was asked if I was going to do the Science Fair and when that information would be out. I mistakenly called a girl Alannah when her name is Ashley. And I made note of many a tree from which an apple fell not too far.

Then I was introduced to Trauts’s mother. She is very proud of him, obviously. I’m not surprised. He is a very smart kid. I was immediately warned that I have VERY large shoes to fill because Trauts has had Mme Chan for science for the past two years and he’s LOVED it. I was told how Trauts has a natural gift for building things – he apparently built very complex Lego projects at the tender age of 3 without so much as a glance at the instruction manual. The guy is obviously very talented…..

Keeping in mind now, the very last project I’ve done with the class has been a Missing Chair Mystery. In order to make the Scientific Method fun, I’ve created a fictitious mystery that takes place within our school, with teachers as the suspects. I made a powerpoint presentation with the Mission Impossible theme song playing while funny mug shots of the teacher suspects flash up on the screen. I created fake search warrants and arranged for kids to confiscate the suspects’ shoes from the teachers’ classrooms. I even produced guilty footprints by painting someone’s feet and making them walk all over white paper. I photocopied the evidence and put them in Top Secret Documents folders. THIS, I do in the name, not only of education, but in the name of FUN!

And Trauts’ mother says to me, (after the comments on how bright he is and how he’s enjoyed Mme Chan’s class so much), “So if you see him snoring at the back of your classroom, you’ll know why.”

Apparently the jig I’m dancing just isn’t fast enough.