Mardi Gras: To Community With Others

It's happened.

I've officially fallen in love with New Orleans.

I am not ready to even write about Mardi Gras yet. The colors, sounds, and dances are still settling in my brain like those daffodil seeds that settled on Caitlin's black dress, looking like stars that could sprout. I am still digesting it all. Some of the best, most creative people, and wonderful laughter in the world have been floating around the past few days.... and the Buick finally got to be utilized to its full capacity: transporting a crew of a peacock, turkey, bear, and three whatdoyoucallits in bright wigs off to be in a parade at 8 in the 70 degree morning.
Incredible.

The first day back to work after 3 days of creative mayhem- the bear (dressed up for the day as Matt Slater) and Caitlin Lomen came to my school. As my students entered, they "whoa"ed at Matt's dreadlocks and asked if he was Bob Marley and if Caitlin was a movie star. I introduced them, and after a minimal amount of normal work, we took them down to the rec room where Matt facilitated an improv workshop for my three exuberant classes. Wonderful regulated chaos ensued.
It was so nice to a) have him there, getting a glimpse of the reality I work in every day and b) to engage the kids in simple, cooperative, positive games they'd never heard of before. We did trust falls off a table and much dancing around and sound making. At the end of the period I had them write on slips of paper some things they learned or liked about the day. Here are some samples:

"Out of 1-10, this lesson was infinity!!!"

"I learned I can trust my classmates."

"I learned how to community with others."

"When people fall on the table you has to catched them."

"You can trust people in this class, even if they make weird faces at you."

"I learned to trust your classmates like a team. p.s. Dread head = <3 <3 <3!!!" (Hearts)

Also- we received the eagerly-anticipated letters from Poway High, and my students were overjoyed. They've never been so engaged in writing. Their minds were blown that there were people who didn't know what "triflin'" or "messy" meant, and who had never tasted crawfish. Many of my students letters have made me laugh out loud like one that said,
"My teacher is very nice but very skinny. I think she might fall through a wall crack."

We also put on the Black History Month performance yesterday- which went wonderfully with Matt as our extra tech-guy and one of my more precocious students running around for me with a clipboard as an enthusiastic stage manager. The whole production was pretty incredible- including kids doing backflips, poetry, songs, and a little drama. The most ridiculous moment was when the people doing construction began jackhammering the roof atop the gym while a child was explaining why they admire Bill Cosby.

Two more notes before I go:
Mardi Gras has very little to do with showing boobies
My friends are amazing
and I'm still
wondering if I'm doing enough to help.