Happy and Fulfilled

How do you adequately put into words one of the best experiences of your life? That is what I'm wrestling with this morning. The last two months spent at my high school have sped by. People frequently asked me, "How is student teaching going?" The response that I created to answer them morphed quickly into this:

"I leave everyday feeling happy and fulfilled."

That has to mean something, right? For me, that is the biggest confirmation that I am following the path that God desires for my life.

Some of the best moments of my student teaching at the high school level are:

1. Playing djembes in class.

The students, after learning a little about "la bomba" got into a huge circle and tried to recreate the drum beats. Their musical skills shone through, and I was really proud of the way they jumped in head first and wanted to play! We did tick off the neighboring teachers. But hey, If you never get yelled at, you're not doing your job right.

2. Dissing my students.

As you can imagine, my students think they are funny. They often try to throw out witty lines, to which I frequently respond in a sarcastic or cutting way. Maybe not best practices, but it gains the respect of the students because I can connect on their level. For example, while working on researching for our oral reports, several students had their chemistry website pulled up. My monologue went something like this:

"Wow, Tim. Seriously, wow. I knew you were an ambitious students, but incorporating chemistry into your Spanish music oral report? That is borderline crazy! Do you know how much more vocabulary you're going to have to learn for that?! Oh, what? Oh? You're not going to incorporate it? Oh, well then I guess you better get off that website and stay on task."

3. Talking about pop culture.

One of my favorite moments of the whole experience was when I sat the students in a circle on the floor (just like kindergarten) and talked about the meaning and purpose of music. We talked about artist like Adele, Justin Bieber, and the Beatles. However, the best part for me was talking about the political aspects found in Lupe Fiasco's music. It was powerful conversation entirely in Spanish. The students really showed up that day.

4. Giving away a Christmas tree.

If you don't already know about this one, check out this post. Classic.

5. Salsa dancing.

Monday was the COOLEST. My friend Jenny came to class and taught the Spanish 3 students how to do some basic salsa moves. She was charming and funny and we learned so much! The students raved about it the next day. The best part was watching the guys. To say that some of them had two left feet is an understatement. It would be better to say that both left feet were missing a toe and that each weighed 400 pounds. They stomped and scuffled and shuffled; it was pure entertainment.

6. Making original music videos.

When I began planning for this unit, I decided to let students make original music videos. They took the idea and ran with it. It is so fulfilling when students rise to the challenge and create something really special. Here are a couple videos that I love! They did a fantastic job.

As you can tell, we had a great two months.

Now, to all the students who creep on me and are reading this:

Thank you. Thanks for allowing me to be in the class and to learn alongside you. Thanks for respecting me and understanding that there is a fine line between teacher and friend. Thanks for making me laugh on a hourly basis. Thanks for jumping on board with my vision and soaring. Thanks for being such a fantastic group of people to work with. I am a lucky, lucky teacher.

Peace, love and pursue your passions, ya'll.

Mr. Bro.

!Feliz Navidad!

School was a trip today... in a really good way.

My Spanish 3 students are currently working on demonstrative adjectives and pronouns (aka "this, that, these, those") in Spanish. I placed three gift-wrapped boxes in the room and asked three volunteers to choose from this box, that box, or that box way over those.

I left the contents of the box a mystery. They could be empty, contain a million dollar, or a barbie. Who knew?

The first volunteer got an expired Spangles coupon and a sucker.

The second received a beautifully empty used picture frame.

The third - oh the third - received the best gift of all:

A two-foot tall fiberoptic Christmas tree complete with ornaments.

Oh yeah. She bragged about it the rest of the day.

In my Spanish 4 class I gave the students the chance to tell their teacher what to do for once! They were working on how to form commands in Spanish, so I decided to have some fun. Each student wrote two commands and threw them into "The Bossy Box." If the command was completely correct, I had to do what it said. If it was incorrect in any way, they had to do what it said.

Needless to say, I embarrassed myself a few times. I combed a student's hair, sang a riveting rendition of "Man in the Mirror," and ran around the room yelling, "I'm not intelligent."

I thought that was fun. But what was more fun was watching my students do the things that they thought I was going to have to do.

One girl has to bake me a fresh batch of cookies.

Another will speak in a southern accent the entire class period.

One of the fellas had to admit that he secretly loved K-State, which made him visibly sick. (ha!)

One student will perform "Part of Your World," from The Little Mermaid to begin class tomorrow.

I can't wait to eat my cookies, call on the Texan all class period for answers, and be serenaded by the sounds of The Little Mermaid.

Tomorrow is looking very, very bright.

Peace, Love, and Adventure, ya'll.

Seth