Chapel Day
Today it was my responsibility to "do" chapel. Basically that means that I needed to find a speaker or...put on a play. Well, I had already found a speaker for last semester's chapel duty so I thought it was time to give the play option a try. If nothing else it was time to decide which is easier. ;)I decided to play it safe by choosing a play that was included in our Bible curriculum that way I was sure to offend as few people as possible. This play happened to be a news broadcast. I decided that we would rehearse and then record the play the week before our chapel date (April 26) so that we could edit any ghastly errors and we wouldn't need to worry about someone being out sick or forgetting his/her lines. I also decided to allow the students to use their scripts or cue cards during the actual recording because it was a long play and we had a lot of other work to be doing and I didn't want to hear any excuses about play practice being the reason for late math papers.
The costumes were to be brought from home as were any props that were needed. After several weeks of reading through the play I borrowed a camera and tripod and we set to work. It took two days to shoot a 20 minute production.
I wasn't overly thrilled with the work. I was certainly not nominating us for any awards. I did however consider starting some sort of drama outlet to teach them how to act...but that was a very fleeting thought.
The first chapel that was to view the video was the K-3rd grade chapel. I teach math during this time Does this mean that I am required to be in two places at once?...yes it does. However, I thought that my video plan was brilliant. I set up the TV/VCR, double checked cables and sound, arranged for someone to lead a couple of songs and introduce the film and I left contentedly to teach my math class about division with decimals.
Thirty minutes into math my administrator walks in to talk to me. The video was boring, hard to hear/understand, and l-o-n-g...he couldn't bear to sit through it a second time...I asked him if he wanted me to come up with something else to do for the 4-6th grade chapel. (I had about 14 minutes to prepare something else) But he said that they could just suffer through.
Not quite the rave reviews I was hoping for. Fourteen minutes later I was quieting the 4-6th grade crowd to watch the "horror" that was this film. And it turns out that I think that Tom was just having an off day. These kids didn't have a heard time hearing or understanding...they listened (and laughed at the right parts) and nodded knowingly. I was pleasantly surprised.
But I do hope that this gets me out of future chapel obligations. I had joked about it earlier this week...and after Tom's response I just might never have another chapel day quite like today. :)
posted by Trisha @ 9:10 PM
