baa baa black sheep

Classes are being taken away from me left and right as the school crams to prepare for the Christmas program-- which is set to take place next Tuesday.

Not that I'm complaining about not teaching-- trust me, I'm more than eager-- but it is frustrating to try to plan lessons / tests/ anything. They handed out a schedule of which classes would be blocked off-- (mid-week) but surprise!--that schedule has changed again.

This is so ill-fated.

The program itself is being copied completely from last year's Christmas program in Tegucigalpa (the capital city). The DVD plays incessantly during these practice periods, as some teachers work to imitate the dance moves and reproduce it for the students while others sketch costumes. Each grade has their own dance, and the teachers are fanatic about getting every detail right-- are the 6th graders wearing socks or are they barefoot? Are the 11th graders wearing belts?

Not to mention that the actual Bethlehem scenes are completely inaccurate... shepherds walk around in costumes more likely to be featured in an episode of The Flintstones. 

Jesus who?

Their sheep are wearing more. 

My role in all this madness was to go over lines with three students-- Mary, Joseph and Narrator. The first Narrator swapped with another student-- I think they gave me a nonsensical explanation but I've forgotten it now. Anyway, the lines were all in Spanish. It only took me ten minutes to go through each student's lines thrice. But I was given three hours. For three days I counseled them to not rock back and forth as they spoke and to take their lines seriously. They would say, "Yes, Miss!" and rock back and forth. The last day, Joseph was sick and the Narrator informed me that this was not a military school and so he would no longer be following my instructions. 

I handed the lines back to the principal and since then have enjoyed my own personal prep time, which was really all I wanted in the first place.

So, Merry Christmas!

xoxo