I'm still in my classroom after a day of leading professional development for my colleagues. I will be here at the school for a number of hours still before I can go home. Last week, I was selected (by students dumping change into a jar in my room) to be part of a nine teacher dodgeball team. This team will play against the team of nine students who has defeated all of the other student teams in today's dodgeball competition.
The biggest downside is the wait. I live too far from school for it to be practical to drive home and then back. Normally, I take these sorts of opportunities to have dinner at Red Robin, but it's Lent and a Friday, so that wouldn't have the normal joy. Instead, I packed a couple of extra peanut butter and jam sandwiches, an extra piece of fruit, and some carrots for my evening meal. I've been done with the PD since 3PM and the tournament doesn't start until 6PM.
I haven't played dodgeball in decades and, although I have had day-dreams of demonstrating amazing physical prowess in this competition, am not in the best of shape. I've told the students that I only have two goals for this event: 1. to survive (and do so unscathed) and 2. to have fun. I had also planned on being as goofy as possible on the court, but it turns out that some of the other members of my team are extremely competitive. I did feel a little better after talking to "Captain" Czaja (the art teacher who raised the most amount of money) as she didn't seem to know some of the basic rules of dodgeball (although I don't completely trust her expressed lack of knowledge as she gets enjoyment from making people think she is clueless). One way or the other, at least she seems to be going into this with the idea of having fun.
My biggest concern is that I will give a poor showing and let the students down. Especially considering that I'm staying here for all of this extra time, I want this to have been worth everyone's while. With that in mind, my other unannounced goal is to at least not get tagged out of the game in the first salvo.
I'm looking forward to it.
[edit - we lost ... badly, but the audience seemed to enjoy our antics during our 2 minute warm-up. I did make it past the first salvo, but not much past it. All-in-all, it was a fun event.]
The biggest downside is the wait. I live too far from school for it to be practical to drive home and then back. Normally, I take these sorts of opportunities to have dinner at Red Robin, but it's Lent and a Friday, so that wouldn't have the normal joy. Instead, I packed a couple of extra peanut butter and jam sandwiches, an extra piece of fruit, and some carrots for my evening meal. I've been done with the PD since 3PM and the tournament doesn't start until 6PM.
I haven't played dodgeball in decades and, although I have had day-dreams of demonstrating amazing physical prowess in this competition, am not in the best of shape. I've told the students that I only have two goals for this event: 1. to survive (and do so unscathed) and 2. to have fun. I had also planned on being as goofy as possible on the court, but it turns out that some of the other members of my team are extremely competitive. I did feel a little better after talking to "Captain" Czaja (the art teacher who raised the most amount of money) as she didn't seem to know some of the basic rules of dodgeball (although I don't completely trust her expressed lack of knowledge as she gets enjoyment from making people think she is clueless). One way or the other, at least she seems to be going into this with the idea of having fun.
My biggest concern is that I will give a poor showing and let the students down. Especially considering that I'm staying here for all of this extra time, I want this to have been worth everyone's while. With that in mind, my other unannounced goal is to at least not get tagged out of the game in the first salvo.
I'm looking forward to it.
[edit - we lost ... badly, but the audience seemed to enjoy our antics during our 2 minute warm-up. I did make it past the first salvo, but not much past it. All-in-all, it was a fun event.]
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