The week before Christmas vacation was one of the best weeks I've had teaching. Not only did I know that vacation was coming up (always makes teaching better) but I got to teach Christmas songs as lessons! Every class learned at least one Christmas song, and we also colored in gingerbread men, which meant telling the story too. There's nothing I like more than singing and telling stories! One class even applauded my rendition of the Gingerbread man! It was great! I did voices for the different characters and they loved it, and they basically understood what happened because I also acted it all out (it was rather applause worthy I guess). Anyway, at the school where I teach on Tuesdays, we had an impromptu concert with the two classes who learned "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" in the courtyard. Afterwards, different kids came up and asked me if we could have more concerts, and the students who didn't get to sing really wanted to learn the song and perform with their classes too. It was so cute! Then on Thursday, I again decided to have an impromptu concert with my fifth grade class who had learned two Christmas songs. Except that their teacher is really Type A, and if we do anything, we do it right. Which means that instead of doing the lesson I planned we practiced singing the whole class, not just Christmas songs but all 4 songs they know well (Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Twinkle Twinkle, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town). They were instructed to sing Twinkle Twinkle gently, like a lullaby, but then the Christmas songs with lots of energy - this teacher means business. When recess came and it was time for the concert, she informed me that it would be better to do it in the gym room than outside in order to hear the students, and she assembled all the students who were having recess to come be the audience! It was a real concert! We sang the four songs, and the kids loved it- they clapped really loud and shouted "Encore" at the end. All the students from the other classes asked me if they could have a concert too. Then, after the audience had gone back to class, the teacher of the fifth grade class pushed me into the middle of the room and I realized that the entire class had formed a giant circle around me. They started chanting my name and saying thank you, and then they all rushed me at the same time, gave me hugs, and every single student gave me a kiss! And to top it all off, when I went into my next class, they were all humming the songs from our concert. Sometimes the simplest things work the best. And after however many weeks of teaching, all that humming and those kisses were much appreciated.
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