Drama Club - 3/31/08

It feels like I'm re-inventing the wheel every day that I teach Drama Club. I don't seem to retain the games and activities that they like. And even if I did, they would gripe about how they played that one before. In many ways, this club stresses me out more than the boys because when I lose them, I really lose them. I practically get a mutiny on my hands. That being said, today actually wasn't that bad. The real issue was this one girl. Britney. The thing about her is that I've been letting her slide for a long time. She's one of those types that pushes the boundaries and then backs off and acts all cute and like she's just joking. But today, she went a little too far. It started with her loud groan over the fact that I made them rehearse their scene again. Then, during the scene, she was repeatedly talking while others were speaking. I kept admonishing her and she really didn't seem to care. So I escalated it and told her that I was going to send a written notice home with her if she didn't settle down. She loudly avowed that she didn't care. And that was the end of that. I sat her down for the rest of the club. No reindeer games for her. I also sent the written notice home with her as well. We'll see if it makes a difference in her behavior. Other than that, I think the club is going fine. They're learning their scene rather quickly. I think we'll be able to move on to additional scenes by next week. And if I'm really lucky, maybe one or two of them will actually want to do some acting.

Young Men's Club - 3/28/08

I was simply exhausted today. I had to wake up at 5:45am and go to work at my other job by 6:30am. Yikes! I was done there by 11:30 so I headed home, took a power nap for about an hour, and then headed up to teach. This was the final day of a very long week. So needless to say, I was quite drained by the time I got to the school. On top of that, Fridays are the longer days because the kids get out of school earlier. On the plus side, several of the kids don't come on Fridays. Either there in another club or their parents make plans with them. So today I had about 10 kids. The other issue with Friday is that I don't get to use the gym. I have to take the boys to a small area just outside of the auditorium. So they can't do any type of games where they can run around. So today's club was pretty much just about the drumming. This allowed me to just sit and gather myself. Unfortunately, the last thing the boys wanted to do was sit still. So there was a bit of battling on this day. Nasir, Christian, and Anthony just could not keep it together. I had to repeatedly put them in time out and take their drumsticks. More so than usual. But I moved forward. I think my complete exhaustion allowed me to keep my temper in check today. After some drumming games, I had the boys come up with their own beats and then vote on them. The funny thing was that three of them came up with the same beat. It just so happened to be the same beat that the girls used in their Step routine during the Black History Show. (I guess we all can't be creative types. Some just flat out steal.) The biggest surprise was Fernando. The thing about Fernando is that he completely irks me. He's constantly distracted, can't sit still, and goes into sulky moods for practically no reason. Yet, when he applies himself, he's amazing at whatever task he's doing. It turned out that he came up with a great drumbeat. I had him teach it to the other kids and I'll try to incorporate it in the Spring show. It is a little tricky and some of the kids had problems with it. But I'll stick with it. Unfortunately, I couldn't stick with it for too long because I started to have a mutiny on my hands. All the boys were having meltdowns. So I ended the drumming and had them play a little game where they could just hit a little beanbag around for about 10 minutes. Which they loved. I'm actually surprised that they lasted as long as they did. Lastly, I found out a little info about Fernando. Turns out his birthday is 3 days before mine! Which may explain why he annoys the hell out of me. We have the same sign. You know who else I share signs with? Nasir, and Anthony. Jourdan (who wasn't there today) is on the cusp of my sign. Can you say poetic justice? Although I damn sure wasn't this bad when I was a kid.

Young Men's Club - 3/27/08

I'm starting to think that I might actually be good at this job. Don't get me wrong, mistakes were made today. But overall, the guys in the club are progressing very nicely in many areas. For starters, I was working my other job today so when I got to the school I was pretty darn pooped. However, the general mood of the kids seemed to be pretty mellow. Of course the usual suspects needed to be spoken to but not that often. I have a system where the kids who are listening and ready to go are allowed to line up first. Which also means that they have first pick of the drumming buckets as well as being the first ones to go for bathroom breaks. I've been giving a silent signal to indicate that I'm about to make my choices. Today, I decided to make an announcement. I wish I had thought of this before because everyone gets it together so much easier. The boys also started with a 10 minute time out because they didn't know how to act at the end of the last club. The better behaved kids were released early and played Red Light, Green Light. Unfortunately, there was an accident. Kids don't realize that when you run really fast into a wall, it's going to hurt. Although I think the sliding into the wall was caused by two kids' feet get tangled up. Anyway, no one was seriously hurt and I allowed the game to continue after a brief lecture on physics, the human body, and how a wall will always win. Later we moved on to the drumming portion. Nasir really seems to have taken to his role of Drum Major. I told him that this would be his job in the show and that he had to take it seriously. He seemed excited about the prospect. So now, when he starts to act out of line, I can threaten to take it away from him. Yes, I am an evil man. But it's very effective. If you find out what the kids like and what they don't like, then control whether they get one or the other, it makes life a little bit easier. I also found a new catch phrase. I ask them, "Do you want to play the game or do you want to sit down?" They say, "Play the game." Then I say, "Don't tell me. Show Me." Meaning show me by demonstrating good behavior. It's very clever.

Young Men's Club - 3/25/08

Today was a bit weird. For one thing, I went to an audition today. Without going to the details, I had to get up at 7:30am, wait around for about 3 hours, and hope that I would get seen. The good news was, I did get seen. The bad news was, I had no time to prepare any kind of lesson plan for today. So my mood was weird. I was feeling good about my accomplishment in the field that I want to be pursuing while being required to go into work afterwards. Not exciting. We were in the gym today so I just let them run around. When in doubt, let them play Duck, Duck, Goose! They killed a good 30 minutes with that. Then I attempted a new game. I had them play imaginary baseball in slow motion. Let's just say that game fell flat on its face. Although, to give the boys some credit, it wasn't for a lack of trying. So I gave up on that for after 10 minutes and moved on to the drumming portion. They maintained the beats that they had made up from last week. Which is funny because I still don't remember them. I also think I may have found a niche for Nasir. He just doesn't seem to be into the drumming. But he does like to dance and he loves attention. So I think I'm going to make him a sort of Drum Major. I gave him the task of the opening count to start the beat and the signal to end the piece. He actually seemed to take to it pretty well. I may be on to something here. Unfortunately, the club did not end well. The sister of one of the students came a little early to sign him out. I had to take a little time to find the sign out sheet and then let her sign it. The boys decided to take the fact that my back was turned for 45 seconds as permission to act like complete jackasses. A, "fight," broke out between two of the kids. No punches or anything, just one kid who was very upset chasing another kid. So I had to bring the hammer down on that. In the end, there was a 10 minute time out issued which will be enforced at the beginning of Thursday's club. When will they learn?

Drama Club - 3/24/08

I started today with a completely different look. I decided to wear my glasses and I was also rockin' my new kicks. And with the kids, any change is always big news. So I had to endure all of them pointing out how they didn't know that I wore glasses. But there were no 4 eyes comments. However, Kayla did take a little dig at me. I have these other sneakers that are bright yellow and green Adidas. They are inspired by the flag of Brazil and are incredibly cool. In fact, way too cool for a 9-year old to understand. Kayla has stated on several occasions that she did not like these shoes. Today, when I rolled in with the new kicks, she said, "It's good to see you wearing shoes from 2008." Can you believe that? A 9-year old kid crackin' wise. I was very close to firing back my reply but I thought about it. Then I said to her, "You know what. I'm not going to say anything back to that. I could say something but I'm not." She said, "What would you say?" As if to challenge me. I stuck to my guns and said, "I'm the adult and you are the child and I'm not going to get into it with you." And that was the end of that. But between you and me, she's got these big, beaver teeth and she has no business talking about anybody. As an adult, I don't think it would have been right to mention that to a child. As far as the club went, it was actually pretty good. Basically, the kids like playing the games and they hate doing the work. We played some good old-fashioned Simon Says and then moved on to the Romeo and Juliet opening speeching. Simon Says went very well. The Shakespeare stuff was a little like pulling teeth. But they did retain a lot of their parts from last week and we did manage to move forward with a little more of it. Lastly, some of the kids brought back their signed verifications that they recited the Hamlet speech for a teacher. Thus, I've successfully pimped the kids out to promote what a good job I'm doing.

No Clubs Today - 3/21/08

Good Friday?! I'll say. It's always a good Friday if there are no clubs.

Young Men's Club - 3/20/08

Today was actually rather uneventful. And I like uneventful. Especially with the Young Men's Club. Don't get me wrong. The usual suspects continued to be pains in my butt. However, I can say that a couple of them have calmed down and gotten a little bit better. Christian is one of them that has actually gotten better. I've realized that he just likes to laugh at everything. That's just his defense mechanism. So I let a little more of it go. Also, he's started to realize that the things that annoy me aren't worth doing anymore. Like dancing in the cafeteria during snack time. He's starting to figure out that if he stops doing them, he gets to participate in the fun stuff. Jourdan's still consistent. He continues to be annoying but then he understands that there's a point where he has to back off. Then he starts up again. He loves to test the limits. Nasir, unfortunately, doesn't seem to learn any lessons. I started the club with relay races. They thought it was fun. I thought it was a great way to tire them out so that we could get some stuff done. I had them run suicides. That's when you start at one end of the basketball court and then run to the foul line and then run back. Then you run to the half-court line and then run back, then to the other foul line and back and finally the other end line and back. After about 20 or 30 minutes of this, they were a little calmer. Nasir, sat out for the entire race. I then let him participate in the drumming portion and he proceeded to clown around again. He simply can't stop. It's an addiction. So I pulled him out again. Then I put him back in again. It got a little better. Who knows. He's in the 3rd grade now so maybe he'll figure out that there will always be consequences by the time he hits 5th grade. But we are moving forward slowly but surely. I want to have about 3 drumming pieces ready by the end of the year and I want them to be composed by the students. It should be very cool.

Drama Club - 3/19/08

Today was actually a pretty good day. I learned from my mistakes in the previous club. Rather than trying to regulate the behavior of the more energetic girls, I chose a different approach. It's something that I'm surprised that I didn't do sooner. We have a written notice system in our program. If a student gets 3 written notices, they are out of the club. Which is pretty much a bluff. A child would have to be borderline dangerous in order to get kicked out of a club. But the concept of a written letter going home adds that extra element of accountability. So before the club started, I wrote letters of notice for each of my 3 main offenders. But I didn't put the date on them. I pulled each one of the aside and I had them read the letter. I told them that they had a choice. They could either behave and participate and possibly win prizes or they could continue to be disruptive and take that letter home with them at the end of the day. Jasmin was first. She's also what I consider the ring leader of the group. She folded immediately. Next was Cheyenne. She's also a ring leader but she has gotten significantly bolder since Jasmin has returned to Drama Club. After she read the letter, she immediately began to cry, pout, stomp her feet, and plead. I calmed her down and told her that she had a choice. She begrudgingly agreed to behave. Last was Britney. She's more of a follower, but she has this incredible attitude about her. She rolled her eyes, let out an audible sigh, and said, "Fine." Normally, this complete lack of respect for my authority would have warranted a complete forfeiture of any second chance and a letter would have gone home. But I was confident that if I could get the two ring leaders in line, the her behavior would follow suit. As a result, today's club actually went very smoothly. It still took them a while to settle down. (It always has and it always will) But I was able to get them all to work on very brief commercials in teams of 2 and 3. And of course, guess which team gave the best performance. Cheyenne and Jasmin. They actually added some extra lines to make it more believable I guess. I was very impressed. However, they didn't win the contest because I had to take off a point for their behavior during the performance of another team. The lost by a point. The winning team was given Blow-Pops and everyone was given an extra snack.

Drama Club - 3/17/08

Once again I've learned that boys and girls are incredibly different. I tried the same disciplinary approach with some of the girls that I did with the boys. The results were quite different. I exclude the girls who are repeatedly disruptive. One in particular is Jasmin. The problem with isolating Jasmin is that she enjoys sitting out of the activities. In fact, that seems to be true with all of the girls. With the boys, the idea of being excluding is more of a punishment. With the girls, it's a relief. I guess it's back to the drawing board. I'm also starting to learn the personalities of my new students. Angelina is making an impression on me and not in a good way. I told the class that, because of their behavior, they would not be rewarded with lollipops. I think that's fair. If you behave badly you shouldn't be rewarded. Well, little miss Angelina, decided to ask me for a lollipop after I made this announcement. I, of course, said no. She then proceeded to demand a reward by staring at me and only saying the word, "lollipop," with a rather mean expression. I, of course, retaliated with complete indifference at her efforts. The Jedi Mind Trick only works with those who are weak-minded. Someone should tell her that. Despite a lot of kicking and screaming, I was able to assign the first four lines in the opening speech of, "Romeo and Juliet," and there was a lot of resistance on that one. But we are moving forward. I'm having them do scenes from Romeo and Juliet and it's good that we are starting the process early because it's going to take a long time.

Young Men's Club - 3/14/08

I can't say that I didn't lose my temper today. That would be a lie. But I can say that I managed my feelings very well. Much better than I have been in the past couple of clubs. I kept things in perspective just as I had promised myself. I kept in mind the fact that I was making progress today. Even if it was a little at a time. And, as always, I never failed to bring the hammer down when they tried to test me. The club started with a 10 minute time out. During the last club, all of the boys decided that when the club ended, they could act silly and stop listening to me. When will they realize that they have to come back? When will they realize that I will always bring the hammer down? That they are never out of my mighty reach? Anyway, after the time out we played a little story telling game and as always, Nasir was being a bit of a trouble maker. And worse yet, he was attracting a bit of a following. So I had to sit him out for a majority of the club. This other kid, Leon, whose normally a pretty good kid, was starting to get caught up in Nasir's antics. So, I sat him out as well. Usually, when he gets one severe punishment he straightens up. One time I sent a letter home to his parents and he became a model student for months. I also decided to try a new tactic with Nasir. I simply told him that it was clear that the Young Men's Club wasn't the right choice for him and that I would be speaking to his mother about possibly finding another after school activity that he would enjoy more. He proceeded to beg and plead and swear up and down that he did like the Young Men's Club. But I stuck to my guns on that one. (More later) We continued to work on new drum beats for the show. I had the kids come up with and teach the other kids new beats. Some of them went way over the top and were playing these elaborate opuses. Which is admirable, but not really helpful in the process. I didn't want to have an hour long session with one kid trying to teach everyone else some drum piece he was making up on the spot. So unfortunately, I had to disqualify those from the competition. Everyone voted on the ones who came up with simpler beats. Either way, it's a process and I think we'll come up with something really good. Nasir continued to be a nuisance and disruptive and drawing attention from me. So I brought down the ultimate hammer. I announced that anyone who talked to Nasir or about what Nasir was saying or doing would be joining him in time out for the remainder of the class. Anthony attempted to test me on that. Anthony sat with Nasir for the remainder of the club. In general, I've accepted that I can't be engaging to every single student all the time. Some kids just aren't going to be into what I have to say. And I'm actually okay with that. I will simply pour my energy into the kids that want to listen and separate and tune out the other kids from the process. Of course, my door is always open and they can join. But I will not continue to make classes about keeping them in line. And just to sum up, I told Nasir's mother about his behavior and how I thought that maybe he would prefer a different after school activity. She asked me why. I said because he never pays attention to anything that I'm trying to do in the club. She asked me if this was recent. I said that it was an ongoing problem. She was not happy. And thus I layeth the Smackdown.

No Clubs Today

While I didn't have to deal with any kids today, I did have to go to a staff training on Mandated Reporting. That means that I had to learn the circumstances and procedures under which I would have to report child abuse or neglect. The meeting was informative as well as disturbing. At one point, there were slides showing children who had signs of abuse. Very hard to watch. At the same time, it also helped me to put things into perspective. While the kids in my club can be a real pain in the ass, the situation could be a lot worse. For one thing, the principal, teachers, and staff in the school are incredibly supportive of the students. Every adult there is committed to their education. And from what I've heard from a lot of the other teaching artists, that is not a common philosophy in all schools. Some schools are just downright horrendous. Also, the parents, in general, seem supportive of the school's efforts. I mean I've definitely met some parents who are doozies. Some seem rather ineffectual. Some have had somewhat questionable parenting styles. But I can honestly say that I haven't seen any evidence of abusive or neglectful situations. And again, not every teaching artist has that luxury. Finally, it's good to know that I don't really have to deal with deeply troubled children. Sure, they have problems with their attention span. And all of them, at some point, try to test my authority. But overall, I haven't had to deal with anything that I couldn't handle. Which, again, is a bit of a luxury. So for tomorrow's club I will try to remember that the situation could be a lot worse. I will remember that I cannot control every single moment of the time I'm there. Lastly, I will remember that while progress sometimes comes in leaps and bounds, most of the time it comes in teeny tiny little steps. And as long as we're not going backwards, it's a good day.

Drama Club - 3/12/08

I finally realized today why, in some ways, the boys are actually easier to deal with than the girls. Boys like to get into a lot of conflicts. And the conflicts are the major reasons why the boys get distracted. "He hit me, tell him to leave me alone," type of stuff. The advantage with the boys is that once I neutralize the conflict, I can move on. Well, briefly anyway. Unfortunately, there are a lot of conflicts so I waste a lot of time neutralizing. Now the girls have their fair share of conflicts, but that's not the main issue. The biggest obstacle that I deal with for the girls is that they feel that anything that they are doing is more interesting than anything that I plan. And that is really freakin' annoying. They are constantly having their own little chats and playing their own little games. So I'm actually in competition for their attention. With them. And today, I just wasn't feeling up to that. For one thing, there were additional students brought into the club. Which took it up to 16. Which is a pretty high number considering that I was used to 6 or 7. Some of the new girls are just the class clown types who are just grabbing the spotlight and making it about them. And with the bigger number of kids, there's a bigger number of eyes to pay attention to them. Plus, the club is a combination of boys and girls. Mostly girls and about 4 boys. So I have to spend time negotiating that tension. Anyway, the girls just weren't into anything I had to say. At one point, one of them lost an earring and every single kid decided that they wanted to help look for it. I tried to settle the kids down by doing a relaxation exercise. I had them just lie down while I described a serene scene of lying on the beach. That actually worked for about 15 minutes. But then they just went right back to acting silly. Dancing around, spinning in circles, whatever. Quite frankly, I just gave up. I let them do whatever the hell they wanted to do. I got tired of yelling at them. I got tired of putting them in time outs. I was just tired of whole damn thing. So as long as they didn't kill each other, I was fine with it. But since I am still the master of punishments, I did let them all know that they forfeited their lollipops based on their behavior. I ended the club by grabbing a few of the kids at a time to start auditioning them for the end of the year show. Yes, after all of the stress of the Black History show, I can now start stressing about the End of the Year show. When it was time for the club to end, I simply told them to gather their things. And those were pretty much the last words I said to any of them. I honestly couldn't even look at them at that point. They're just wearing me down. Tomorrow's a half day so no after school. I really like the sound of that right now.

Young Men's Club - 3/11/08

I've been working with kids for over a year now and I realize that what I am about to say is not, "politically correct." Those kids are assholes. Seriously. They are just assholes. They don't seem to care about anything other than shitting all over anything positive that could happen in the club. Today I was thinking, "They did a great job on Friday. I can relax a little. We can just play some games and have fun today." But for some reason, these kids just couldn't make that work. They had to fuck it up. I took them to the gym today. My plan was to let them run out all of the energy of the day with some relay races. But at first, we had to do a little bit of discussion. It's just part of the job. And yet, it took them about 20 minutes for them to get quiet enough for us to have a 5 minute conversation. Finally, they picked their teams. It took another 10 minutes for them to settle down long enough so that I could explain the rules of the race. I constantly kept asking them if they would prefer to settle down and hear the rules and then run the race or play around and be disruptive. They said they wanted to stop playing around but then would create more of a commotion by screaming at each other to shut up. Then there's this one kid, Jeremiah. Oh, my goodness. If you point out anything that he does wrong, he goes into a crying fit. As they're running the race, I told him that he had to touch the line with his hand. That's it. And because of that, he chose to pout, walk into a corner, and cry. Real tears. At this point I've just given up. I don't even care anymore as far as that goes. If a kid wants to cry for absolutely no reason, I'm going to let them go into their corner and cry. When their done, they can come back. Or not. I've got better things to do. Finally, I attempted to give them free drumming time to come up with their own beats. There will be show at the end of the year and I would like it if they came up with their own drumming piece for it. Most of them just ran around and banged their sticks against anything. Newsflash: If you bang a drumstick really hard against a concrete wall, it's going to break. (The drumstick not the wall) They really enjoy pissing me off.

Young Men's - 3/7/08

This was the day of the infamous Black History Show. I had been stressing about it for weeks and weeks and it finally arrived. And I must say that the kids did very well. I was proud of each and every one of them. There were a total of three shows over the course of a very long day. Two in the morning and then one at 6pm. The first one was pretty good. It was clear that the kids were a little nervous. They were still chatty backstage but thankfully it wasn't to the point that it was incredibly disruptive. Also, the kids in the audience were also pretty loud. It seemed funny to me when the nerves did actually hit the kids. During class, they've always put out a bit of an attitude. They didn't seem to take things seriously and would say just about anything in any kind of way. But once they got in front of the audience, all of that went away. I was in the wings of the stage and I could see and hear how quiet and timid all of the deliveries were. But they did a great job. The Drama Club followed the Young Men's Club and it was pretty much the same type of thing. A lot of attitude before, timid when they got up there. But they did the chanting really well and we had kids from all the clubs join in. The final drumming piece also went extremely well. The second show of the morning went better. It was a lot smoother and there was a little more confidence. Also, one of the other teachers decided to put the microphone in front of the kids to give them more volume. In their defense, it's a lot more difficult to speak loudly and clearly in a filled room rather than an empty room. Again, the second show went very well. There was one small snag. During the second drumming piece, one of the kids dropped his drumsticks. Then he looked over at me with this incredibly helpless look. All I could do was try to signal to him to just go and pick up the stick. The kid next to him helped him out and gave it back to him. He managed to get back into the groove. There were a couple of giggles in the audience but it wasn't that big of a deal. Afterwards, I told if he ever drops his sticks again that he should just pick them up because if the audience sees you drop them, they might as well see you pick them up. I also told him that professional drummers have a supply of sticks next to their drumset in case something like that happens. He seemed pretty unscarred by the situation. I had to run an after school club before the show which made the day even longer. I pretty much just let the kids run around outside. I just didn't have the energy to put together a lesson plan. Here is the really funny part. Before the show, there was about another hour to kill. All the kids from all the clubs were in the cafeteria. After such a long day, it was impossible to keep them in their seats so I allowed them to do what they always love to do: dance. However, I had to insist that the boys stay separated from the girls. It just causes way to many problems when they mingle. So I made an invisible line that they could not cross. Somehow, a "dance-off" occured between the two genders. I felt like I was on the set of a Janet Jackson video. The last show also went very well. Probably the best of all three. The only problem was that a couple of the kids couldn't stay for the evening show so I had to do a little maneuvering. Basically, just cutting the lines of the people who weren't there. It all worked out in the end and there was pizza and snacks after the show. You know something's gone well when there a reward of food at the end.

Young Men's Club - 3/6/08

I just don't know about these boys. I really don't. It seems like their sole reason for existence is to make me as angry as they possibly can. I could literally feel my head about to explode. Unfortunately, the sweet and tender moment that I shared with my Drama Club yesterday did not translate into today's Young Men's Club. They did not feel the sense of urgency for the show which is tomorrow. They didn't step up their focus level. And if anything, they actually slipped in their skill level with the drumming piece. Christian simply is incapable of not laughing at everything. I mean everything. My God, what the hell is so goddamn funny? All the time? And then he looks at me with this smile as if he's getting away with something. Perhaps that, "cute kid smile," works at home. For me, quite frankly, it makes me want to kick him in the head. (Just being honest. Wouldn't really do it) On top of that, there was the return of a couple of those special students. This week, neither Jourdan or Fernando had shown up to club. I thought that maybe they wouldn't be returning ever again. Which would have just broken my heart. But of course, they showed up on a day when I'm at my utmost stress level. The good news was that I could just flat out ignore them. There was just too much going on. So they had to sit in the audience and just watch. I don't know if they sat quietly or not. (Something tells me that they didn't) I just wanted to get through the show. We were able to run the show about 3 or 4 times. The hardest part is just keeping those kids quiet while their back stage. It's damn near impossible. I threaten, reward, admonish, separate, and nothing seems to be working. In the theatre world, they say that if you have a really bad final dress rehearsal then you are going to have a great opening. If that's true, tomorrow's shows are going to be brilliant. Did I mention that I can't wait until these damn shows are over?

Drama Club - 3/5/08

The bad news was that one of my students in the show had gotten sick during the school day and had to be sent home early. And today was the last day that I would have had all of the students in the Drama Club. So I had to have final rehearsal with 5 out of 6. The other bad news was that since the other after school programs ended, there was this huge influx of returning students to Drama Club. And when I say huge, I mean about 5 or 6. The point is that I couldn't really devote any time to keeping them engaged. Also, the K through 2nd Dance Club needed the stage to rehearse their portion of the show. So we had to share. During this time, I had a bit of a mutiny on my hands. All of a sudden, all of the girls just had to go to the bathroom at the same time. As if it were some kind of life and death situation. Now I'm not a cruel man and I don't think it's unfair to ask that they hold it together for 10 minutes or so. Especially since they were clearly exaggerating. I know this because once we did make the trip to the bathroom, it didn't seem nearly as urgent. But after the "crisis" had been handled, I made a deal with the girls that we would run the scene 3 times and if they were good then we would play games for the rest of the time. If not, we would run it 2 more times. The first one was okay. Actually it was less than okay. Which is understandable. There was a little bit of rust that had to be shaken off. Only 2 of them were there for the big rehearsal yesterday, and 2 more had not been there since last week. Now in the scene, there's a portion where Cheyenne (yes Cheyenne) is leading a chant. I decided that I would allow the other clubs to join in the chant from backstage. It really adds a strong energy to the scene. So during the run, the new/returning students joined in the chanting part of the show. I think that really helped energize Cheyenne and got her more focused. I forgot to mention that at the beginning of the club I reminded everyone that the show was this Friday. They all reacted as if this was the first time they were hearing it. So that might have helped them to step it up. The second time that they ran it, it still wasn't particularly good. That's because they still weren't quite focusing. Cheyenne needed to pick up her cues and keep the energy going with the chanting. Also, Jamir was having a lot of trouble remembering her lines. I was getting very worried. So right before the last run, I really really really tried to stress the importance of picking up the cues. After I had done all that I felt I could, I took a seat, closed my eyes, prayed, and listened. Cheyenne started with some great energy. The K through 2nd club was there and were chanting along. They got to the stage and I heard the cue line for Cheyenne. Miraculously, she said her line right on cue with very high energy. I mouthed to myself, "Thank You." (I found out later that they had all seen me do that) The scene continued and the focus and energy remained high. Then Jamir came to her line. Somehow I was 2 for 2 in the miracle department because she nailed it perfectly. I was honestly shocked. I clutched my chest in a Fred Sanford like fashion. (Elizabeth. I'm comin' to join ya Honey) When it was completed, I jumped to my feet and cheered. The girls came through and they did a remarkable job. I went back stage and told them how proud I was of them. Normally, I like to keep a certain distance between myself and the kids. In this world, you never know how someone may misinterpret any form of physical contact. But for this one time, I made an exception and we all had a very touching group hug. Is it just me or has this been a long week?

Young Men's Club - 3/4/08

For today's club I will say that I am very grateful that I cannot go to jail for my thoughts. And I will simply leave it at that. I did start today with a very positive attitude. Nasir, showed up a little early and I decided to pull him aside and work with him on his drumming. It's been clear to me that he's been lagging behind on his skill level as compared to everyone else. It was incredibly difficult to get him focused but I was finally able to get him to play the drumming piece relatively properly. Also, there was yet another rehearsal for the big show. Ah that damned show. Once again, it's so difficult to get those kids to focus when they're in a big group. I attempted to remind myself that they will calm down during the actual show but the more I let it go, the louder they became. I would also like to point out that in my day, if an adult told me to be quiet, I would be quiet. I would not have kept talking. The times have changed. Nasir, believe it or not, was the absolute worst. He kept talking and talking and acting sillier and sillier. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore so I pulled him from the show. And not just on a temporary, hollow-threat basis in order to try and get him to behave. He is out. Out, I say. I'm done with him. And to be honest, he's very close to being removed from the program entirely. The kids, in general, just could not get it together for the speech portion of the show. However, they were much more focused and disciplined for the drumming portion of the show. And that's when the lightbulb went off. I told the kids that if they wanted to participate in the drumming portion of the show, they had to behave for the rest of the show. I will giveth and taketh away the drumsticks based on how the act. We'll see how this tactic works on the next club day. I really can't wait for this show to be over.

Drama Club - 3/3/08

Drama Club is such a weird club. For one thing, it's a very small group so it's difficult to fill the time with activities. It simply takes a lot less time for 6 kids to go through a game than 12-15 kids. Secondly, I get the feeling that the girls just don't want to be there. I swear I think I could just let them talk about whatever it is that they want to talk about for the hour and they wouldn't care less. On the other hand, I don't think that their conversations would be as fun for them if there wasn't an authority figure trying to get them to stop. Today marked the arrival of a new student. A boy named Kyrin. He was very shy and soft-spoken to begin with. It turned out that he was merely adjusting to the new situation. After about 20 minutes, I couldn't get him to stop talking. Which is actually a good thing. He's uninhibited and willing to go with the flow. If I suggest a game, he's willing to play it. Today also marked the return of Storm. She's a girl that started out very shy but soon showed her true colors. It turns out that she's quite the little brat. I have to say things two and three times before she listens. Which is NOT how I grew up so it's all VERY shocking to me. However, she's not completely disruptive as some people are. Her method of defiance seems to be to withdraw. And that's fair. All are open to participate but if someone doesn't want to, they shouldn't disrupt it for everyone else. She was also disappointed because she couldn't be part of the Black History Show. I had to give her lines to someone else because of her inconsistent attendance. Oh, that damned Black History Show. Which got pushed back to Friday, by the way. AAARRRRGGGHHH, I say. I just want it over with at this point. I think I'll be a lot more relaxed about the rules and activities once I don't have this looming pressure of getting this show up and running. The funny thing is that, in general, children's shows are supposed to suck. The children are supposed to suck in it. But I think that the kids in both of my clubs can actually be really good. All they need to do is put in a little bit of an effort and just focus a little bit more. My hope is that they'll step up once they're in front of people. And if not, oh well, whatever they do is still going to be pretty good. I just want to make it a little bit better. I actually want it to be great.