Oops! Twilight time!

I missed all my meetings for a few days while testing, a situation that led to at least one comical moment. Two “incentive” days had been scheduled, fun activities for students during their tutoring periods. My colleague across the hall was completely blindsided since he has not been getting certain emails. I was vaguely aware that incentives were coming at me, but believed those days were at least a week off. If either of us had been able to attend any meetings, we would have known otherwise, but we have been happily(?) living in our own little test bubble.

Suddenly, students arrived in my doorway wanting to know what the movie was. I had been assigned Movie Room, the choice I usually make for incentive days. Movie? Movie? Trouble! I sprang into action. I rushed to my closet. Oh, no! All the fiction had been taken home. No student was going to want to see the History of Egypt as a reward. Then I found my one and only option: Twilight. Quickly, I asked a nearby special education teacher if she had any general interest films in her classroom. No go. With no time to canvass the hallway, I passed the Twilight disc to “Lucia,” a helpful student, while I scrounged in a cupboard for candy.

Fortunately, surprisingly few boys had signed up for my room. I had drawn mostly girls, the demographic I needed. A classic for middle schoolers of our time, Twilight is the quintessential adolescent chick flick, pure vampire romance with a little action to round out the romance. We had two days of Edward and Bella, lots of lollipops, and a welcome, short break from testing, at least for my part. Girls pulled chairs up to the front of the room to watch endless, longing gazes projected onto the white screen. The guy across the hall refereed in the gym, mysteriously passing up an opportunity to view the first installment of the vampire romance of the decade.

Eduhonesty: During times of intense testing, “emergencies” happen. I have logged so many hours with emergencies that they hardly phase me. I made a mental note to get more films into the classroom, even if non-instructional time has become exceedingly rare. We are planning to finish Twilight after school next week. Tutoring does not run a full class period and we haven’t even gotten to the fateful baseball game yet. I hate to leave a movie unfinished.