Tangled

Today, many of my students were on a field trip, so the students who could not attend (for financial, behavioral, academic reasons, etc.) were allocated to the classrooms of those of us who did not have the good fortune to chaperone the trip. Admittedly, I initially had no desire to chaperone because I do not want to know what kind of trouble eighth graders might get into when let loose at Six Flags... However, I later discovered that this is the mecca of chaperone opportunities, because the teachers are really there to create a critical mass that sends the message, "If you do something wrong, a teacher WILL see you," which, let's be honest, is probably not true. Incidentally, only the administrators on the trip were actually responsible for student discipline, and the teachers were let loose just as much as the students. An unnamed colleague of mine has been on the trip three years in a row, and infamously goes on one ride with a few students, then falls asleep on a park bench for 3-5 hours.

Alas, I found myself in charge of the students back at the school, and without many instructional opportunities, I decided to put an inspirational movie on for my students' enjoyment (and mine, provided that they do not talk). I chose my new favorite movie, Tangled. Without providing a detailed movie review, I highly recommend this film to all entertainment afficionados... My baby (boy) cousins have also claimed it as a recent favorite, and it has proved to rivet the hard-to-please middle school crowd, as well. (It happens to appropriately satisfy the adult sense of humor, too.) I had four different groups of students in my classroom today, and I thoroughly enjoyed all four times I watched the first 50 minutes of the movie. So much that, even though I'm aware I'll have to finish the movie four times on Tuesday, I'm still kicking off my Memorial Day weekend watching the rest of the movie in my bed.