Time Flies!

I know I am a bad blogger. Friends and family have sent their love and support because of my blog, and I haven't blogged in over a week. Sorry about that. I have been super busy with work. The week I started my blog was Regents (NYS exams), and I was in charge of coordinating the schedule for the test, executing the schedule and grading the Global History exams, so I had to put in really long hours - 13 hour days to be exact, so my overtime is going to be monstrous. After the calm of the exams, I had to meet the Fund for Teachers deadline this past Thursday. Funds for Teachers provides grant me to teachers who are interested in doing some professional development of their own design, so I submitted a proposal to do a study tour of the Silk Road this summer. The proposal took me forever, not to mention I had social engagements with my friends this week, so that cut into my proposal time. Cross your fingers, I really hope I get funding for my proposal :P

My friends, my sister and I went to see Young Frankenstein on Broadway this week. I bought the tickets as a Christmas present for them and we went together. It was really alot of fun! Cris, Vanessa and I went for dinner at Churrascuria Plataforma, a Brazilian Rodizio. It was too much food, but we had fun! Cris was really sweet and paid for dinner, and then off to the show. I am not really a big Mel Brooks fan, nor have I ever seen the movie, but it was cute. I liked it better than The Producers and Spamalot. The actor who played Young Frankenstein was the guy who played George the pharmacist on Desperate Houswives. Megan Mulhally was also in it - she was so funny! All in all it was a fun evening for everyone!

I am excited about this week because this will be my first attempt at teaching a drama class. Me teaching drama, who would have thought =P It is going to be so much fun, I hope so anyway. I signed up to bring the Stage Doors program into my school. Stage Doors provides free Broadway theatre tickets to our students and sends in a teaching artist to teach some of the drama classes. I am really excited because it is the 11th and 12th graders, and the program will go better because they are more proficient with their English speaking skills and they are excited about having a drama class. Half the battle is engaging the kids, so it is great that they are so excited about the class! We will be seeing "Passing Strange" this term - all about sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, what more could a teenager want! This program was a huge success the first term, with the "Color Purple," so hopefullly, our second term will be a bigger success. Our teaching artist, JoAnna is great with the kids and she is coming back to work with us too, so it is going to be really fun!

As a prep for teaching my drama class this term, Stage Doors required that we see the movie "The Great Debaters." OMG, what an awesome movie! If you haven't seen the movie yet, get off your butt and go see it. The movie is produced by Oprah and stars Oscar winners Denzel Washington (so sweet on the eyes) and Forest Whitaker. It is so good! I won't give you too much information, but it is about a debate team at a small Black, Texas college in the 1930s. The team goes through many trials and tribulations to become a winning debate team, and be able to compete against some white colleges, the finale being Harvard. The movie is so inspirational and moving, everyone should definitely go see it! If it is still playing, I will be taking me drama class to see it. It has so many great life lessons to share with everyone. My new motto for my classroom comes from this movie - "Do what you have to do, so you can do what you want to do." I had my students reflect on that quote as an assignment, and it went over really well, so hopefully, it will motivate them to finish the year strong.

Shout out to Gayle for being so supportive of me! Love you, Gayle! Thank you so much for your support!

Enjoy!