60 Years Are Too Many: Week Five

         19 Sept 2026

        Well, it's been shitty. How're you?

        Two of my plans are taken up by PLT meetings, I'm being observed every week, office hours are taken up with DDI and the theatre construction has halted, but there are no seats or electrics or boards or sound system or anything "new" in the shop other than outlets. There is also no evidence that they intend to install the ADA lift at the apron so my students can access the stage directly, instead of being "othered" by going through the horrifying hallway or dock door, which is always cluttered and takes time to clear a wheelchair path.

        AC power cord update: I brought an extention cord from home. I plugged it into the south wall, and plugged the RENT ME AC unit in. 

        No breakers were injured during this experiment, but the plug was again stupid hot. Since the weather has broken a bit, I did not turn it on again after Monday.

        Other than that...it's been great with the students, for the most part. No shitty there.

        The kids I have are respectful of the new No Cell Phone law, and I love it. I'm sure all teachers do, I'm getting much more accomplished without that distraction.

        My Theatre 2/3 class, that are "advanced"----so identified because they were in the fall play/musical last year---get to have a real acting class this year. Last year, in order to get shows up----Hold Please. 

        Clarification: when one is literally rebuilding a department from a crater, one must put something on the stage. Unlike bitcoin scams, theatre has to actually produce A Thing for kids to see in order to understand that the theatre exists. One cannot say "join theatre class" with no evidence of theatre performance in the building and expect kids to line up.

        So Theatre 2/3  last year-with kids I had cobbled and nursed in the spring of 2025-- was used as rehearsal time for the shows. This fall thus far they have read Our Town  and performed the wedding scene using expressionism. As a break before we start the next history unit, they were tasked with a simple improv prompt: find a childhood character you all know  and put them on trial for something silly. Five minutes to talk, five to structure, five to rehearse and perform: done.

        This was Wednesday, a block day so class was an hour and a half long.

        I learned: Nobody had their parents read to them.

                        Not everyone watched Sesame Street.

                        Finding a common element without using Dory, which was fine but a few had 

     watched Finding Nemo as teenagers, and they wanted something from their childhood.

                        Not a single kid had a single clue how a courtroom trial works.

        After an hour and a half, they had decided they all "ish" knew Tom and Jerry.  I put it on the TV for them and watching that cat and mouse was pretty entertaining. It's been years. The student who was raised with the show said she calls it "rage baiting" because Jerry is such a jerk, and we all gufawed with laughter. When they began fumbling with the definition of "Prosecution" I had to intervene. 

        The next class period, we watched a 13 minute video made by some high school kids in Texas that walked through a mock trial. 

        After that illuminating experience, they got out 3X5 cards to work on their arguments, and watched the video a second time.

        They stalled when nobody could remember how to be sworn in.

        I heard: " I swear to tell the whole truth because God."

                      "I promise to swear to tell the real truth and not lie."

                      " I swear I won't lie, I'll tell nothing but the truth, ask God."

                       "What even is 'whole truth'? Like you need to say that?"

                       "I promise to uphold the aims and ideals of the International Thespian Society."

          By the end of a 58 minute class they had the words for swearing in, the structure and were writing their scripts.

         I'd like to draw your attention to the first intention of this theatre break: improv.

         And the second element: 15 minutes.

        We are now 148 minutes into a 15 minute break, they've had to write down arguments and they aren't performing until Monday.

        This is not a fail, this is an illuminating moment. Kids can't work together without finding common ground first. Second, they have to understand that what they do not know can be learned together and that new information influx supports their goal. 

        They could have easily let the natural leader choose a character for them without really understanding the character. But they didn't. 

        They could have left the kid -who not only was never read to but never watched kids movies, only Tom and Jerry DVD's her parents had- behind.But they didn't. 

        A leader easily could have taken the helm and said "We have 15 minutes, who cares if you understand, I do, so just do what I say." But they didn't. 

        They represent everything that is great about theatre.

        Meanwhile in Theatre 1. I have six kids enrolled second period and four generally show up. I also have six enrolled in sixth period, where three generally show up. Although this week the sixth was added, and she seems to attend, so one day we had four.

        I am turning this class into a Theatre Hist/Lit because I do not know how to teach an intro level theatre class with fewer than double digits. 

        We tried learning the improv game "Questions", only to have it break their brains. They like creating short scenes with a prop or given dialogue, and I like that they work together. I started with the Greeks and Oedipus as the roster was changing and collaborative work is impossible when there are different kids present in every class. So we started with history and lecture and vocab.

        So in the name of "tableaux" they created original scenes this week, and had a great time. I am encouraged enough to believe we can do two person scenes next week, but if one of the randos shows up I'll have an uneven number...whatever. Three person scenes are historically a shit show, because one of the three never comes to class, and someone else ends up subbing in.

       I'll give it a try this week, and if it fails we'll shift to creating fairy tales with combat and mime. 'Tis my Go To.

        Stagecraft are my new favorite people. I love these kids. They watched Legally Blonde  and tracked the tech vocab, then we read She Kills Monsters  and they chose a tech to track. They created a morgue of their tech, and last week worked on sketching the design and they are in it to win it.They are grateful to work with their hands and use their creativity outside of an art class. They are deeply appreciative that they do not have to perform, and were deliciously agreeable to adhering to the rules as we ventured into the costume shop. 

        No notes. Once the musical is locked in, I am confident these kids will turn into hungry hungry tech hippos.

        Peer to Peer is rough without a stage. Last year we would work 90% of the time in the classroom, but go down to the stage once a week for a "field trip" where they could stomp and jump and scream and roam around. Five weeks trapped in the classroom(s) with or without AC has been tough. And I still don't know what I'm doing, I have no idea how to teach Sped in any real capacity. I've pumped Harp for ideas, and their "What I Love" speech/slideshow went really well two weeks ago. I'm trying to work on creating something more hands on than the sock puppets----which we'll do, they love those----but not individual. Something they all build. Like the acting machine we all did in our intro classes, but with physical pieces. I make them build animals and locations with their bodies, which is about as abstract as they get. When we have "down days" they have jenga and leggos which are a huge success. 

        I'm not on solid ground with these kids yet, even after welcoming Sped into my IB classes at Hink. That worked because there were eight IB kids and eight SSN kids---it was one on one. Last year P2P only had two Gen Ed kids , the total enrolled was 18 and I forced them to do two shows in the fall. This is 21 kids  with just me and one Gen Ed kid and no stage to perform on. I will probably write them a spooky Halloween play they can invite their parents to come see in the classroom.

        We have chosen a musical, I'm waiting to hear about rights. It's one I did at Littleton and it was the greatest/worst experience of my career. Since all signs are pointing to this being my last high school musical, it will close another circle.

        I've been closing circles for six years, dude. Edward Albee said "Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly." Jerry commits suicide by coersion to come back a short distance to make a human connection. I get that's my journey and why I'm at Kennedy, and why this is the end; my short distance correctly. So there's nothing deeper to closing the circle, or knowing the department will not make it regardless of my efforts. 

        Hink was my great distance out of the way. Literally and figuratively. I knew going in that it was temporary, I just didn't fully grasp why. 

        In my neurotic hubris, I assumed it was to save me from the disaster of COVID. Had I pursued legal action against my previous buiding, it would have dragged out into the following August 2020.

        We all know what happened in March of 2020.

        But this was October of 2019, and I had no idea what was coming. None of us did.

        Had I chosen to move forward, I would not have had a job at all during the lockdowns. God floated Hink at me as a life boat to get across the great distance. It was only temporary, and I knew that.

        I had decided to just do as I was told and "be still, and know that I am God" and figured if something else was supposed to happen, it'd have to do so without me applying to every open job.

        Kennedy literally called on my cell phone in September of 2024. Yes, the building itself called me. :) The AP had come from Hink, and said the words "Do you want to come here and do what you did for Hinkley?"

        I said yes. Because I didn't apply, I didn't ask;it appeared.

        I also knew it would be my last high school teaching job. I have no interest in leaving until I'm booted out. This is where I'm supposed to be. This is the final destination to come back a short distance correctly. 

        Hink is where I learned what I needed to finally Do It Correctly.

        I'm not there for the district or the building. I'm there for the kids.

        I don't care if it's 100 or 10. It's not about that. It should never be about that.

        They came to school. They signed up for theatre. I teach theatre.

        If one ignores the flaming dumpster of education and fear, I'm actually doing very well.

        Scene.

 

        

        

            

60 Years Are Too Many: What's Going On?

     19 September 2026

    The first week the principal celebrated our incomprehensible leap from an orange rating to green---skipping yellow. There is  A Lot to that story, today we're focusing on how the distrcit seems to feel about our building.

     When I was hired in December of 2024, the school had a yellow rating, on its way to green, after struggling in orange a few years. Somewhere in there, maybe 2023, the new principal arrived. So I walked into a school that was under the district watch, but only slightly.

    By Augst of 2025 when I attended my first faculty meeting, the biulding had somehow crashed back to orange. This was bewildering to those around me, and there was a lot of talk about the district "having it in" for the building.

      The theatre, gym and film class were all scheduled for large, expensive Mill Levy renovations in 2026, so none of what was happening with the rating and the gossip matched the money that was on the horizon. Why would you stomp a school that is getting new stuff --new stuff the voters approved, mind you.

        The core teacher and our AP's busted their asses last year to get us out of orange. They are not in the building this year to receive accolades, as they have moved on. AP's do that, if you're an AP you want to be a principal someday. However, because they did all the work with the teachers, the principal cannot answer critical questions posed by the distrct regarding how  it was accomplished. 

     That and the backhanded email received from the superintendent, which was essentially "Well, you did it but I have no idea how and we'll see if you can maintain the rating which I doubt."

      Now you're caught up.

      Week Five we receive an email from the principal stating that our enrollment is under the district prediction.

      My first question is why is the district predicting our numbers? We know what's up, and we could accurately predict a baseline.

      The district predicted 126 more students than enrolled.

       I'd like to see the math and where exactly they thought those kids were coming from.

       So, after celebrating bussting ass to get to the green box, the principal will now have to cut at least one teacher and possibly three support positions in week six of the new school year.

        To clairfy, a teacher will no longer have a job on 28 September.

        I've been through spring RIB (Reduction in Building, it's all called Reduction in Force but I tend to say RIP because it can also mean Reduction in People).

         I'm not here to whine that I may be cut. In the first place, they just renovated the theatre after I mounted the first fall show and musical in ten years. However, the schedle is a nightmare and sophomores don't get an elective, so all of my work produced single digit class enrollments. 

        If you're cutting by class size, I'm in line.

        We already cut back to one art teacher last spring, and we're bare bones for CTE and IB. ROTC is in the same hurt that Performing Arts are.

        What you need to do is cut a program.

        The principal at Hinkley told me that. She referred to me as the arm that needed to be chopped off.

        I mounted three full shows, two cabarets, a collage and a showcase my last full year in response to her words. Then I turned around and left of my own accord.

        They no longer have a theatre program. And I left on my own terms.

        Cutting arts and art is never the answer. When you have one kid graduate with their IB diploma, it's probably time to cut the program. When CTE engineering classes are single digits, it's time to make a hard choice.

        A small building can be a strong building---but you have to decide what makes you strong.

        Adding a CP program for kids who are concurrently enrolled in college strains the building, it doesn't strengthen it. You may get more kids enrolled in the building, but they aren't in seats. So your building numers may improve slightly, but you are still "down" students and do nothing to help IB, CTE, PA  or ROTC. That is another clear step to killing performing arts.

        I get to criticize because none of these choices are on me. I'm just Schleppy the Clown. I'm focused on making sure the kids I have are coached to the moon and back in theatre, and are given the same performance and experience opportunities as a bigger school.

        Scene.

60 Years Are Too Many: 9/11 25

     13 September

        Every 11 Sept I take a moment at the beginning of every class. Just to see what they know. Just to remind them it happened. They weren't even born yet.

        I am glad to hear it's in their history curriculum, apparently it's part of the eighth grade curriculum, and they remember that they learned about the towers, a few remember the Pentagon and only one had learned of flight 93.

        I do not beleagure the myraid of conspiracy theories or legion of medical issues, especially now that the receipts have been revealed proving what Jon Stewart has been fighting for over two decades is true. They're all true, our government sucks. What else is there?

        I don't note the time stamps---I had to do that when I taught Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close---that's rough.

        I simply say "This is where hate leads".

        I don't care if the US government knew, or even helped orchestrate it. It wouldn't surprise me. I've never been a blind flag waver, I see our government for who they are.

        Somebody had enough hate to pilot those planes into buildings, knowing they would die in the process.

        And that hate spread to hate for an entire religion, and fear of brown people, and more hate of "the outsider" and  25 years later, ICE is shooting American citizens and throwing brown folx in concentration camps with no probable cause other than the color of their skin.

        So my thesis, with the photo of the second plane approaching the south tower, is simply "This is where hate leads".

        When you are fed only one side of an issue, and that side is hateful, it becomes almost impossible to see any other aspects.

        There is little discussion, which I should allow but honestly, when I have 100% of my students looking at me, wide eyed and nodding, they need not discuss. They know. They live it, and they're doing their level best to lead with love.

        And, additionally, I'm not feeding them any conspiracies or health issue updates. I have one blanket thesis which ends with "Lead with love in everything you do". 

        Telling theatre kids to lead with love is like telling jello it's jiggley. They aren't the ones who need to be reminded, but I hold out hope that their example impacts others who may need a reminder or example in their own life.

        Fear is how you control people.

        And you instill fear with hate.

        It's that simple.

        It's ridiculously simple.

        It's identifiable and preventable.

        Yet here were are, 25 years later, fueled by hatred of "the other", believing the fearmongering "They're criminals! They'll take your jobs and rape your daughter!" 

        Somehow, though,this is the moment the millionairs lose control of the country.

        It's too much all at once. We were OK when it was covert.

        We acquiesced to covert cover ups; we believed Ollie North worked alone, we bought that US corporations had  nothing to do with Rwanda and then said "Our government is not going to get involved to help". We accepted all of their lies as long as they didn't interrupt Friends.

        It is a long and exhausting list, do your own research---DO NOT USE AI, try The Guardian, AXIOS, The BBC, or University articles. Or try a great guy called Pissed Magistus. My point stands: we turned a blind eye to what they were doing as long as it didn't impact us directly.

        Reagan deregulated, dismantled and destroyed, handing perks to the millionaires, leaving hospitals without the ability to care for those suffering from mental illness and flooding the streets with disregulated human beings in need of care. 

        That didn't effect enough of us directly.

        Enter Trump.

        The mask came off. He clearly alinged with with billionaires while we scratched our heads and wondered "How the hell did we end up with so many billionaires?"

        He openly lies, threatens and dismantles the constitution and free speech. His base cheers him---even when they lose their own jobs, healthcare and farms.

        And we stand gobsmacked, frozen in terror, wondering what we can possibly do when he has not only lit a thousand fires, but fired everyone who was in place to prevent those fires. So many fires and no firehoses. And no water thanks to drought and data centers.

     Then he started rounding people up based on their color and shooting white people who protested.

        And still...we stand...flabberghasted and frozen, hoping blindly the midterms will make a difference. Because we cannot fathom that democracy has fallen, surely there is still hope. How could anyone in their right mind vote for this?

        It's too late for that, friends. We were lulled into a coma by consumerism and drive through cofee.

        The catch word "woke" has become a dirty word, just like "liberal". But it doesn't matter, because most of us were not asleep, we foolishly believed that going into healthcare or education was the best way to fight what was coming. We knew. We saw it. We tried.

        And we failed.

        And so as a "Woke Liberal"  I would like to say that I was never asleep. I saw it. I voted against it every time. I went into education. I raised kind, thoughtful and resourceful children who create community in their lives. I have friends and colleagues who did the same.

        So how...HOW is the majority running this country cruel?

        I read Heather Delaney Reese, I follow Meidas Touch and Aaron Parnas.

        Before they arrived I was a BBC and Al Jazeera reader. I like straight news.  Politics Girl is in my heart, but she yells---and she should, nobody stop her---but I cannot take it right now. I need boring. I need facts without the volume at the moment.

        Where is Walter Cronkite?

        Remember when the news was boring?

        I was not raised by news-interested people. My family was entertainment oriented. I cannot speak to why this was. I can only patch together my experiences as a child,and it is likely they just accepted that the government was lying to them, but as long as they had jobs, why get wound up about the other side of the world?My mom bought People Magazine every week at the grocery store. I have no memory of the news being on. We watched Wonder Woman  and The Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman and Little House on the Prairie. And Roots.

        Wild, right? I was 10 or 11 (depending on which month it aired) and in elementary school but by god we watched Roots, and my mom was all up in it, disgusted by white southerners as only a person raised in Colorado can be. She had no real experience with that level of racism, even though she had lived through MLK marches and his assassination and school segregation. She just didn't associate that with her own lived experiences in DPS.

        As a kid in white suburban schools, I was hard pressed to say I had encountered any kids of color, ever. I did have a Mexican friend once. My choir teacher in elementry school was a woman of color. I loved her to the moon and back. I gave her lipstick for Christmas.

        I'm not off track, stay with me. My family was entertainment oriented but we did get the daily news. We were Rocky Mountain News subscribers because my mom said the Post was "too political". Which I now know was code for "Too Left" or "democratic". I now know, most Republicans were News readers in the 1970's and 80's. All I noted at the time was that if my friends' parents got the Post, their parents were college educated. This is a fact as observed by a child, don't even start with me. Data is data.

        My parents were not college educated.

        Facts are facts. Do with it what you will.

        If you track that data just casually, it equals republicans being unaware of or unwilling to engage in political discourse, or hear any ideas that are "left" of their own. If you track the data just casually, these same people prefer entertainment over news.

        Because Lynda Carter's boobs are more important than what really happened during the gas crisis. And rather than watch or listen to the boring news, my parents just joined the "Jimmy Carter is the worst president ever" club, only to switch gears later in life when it became clear what had actually occured, and Jimmy continued to live his life as a good and honest Christian, building houses and giving back. 

        And true to the mind set, my mom pretended she never disliked Jimmy. Apparently I made it up.

        This was a windy track, but a track. 

        I am educated. I lean left. I listen to other people, I do not shout them down. I am not my parents, who seemed largely dissinterested unless it was to belittle. My willingness to listen and learn created a person who can smell bullshit and has no patience with liars.

        I have always hated politicians. All of them. I thought I liked Ben Nighthorse Campbell back in the day, but then he switched sides.

        I have never voted for a winning presidential candidate. I voted against a candidate and the other guy won, but that was a vote against, not for.

        They all lie. Maybe they don't start out that way, but eventually they are corrupted.

        I hate that about myself, as it means even though I have voted in every election since 1984, I knew my vote didn't count. Yet I still voted and I see clearly who our representatives are.

        But I did it. And I didn't hate people who voted differently. Since 2016 I have a lot of concerns about how people vote, but I don't hate them for it. I honestly wish to know why, but when I ask, I get rhetoric and attacked for being a liberal. 

        Attacking is not an answer. It's hate.

        Yet they hate me. I had a relative call me a "communist" and tell me to move out of the US. Simply because I oppose the war in Iran. I wasn't even yelling, I was just stating my position as I am allowed to do as an American with free speech. You are allowed to state yours also,I did not come over to your wall and call you names.

        So I will keep going forward with love. I see you, I see why you make these choices and I believe you are harmful. But I don't hate you. I will not see how karma responds to your hate, but I believe it will do so.

        I accept that you hate me. 

        There is nothing I can do about it.

        But you aren't going to stop me from being positive and teaching others to love and listen and make up their own minds once they know the truth.

       Scene.

        

        

60 Years Are Too Many: Home HVAC

     13 Sept 2026

        At some point the "It's always me!" mantra becomes real.

       While I have no AC in 233 at work, my AC at home died on labor day.

       Just...turned itself off.

       Of course it did.

       The lovely company we use, Cooper, sent a tech on Thursday, between 11 and noon. So I had to take a sick day. Which, we've established previously, are few and precious. But somebody has to be here to let him in.

        Yes, the HVAC computer board has a fried element.

        He was able to reboot the system---I like to imagine he used jumper cables.

        But it's fried and we need a new one.

        We also have to buy a power surger to attach to it.

        Because it is highly likely all the rolling power outages are the cause of the board fritzing.

        It's not even a long story, not even worth telling.

        It'll cost about $1500 to get the whole thing fixed.

        So I got that going for me.

        

        

(FB)60 Years Are Too Many: Air Conditioners.

        13 Sept 2026

        Okay, Immma just drop you right in.

        Here were are in room 233, where all theatre is taught because the physical theatre is under renovation (Cue LSOH). 233 has no AC. There is a heating vent which I had to have disconnected last winter due to heat induced seizures among my MI/S students.

        The AP solution was to move my fourth period to different rooms, looking for one with AC---apparently, it's splotchy and there is no map alerting the building manager to which rooms actually have AC in the first place, let alone noting if it's connected. Not all classes have an AC register, which to me means central air, but I'm not a professional HVAC person, so, whatever. The building was finished in 1965 and I don't want to think about everything that has been "updated" and patched together over the years.

        After shuffling room numbers,I decided to stay in 233. With the blinds drawn, the ceiling fans and four other fans, it's not horrible. It's not great, but it's better than schlepping special needs kids to the third floor for their fourth period class, which is usually just down the hall.

        The MI/S center teacher across the hall from me has the exact same issue. No AC. However, she cannot move rooms because her room, like mine, is a double wide, and unlike mine she has the big private bathroom, kitchen, sink, fridge and washer/dryer.  These are things I dream of for stagecraft, but she needs. She can't move. So she and I have been blanket complaining to all admin since we entered the building in August. She got a massive rolling swamp cooler that stands in the hall because it won't go through the door, that helps as much as my fans.

        Last week, we each received rolling AC units with the words RENT ME helpfully stickered on the side. We were not told we were getting them. No email. No Meeting. District maintenence just showed up and plugged them in, regardless of our access to heavy duty extension cords (none). I had to cobble together two power strips, one of which may be a survivor of their first generation. The "reset" button doesn't even light up.

        We will return to this topic in a moment. First, I must address Where Did These Come From?

        Since Nobody Communicates At All among admin, my neighbor and I just accepted the units and figured out how to manage them. During my walk through eval on Wednesday, the very AP who has been schlepping me from room to room, sat near the AC unit looking surprised. 

        Friday morning, during my PLT meeting with my department chair who is also my evaluator (they're evaluating two by two now I guess), told me the AP thought I bought the AC unit for the class.

        Educator friends, you are smiling and rolling your eyes because YEP, of course she had no idea.

        My SLT also had no idea where the AC unit had come from. 

        Then the choir teacher piped up. She shares a wing with our new transitions program---which is 18-21 SpEd for those not In The Know. She told us that the new teachers in that room also have no AC and also have the same heat induced seizure issues among their students. To which I loudly grunted DUH becuase those kids were my kids last year, and some of them are the reason the heat was disconnected last winter.

        Communication would be awesome.

        ANYWAY,these new teachers were not having any nonsense, and when they did not get any action from admin or one side of the district, they contacted Special Ed--unsure if it was the district or the state---directly. They demanded AC in All Special Needs classrooms----which includes mine--or legal issues would follow.

        Wow.

        These people are awesome. I've only met them in passing, but now that I know who they truly are, I will walk down there with Dutch Bros gift cards to thank them. 

        The mohawk in me respects the mohawk in you. God save the queen.

        Now...plugging it in.

        District maintenence insisted on the north end of the room with the vent going through the window. I have many glorious, heavy duty extension cords downstairs in the theatre. Which is closed. All I have in 233 are four power strips. 

        There is no way the AC unit power cord will even remotely reach the outlet on the north wall.They did not arrive with an extention cord, just a rolling AC unit. 

        So power strips it is.

        The first day, they AC flipped off one of the switches. It was definitely a first generation power strip, no light for the "reset" button. So I traded for a more recent strip that might hold on. I wish to point out that the only thing plugged into these strips is the AC unit. I have two outlets on the north wall: power strip daisy chain is plugged into one, my lamp in the other and the other outlet has a power strip with the TV, my computer and microwave.

        Friday all the power on the north end of my room blinked out.

        When all the power went out, it was clear it was not the strip. The whole north wall was dark. 

        Also the ceiling fans stopped. They're plugged into the east wall with a circulating fan, and they all flipped off.

        My flourescent lights and other outlets are on the south wall, those fans still worked.

        So my first move was to walk across the hall to see if my new AC twinsie colleague had power on her north wall. She did. 

        My neighbor on the south also had all their power.

        OK, good to know. It's only me.

        Ask anyone, ANYONE who has ever had to deal with me and either technology or power, and they will tell you I Am The Worst. It's always me.

        I emailed the building manager. About thirty minutes later he entered the classroom with a heavy duty power strip and a drill. I repeated what I had emailed--which boiled down to "I'm not an expert but this is not a power cord issue, this is a breaker". He declared "Ya, it's a breaker" and good thing he knows me 'cause I threw up my hands and said "Thank God you are here!" and he exited to flip it. He did not leave the yellow power strip.

        Everything popped back on, and he returned, smiled, my kids all applauded and he made his exit. 

        At the end of the day, when I unplugged the strip from the wall, the plug from the wall was too hot for me to touch.

       I am looking forward to Monday's adventure!

       Next up: I had to take Thursday off because the HVAC in my house went belly up!

        Scene.

60 Years Are Too Many: The Dog And Pony Show

     9 Sept 2026

        I have blisteringly clamored against the teacher evaluation process so frequently that even Shakespeare's line "I trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries" does not communicate the level of frustration I feel.

        Their favorite thing is to give you the elements they are looking for ahead of time, so you know to change everything you have planned so you can perform a dog and pony show for them.

        They give you "Look For's"- that I bellow loudly are "Gotchas"- which are great if you're doing That Thing the day they do the walk through.

        Today's case was the gotchas are all on baseline rituals in class; Cell phones, CLO posted, kids engaging in "discourse".

        I refused to do CLO's last year, 'cause I was ON STAGE where would you like me to post it? But in the classroom I have AV capability to show slides, so no excuse other than "But I don't wanna do it."

        We're in week three, I do not give a cell phone performance every class period. They get it and they comply.

        The "discourse" thing is annoying because...it's week THREE and sometimes I have to say things so they know what's going on, and there is nothing for them to discourse about.

        So if they land on a lecture day, or a work day, I'm done for.

        Today was supposed to be a research work day.

        They came to stagecraft. I've taught this class a few times in different buildings and my most successful class was the one that focused on the shows we were doing. It's practical application---I had to teach math and geometry to get them to understand set design, which they then built.

        But today, the theatre is dark. It's closed for renovation--as you know from the many verses we have sung together. So not only am I teaching stagecraft without a show, I'm doing it without a stage.

        This isn't new, I taught stagecraft online during COVID and found myself joyfully making kids dig through parental craft closets, recycling and kitchen ingredents--blood packs were a Big Hit. It wasn't ideal, but they showed up. A few even enrolled in theatre when we reopened.

        So I leaned into design, which is a lot of me talking and watching videos of set changes, quick costume changes, light angles and vocab. I recommend watching Legally Blonde the musical for this approach. 

        Then we read She Kills Monsters  using highlighters to  track their chosen tech needs. From there, we revisited vocab and began design conversations once we chose a theme on which to focus. Which would be discourse, but that was Tuesday.

        Today is Wednesday and they were supposed to be working on their morgues, which is screen time on chromebooks doing research into photography, art, opera, D&D and other productions. 

        This is a bad idea when admin wants to see them engaged in discourse.

        So I split tasks between groups, and did a warmup that imagined they had ten minutes to curtain. Set and lights had to figure out the new air conditioner, mask it in the window and troubleshoot why it keeps turning off (the old extention boxes I have daisy chained into my one outlet keep flipping off). Costumes had to stitch five buttons individually back onto five different shirts, and props had to go find five props the "actors" removed from the prop table.

        I thought it went great.

        I had nary a single kid who could stitch a button, but they know how to do it now.

        The costume crew won---they finished in seven and half minutes--so I gave them bubbles. Two of them gushed "Miss, you're my favorite teacher", which had nothing to do with teaching stagecraft and everything to do with soapy water and a wand.

         I haven't received my feedback, but let's go ahead and call what it will be:

        My CLO of "Ten Minutes To Curtain" was not wordsmithed in such a way that the prescribed vocabulary was included. Deduction.

        My kids did not "engage" in discourse, they collaborated to work together to problem solve. Deduction.

        The only phone out was mine. I took a photo of the prop table to give them for their search, but it never made it to my email box for printing. So I had to show them the photo on my phone. Deduction.

    It was delivered to my email at 11.33, which was an hour after the evaluation. I put it in the slideshow, 'cause my STL was looking at it, with the note "Received at 11.33". The only reason to do this was to be annoying.

    My kids talked to each other to determine what their biggest obstacle was and how they overcame it. Point.

     Then they dove into their research----which is surprisingly exciting for them, they are loving it---but that kills discourse. Deduction.

      One kid at a time used the restroom, but K disappeared for 20 minutes so I had to call culture team to ferret her out and send a second kid who was going to explode with a second pass. Only one kid can go at a time. Deduction.

       I praised them for being methodical and focused, as it's imperative that techies keep a level head at all times. Do not yell at the actor who took their prop to the bathroom and left it in the sink. Just go find it and dry it off. Point.

        I told a story of a kid in the room who stage managed both shows last year---a task we all refer to as "Building the plane while flying it". The second night of Odd Couple he kept a level head when the actors lost their way in the script and could not bread crumb their way out of it, so he made the quiet executve decision to just ring the doorbell so the next actor could enter. He was on headset, and told the ASM in the wing to place the actor behind the door and help her breathe and not panic, as it was pretty bad and most of the exposition explaining why she was at the door, was lost in the scrabble.

        And it was not made worse by J. He did not cry and run away from the board. He did not panic and turn off the lights, which would have triggered the actors and alerted the audience that something much bigger was wrong. He didn't hit the ringing telephone cue, as the actor who would answer was the one who was confused, and she would have said lines from a previous scene or worse, started a scene in the next act. Point.

        At this juncture I wish to again vociferate: performing arts do not fit your round holes. We are Proud Square Pegs. 

        It was not a masters class in anything new. All theatre teachers do this.

        It just felt nice to show the process to admin, because seeing two shows on the stage for the first time in years clearly was not enough to give this 24 year veteran a "pass" and say "Clearly, you are teaching The Things, the kids are on task and they must engage in discourse or how else would this get done?"

        UGH.

        I tried to attach said photo, alas it does not want to post here, either.

        Scene.