27 September 2026
I have been through over twenty Homecoming weeks.
Three buildings, three districts.
Two had parades. One had...nothing, really. Some games in the gym and a dance and a game that they lost.
All three have football teams who lose their Homecoming game frequently.
All three schedule Homecoming Shenanegins all week, interrupting classes and essentially zeroing out the possibilty of moving forward with any content on Friday. Kids are absent for powder puff prep, pep rally prep, pep rally and parade.
My Friday of Homecoming week, 2026:
First period PLT was canceled, because our SLT who is the band teacher had to wait in line at some rental place for 40 minutes to get a trailer for drumline to ride on in at the parade. This his choice. I don't have a truck to pull a trailer, so Thespians aren't doing the parade. Maybe next year we'll find a truck. He doesn't get to whine, but he did.
Second period Intro. I have eight kids enrolled. They are;
Four freshmen, three girls and one boy who's never appeard. A ghost.
Three juniors, one who is a cheerleader, and one who is a ghost. He was enrolled last year as well, I saw him once. He's not appeared in class this year.
One senior who is a stellar student, CTE and worked the musical last year. They wanted to be in Stagecraft but their schedule wouldn't allow it with singleton honors classes.
The two junior girls were in this class when I arrived in January of 2025. One is a cheerleader, the other is an attentive and positive kid whose family life is unstable. They were pulled from class to move schools in March of 2025, and will likely be pulled again this fall, and moved again. She says it's OK, she gets a lot of different experiences. Like I said: positive kid. They would have enrolled in Theatre 2 last year as sophomores if their schedule had allowed, and couldn't get it in their schedule this year, but I appreciate their tenacity.
The freshmen range from "transferred to our building in September and requested theatre " to "didn't fill out her schedule and was assigned the class." None seem to fire on all cylinders.
Of these eight, two have Double Secret Nurse Passes---meaning they can leave any time, for any duration of time, with no questions. They also do not arrive on time, so I see them for maybe 10 minutes in a 58 minute period.
One arrives 15 minutes late, every day. This is second period. In theory, she has a first period she had to attend and so should be somewhere in the building when the bell rings.
On Thursday of last week, the senior and I were the only ones in class for thirty minutes.
On Friday, it was just the two of us for the first fifteen minutes. The cheerleader was clearly at the parade. One of the freshmen showed up. I have no idea where the other two were. So we played JENGA and watched music videos. Their fairy tale assignment cannot be performed with only three of them. Here is what the freshman said while watching THRILLER.
"I've never seen this before."
"This looks like a real movie."
" This looks like American Werewolf in London!"
"She's really pretty, and so lucky, she got to be in a video with Michael Jackson. "
"His doctor murdered him, right? Is the doctor still alive? Someone should kill him for murdering Michael Jackson. I love Michael Jackson."
That was second period.
Third is Stagecraft. 13 enrolled, nine regularly show up.We were supposed to do model presentations but I forgot it's Homecoming Friday. So I got out the games and bubbles, because we were going to be called anywhere from 10 am -10.15 and told to go watch the parade. One kid is in drumline so he was out. Two others never showed up. One magically appeared after the parade, and my favorite freshman was not present. Her friend said her parents moved her to a different school. This class is my SLO data, and I have to have 10 kids for it to be valid. Awesome.
We toddled down to the parade, and I swear there were twice the "floats" as there were last year. Not a lot of school spirit on the side of the street that I was posted, but something was different. It felt different than last year. Last year was a mess of pulled teeth getting kids to participate, relocating the bonfire for parking lot reasons--I think the pipes and flooding-- breaking up a fight between parents at the barbcue...this is different.
Fourth I have Peer to Peer---those are my special needs kids. They got to be on two floats this year! So there was no way anyone was going to focus for theatre, and that is all good in the hood with me. I handed out bubbles, leggos and Jenga and somehow landed on Prince videos--much to the delight of one of the paras. I like having people my own age around. However, finding Prince videos that are not naughty takes dilligence. It was a great post parade gathering until it was time to go to the assembly. I sat with the kid who is like Rain Man, he can tell you the day of the week for any date you give---past or future. I don't usually play the game with him, but he likes to ask "What day of the week is.....?" knowing I don't know, so I let him play. He also talks to either invisible friends or friends in his head.
The assembly was solid, the cheerleaders were on point, the kids in the gym exuded school spirit, they even volunteered to play the dumb gym Homecoming games everyone plays. I watched three of my freshmen poorly manuver "Hungry Hungry Hippoes" and laughed outloud with the teacher near me, who had also noted their struggle. He knew they were my kids based on the fire drill---we stand near one another.
Side note: we've had two unplanned fire drills. One from the theatre, where a kid snuck in during construction and pulled it---the construction workers told me they just stood and watched him---and one from smoking in the second floor boys' room. UGH.
Lunch included toddling down to the office to get a Gatorade and muffin, as admin likes to ply us with sugar on these days. I had a nice exchange with the principal---details later---which was unforseen, she never talks to me. And it's fine, she's not mad, just very busy and important. Usually I get fly bys from her---like after The Odd Couple she was standing at the doors and said "I am a very proud principal right now"---moments like that are gold. If you know, you know, this is new territory for me. I have spent 20+ years as the unwilling but committed thorn in admin's side.
Fifth is my "advanced" 2/3 class. I have five enrolled but six show up---one kid can't enroll because his college schedule impacts Wednesdays, and he will be late. But he comes anyway, 'cause he's a Thespian and loves theatre. Unsure where he was on Friday, but only five showed up. Two of them were in the parade, so we had to dissect that. Then they actually wanted to learn more about breaking down monologues, so we worked. First time that day.
Sixth is another Intro, six kids enrolled, four show up on the regular. Two of them were the struggle bus freshmen from the assembly. They were far enough away from the event to attempt performing their fairy tale scene, but honestly freshmen aren't freshmen any more. COVID halted so many developments that they're still in seventh grade. I had to lecture them on maturing a bit to make it through theatre scenes, but I'll have to turn this into a reading hist/lit class. The boy can barely function, he has major ADHD and no paperwork---so it's not identified or diagnosed.
I subbed for seventh period since I have it off. It's a freshmen lit class and I knew a few of the kids, so that was relatively painless. The group of trouble making boys were quiet, I don't have to have been previously introduced to them to identify who they are. I made them deflate their ball, and when he blew it up again I just looked at him. "Sorry, Miss" and he stopped.
Then I gave a sub a ride home to Highlands Ranch, came home and watched American Werewolf In London and said "This looks like the video for 'Thriller'.
SCENE.
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