School Culture Festival

Today is Monday, but I've got the day off in exchange for working the school's culture festival on Saturday.  My school is unusual in that it actually had three separate days of activities because the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders are kept separated at all times to avoid behavior problems.  On all three days though, there was an opening ceremony, followed by a class chorus competition (Each class sings two songs, one of which is the same for all classes, and one of their choice; they are judged upon their performances--my YouTube channel has a clip of students singing "Country Roads".) In the afternoon, a few students read essays or put on a short play.  Then the teachers perform a comedy skit for the students, after which the bass brand plays and the closing ceremony takes place. Then, we teachers go out in the evening to eat and drink in celebration of having pulled it all off without having had to strangle anyone!

Now that the culture festival is finished and the sports day is a month past, things are supposed to settle into a more routine schedule.  Hopefully, this means I'll have a predictable pattern of classes and will get to know the students a bit better...

A Busy Weekend

This weekend was fairly busy and mostly entertaining. Hiro, a former exchange student came to visit us on Friday evening, and we spent all day Saturday at a small festival celebrating the bloom of thousands of Cosmos flowers on a hillside at a nearby park.  There was a bit of food and entertainment provided--you can see a couple of the Japanese Taiko drumming performances on my YouTube channel--rodgottula.

On Sunday, we went to an Indian festival and ate loads of good curry, nan and tandoori chicken. There was Indian music and dancing, and a huge flea market surrounding the park as well.  Because East Indian culture is not very well known in Montana, it was a great opportunity for the kids to see some stuff they'd never seen.

Finally, Monday was a national holiday here, so we went to a little festival put on by the design university just up the hill located behind our apartment complex.  They, too, had tons of food booths and lots of arts and crafts activities for the kids as well as live music and a Power Rangers skit to entertain the kids.  We spent about three hours there before going to Harborland to meet some relatives, who happened to be in town, for dinner.  So, all in all, a pretty busy weekend.

A Good Sports Festival

Finally--a good sports festival day!  The weather was beautiful: sunny, about 75 degrees with a slight breeze.  My son's elementary school had everything well organized, from reserving sections for parents behind each grade level (so they could easily watch their child interact) to ensuring that no group of kids was sitting for more than about 45 minutes.  They had lots of different activities for the kids, like camel fights, various sorts of silly races, and human pyramids--all designed to maximize cooperation between students within, and across, grade levels.  They also opened up a small gate between the athletic grounds and the park adjacent to them, so that students and their parents could enjoy picnic lunches on the grassy hillside. They even had the parents involved, competing against each other in a tug of war, after lunch.  For me, personally, it was nice to witness and participate in a fun, well organized event that was actually focused more on "enjoyment" than on one's ability to endure extreme weather or long periods of boredom. And, finally, the dog days of summer are over, which makes everything a bit easier to appreciate and enjoy...