Beginnings are endings are beginnings.

So the school year officially begins on Monday, which means that my summer vacation has officially ended. Truthfully? I'm not as sad about it as you might think. Part of it has to do with the fact that it is fun to redecorate your classroom every year (after you get over the initial mumbling and grumbling stage, aka, the unpacking and cleaning). Here's what my classroom looks like this year -- pardon the blur, they were taken with my iPhone:

I still want to add a few more things to my classroom before I can consider it done -- namely a small fridge and a Harry Potter poster -- but it can wait until things settle down a bit.

Another reason why I'm not feeling so bad about starting the new school year is that I get to end my summer vacation on a high note -- while I was going quietly crazy at work today, bouncing from meeting to meeting, my boyfriend called to suggest we go to Islands of Adventure tomorrow until Sunday because our annual passes are about to expire. For a nanosecond, I thought, Are you insane? But then I decided, Oh what the heck. I'll just stress myself out if I stay home and wind up spending all weekend creating color-coded seating charts and whatnot. Better to go to Orlando and have butterbeer and ride the Dragon Challenge, especially since I've been on such a Harry Potter kick this summer. I'll probably start the school year more relaxed that way!

The biggest reason why I'm happy to begin the new school year? It's simply because I'm excited to meet my new students. It is both the blessing and the curse of the teacher that we play but a transient role in the lives of our students. When you think about it, we truly spend so little time with them and ultimately have that blink-and-you'll-miss-it chance to make a difference in their lives. I become newly aware of this fact every August. Even though I'm going into my ninth (!!!) year teaching this school year, I still get butterflies in my stomach every time school starts up again. If I'm blessed enough to still be teaching when I'm old and gray, something tells me I will still continue to get those butterflies. I hope they never fly away.

Book Fair/Twilight Festival Recap

So today was our Book Fair/Twilight Festival at school. My AP English Language students were in charge of representing various genres such as Young Adult, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Graphic Novels, etc. I had them make "billboards" (aka, poster-boards) with flashy pictures and book synopses.

They did awesome. Here they are with their boards:


Romance


Comic Books/Graphic Novels


Poetry


Young Adult


Nonfiction


Plays


Comedy


Fantasy/Science Fiction

Love them all. I am so, so proud of them.

The one unexpected treat today was seeing all the Twilight-related paraphernalia. I wasn't in charge of that portion of today's event, the Twilight Club was. I know what you're thinking -- why don't I run the Twilight Club?! Well, as an English teacher, I would rather promote literacy than love of Twilight -- strange but true. This is why I run the Book Club.

But back to the Twilight Festival! I think they did a great job. There were competitions in Arm Wrestling (Emmett did not show up for that, sadly), Lightning Baseball, plus they had the most awesome Human Chessboard (which you can see in the video). They also had booths set up where students could get face paint to look like vampires, plus you could buy red velvet cupcakes and fruit punch (out of blood vials, natch). It was crazy.

The pièce de résistance, however, had to be the Drama Club's production of "Twilight." Their performance was entirely based on movement and expression -- no words were spoken. And it was awesome. It presents the story from when Bella first arrives in Forks, and carries it all the way to the scene where Edward saves Bella by sucking James's venom from her blood.

The students were so much in character -- Bella had flannel! James had a leather jacket! Edward had a peacoat-like jacket and face makeup that sparkled in the light! There were also students representing the rest of the Cullens in the festival, but they didn't appear in the skit.

It's kind of hard to see in the video, but in the scene where Edward reveals his sparklepire self to Bella, the sun, which had been partially obscured by clouds, decided to lend the actors a hand and it shone directly on Edward. I swear to you, I had chills running up and down my arms.

Here's the video. (Sorry for the blurry quality -- this was taken using a digital camera!). Close-up pictures of the student actors are after the vid.

Pretty, Pretty Peektures

Edward and Bella.


Mike Newton and Jacob Black (love Jacob's shirt!)


Alice and Jasper (love her expression!)


Dr. Carlisle and me. :-p


James and other random nomadic vampires


Edward gives Bella's would-be attacker the stink-eye.


Bella confronts Edward.


Edward "makes" Bella dance.


Edward fights James.


Aww...


How did you like the video/pictures? Let me know in the comments!

Have you had a chance to check out my Examiner Book Review of Twilight (the book) yet? Read it and please comment on the site!

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