Too much yet nothing at all

We had our Christmas concert last night. It seemed to go well. The concert committee decided to try something new this year by having the concert in the school gym (instead of the community hall). The other big change was that each class (elementary, of course) would be in their classroom until a runner would come and fetch them to perform. This is a common way Christmas concerts are conducted across the entire North American continent. But a lot of people were bitching about the change before they even saw it. My students were expressing their parents' complaints to me all week. All I said was that they should check out the new format before they start saying "it sucks".

Like I said, the "new way" seemed successful from what I could see. At the end of the concert, I was standing with the VP while parents and community members shook his hand and told him they liked the concert ... including one of the biggest advocates against the new format.

My job during the concert was to help out in a grade 2 classroom. This was fun. Kids that age are so great, especially when you're a guest in their classroom. I was novel so they liked playing with me (of course I played with blocks and pegs to make mathematical patterns). I even read to two girls ... while one of them had her arms around my neck, hanging off my back, her head pressed against my ear so I could only hear my voice rattle around in my head. The girls then braided my hair for me.

My other job was in the staff performance. I signed up for it hoping someone else would organize it. No one did, and damned if I wasn't going to be in the Christmas concert. So I took the reigns and ask Ms. So-and-so if she would join me in organizing our performance. We got a spoof poem of Twas' the Night Before Christmas titled Twas' the Week Before Christmas. It was about how a teacher goes nuts because her kids are bouncing off the walls. I read the poem while other staff pretended to be obnoxious students. It was really funny. The kids LOVED it during dress rehearsal and the community laughed pretty hard too.

The thing that got my got happened during the second meeting Ms. So-and-so and I called for the performance. Everyone agreed they loved our idea and were pretty excited because we knew the kids would think it funny. Once the meeting was over, one of our co-workers had the gall to tell us that we should do something serious because the kids don't take us seriously enough. She then added we should do something more traditional having to do with the true meaning of Christmas: Jesus.

First off, I'm serious all the time with the kids. True, we have a lot of fun in class (well, as much fun as you can have in a math class) but there is usually a pretty serious tone in class. Math is serious stuff. It would be nice for the kids to see us in a silly role for the Christmas concert. Second, the whole Jesus-Christmas-thing is pretty much avoided in the public school system. If you don't get what I mean, I can go into it further, but I'm sure most of you know what I mean. Thirdly, we all know the crap that First Nations have gone through with the church: residential schools, colonization, small pox, etc. As a new person to the community, I certainly don't want to open that can of worms. Fourthly, I'm not Christian. Since I was the one who stepped up to the plate I got to pick what we did :P

I was pretty speechless when she said this. And pretty ticked. So was Ms. So-and-so. We pretty much said that it was pretty much organised now and we weren't going to come up with something new with three days to the concert. Also, I said school was not the place to push religion onto people. Ms. So-and-so, bless her for not being a chicken like me, out-and-out said that she would not be part of some "traditional" performance. And we told her if she wanted to do something that was more traditional, she was welcome to organize something herself. She didn't take that suggestion up and she stayed firm with her opinion. She just wanted to bitch about what we were doing. We were glad when she opted not to be in the performance.

I've been wanting to put this in my blog for awhile to get it off my chest, but I'm not quite sure how I feel. So I'm sneaking it into the end of a long entry. I think I have a crush on one of my co-workers. But it's a bit complicated. The big issue is that he's 20 and I'm 27. I think I'm too old for him. Second, some of his closest friends are students – students that I teach. Thirdly, guess what his name is? Andrew. How strange is that if we dated? I would have dated three Andrews in a row. I think he may have a crush on me too. He was taking photos of the concert and stuff yesterday but it seemed he was taking a disproportionate number of pictures of me. At one point I said he could only take pictures of me if he were in them too. So he handed off the camera to some kid, wrapped his arm around me and had the kid take a couple of pictures of us. Again, I'm wondering if this is a disaster ready to happen with the complications, or is it that I'm a little lonely and I'm attaching myself to people who show interest in me. I think my trip home next week will give me the perspective I need to deal with this situation.