Eagle-lympics: The Preparation

One of the many cool things about working for a residential high school is developing a hall community among pre-college age girls. Whereas college freshmen eventually figure out how to act like college students, high school students don't do that until...well, until they go to college. Like last year, my hall has separated itself as the loud, awkward, and ridiculous floor. It all started when we made our theme "Obscure Presidents," which a loyal reader might recall from last spring's brainstorming session. In line with developing a community, my students have really come together in support of our nation's obscure presidents.

Wishing to make our theme even more amazing, we loaded up a few presidential portraits on blockposters.com and printed them out in black and white on brightly colored paper. The finished product? These:

One of my students who helped decorate the hall explained, "He's saying 'Ball so hard' because he's Harding!!" 

"Homie, on Thursdays your room should probably be clean." -Millard Fillmore

Other presidential reminders include, "Be home by curfew!" ("Because I really think I'm more likely to do it if a president is telling me when I have to be home!" said the same student), "Play nice," "RACK CITY (follow dress code)," and "No liquids in the trash!" Then there's Grover Cleveland on the hall door saying, "SWAG ON!" The best part of all of this is my students LOVE IT. They are highly supportive of integrating our theme into as many things as possible, including...

Eagle-lympics.

Formerly known as Eagle Antics and brought back in 2011 after a brief hiatus, Eagle-lympics is an inter-hall competition that highlights all of the things that make being a gifted, talented, and a teenager both wonderful and terrible. Today is the long-awaited Eagle-lympics, and the entire building has been buzzing with halls doing last-minute preparation (mine included.) Although we probably could have survived with our amazing T-shirts alone (photos to come in the evening...), my hall wanted to take it to the next level with hand-painted posters. I am so excited to reveal our hall posters, because they are a-mazing.

Eagle-lympics is no "clean old-fashioned hate" rivalry, but I am looking forward to tonight's events. Hopefully nobody's head will be ripped off.

Pooping as Procrastination

Five weeks have passed since Mardi Gras break, and tomorrow is the day when the students can finally go home (or at least somewhere other than our building) for a well-deserved break. As I am sitting in my office writing an assignment for class, two students are on a couch stressing about calculus. Referring to her earlier British literature homework, one of them just said,

"Earlier, I took like...a twenty minute poop. I was just like, 'My stomach hurts really bad right now, but this is way better than reading that stupid poem.' That was my train of thought."

Welcome to the mind of a delirious pooping high school girl at a school for gifted and talented students.

Influenza, Typhoid, and Tuberculosis

I was just sitting in my office with a few students, and we were discussing some exciting new ideas for hall themes for next year. Some of our brilliant ideas were: Safari; Crime Scene; Hotel; Wal Mart Wonderland; Construction Site; Ancient Civilizations; Influenza, Typhoid, and Tuberculosis; 1491: Before Columbus; The Mafia (incorporating Hotel and Crime Scene) and Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Just as I was about to propose From Russia with Love, loud shrieks echoed through my office and into the hall. Within just a few inches of two girls' faces was the scariest thing to happen to our floor since the work service students forgot to empty the mop water.

That's right, a ginormous spider:

After successfully capturing the spider in a bottle and giving it a few air holes, we continued to brainstorm for 2012-2013 hall themes.

Other suggestions since starting this post: Pizza, Cats, Cats and Sarcophagi, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Sweden, The Olympics, The History of Buttons, Raj Patel/Nicki Minaj, and the LSMSA Basketball Team.

Since publishing: Chins, Famous Dictators, Not-So-Famous Dictators, Obscure Presidents, Billionaires, Victoria's Secret, Obscure Super Heroes, League of Nations, Movies,  Breeds of Monkeys, Medieval Torture Devices, History of Pascal ("Not only was he a famous mathematician, but did you know he invented the roulette wheel AND the syringe? Think of all the heroin addicts in Vegas who don't know who Blaise Pascal is!"), Janitorial Supplies, a History of Socialism in England, France, Kanye West Songs, Space Exploration, Medieval Popes, Fashion Through the Ages, Deep Sea Creatures, Types of Parties, Cephalopods, Giraffes Running, Kangaroos Birthing, Volcanoes, Types of Hats, Types of Clouds, and Types of Swamp Monsters