Slice of Life: Bringing a Bit of Fun to a Faculty Meeting

My principal is gracious enough to give me about 45 minutes of a faculty meeting at twice a year. I may be brought in on other occasions to roll out district-wide professional development, but these other times are mine to use the way I want and the way I think they will best benefit the faculty and build collaborative bridges. I am grateful for this time.

On occasion (more often than not), these 45 minutes finish up a faculty meeting.  There have even been the meetings where last minute items are included in the agenda and my time is shortened and delayed.  Here you must understand that the teachers have spent a good part of the day teaching and have now been in a meeting for an hour and a half (with a ten minute break). They are tired and full of information, whatever I bring has to be good and engaging.

Knowing all this, I am lying in bed last evening thinking of how I can bring a bit of fun to the faculty meeting. Aha! I have this brilliant idea! (Confidence is important when one flies in the face of convention.) 

I head off to school with a few extra things in my work bag.

Fast forward seven hours.

It's 2:45.

Time to present!

I have my media cart ready to go: 

projector is on, Web pages are opened, and the speakers are up.

I slip out into the hallway 

as the previous agenda item conversation wraps up.

The principal segues into my time and asks, "Is Jen here?"

My friend clicks play on the YouTube video.

The Golden Globes theme music fills the room.

I walk back into the room wearing a full-length, velvet gown along with long leather gloves (my grandmother's), clasping a manila envelop and waving to an imaginary crowd.

Yep. 

The audience, I mean the faculty was speechless, 

when they were not laughing hysterically.

The fancy gloves didn't let me control my track pad, so I couldn't turn down my music, which is something I stated that real award presenters didn't have to contend with...

I proceeded to feign nervousness, proclaim excitement, and, when I dropped the envelop while opening it, to compare myself to Jennifer Lawrence (explaining that I was thankful there were no stairs in this room). 

I opened the envelop, pulled out the sheet, and stated, "The winner of the best audience of the year is...you!"

The rest of the presentation moved along normally, 

fancy gown and all.

The veteran teachers in the room took it in stride. As for the student teachers and new members to the staff, I think I made quite an impression.

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The folks at Two Writing Teachers host a Slice of Life writing challenge. If you want to participate, you can link up at the Slice of Life Story Post or you can just head on over there to check out other people's stories. For more information on what a Slice of Life post is about, go here.