Rock the house

Today might have been the most succesfull day of my life. Today was the day everyone knew was coming. Final evaluations.

We were to prepare a lesson for our first day of class in a new school. 15 minutes of it, anyways. Greeeting, Presentation, and Closing. Yesterday, I taught a very successful dialogue, so I thought to do it again. I challenged myself to make it appropriate for elementary school, since yesterday was junior high, and I will be teaching both. I was determined not to follow the exact formula written in the book. I'm a musician first and foremost, so I WAS going to use my guitar. And I decided to weave the parts of my lesson into one seamless flow of communication. I decided that since I was greeting them today, my target would be teaching a greeting. So I did.

My final evaluation was only ok. I felt cheated, because the people in my group weren't helping me out. They weren't paying attention, and it screwed me up. Won't bore you with the details. I gave myself a B, because it just wasn't as good as yesterday.

Well,after everything was over, we all met up and consolidated. And surprise, they had a "best of the best" demo. And each facilitator (person who evaluated the groups) dropped a name in a box.....Crap, I thought. Guess who was the first person out of the box.....yeah. This guy.

And so I went up again...in front of EVERYONE. Not only every facilitator, teacher, every other Alt(like me), but branch member representatives from around the country, and the behind the scenes recruitors. And sweet leaping monkey bastards, I was glorious.

Everything went "perfectly." And when I screwed up, I made it look like part of the lesson. I was able to adapt on my toes, I was able to engage everyone in my class. And they were paying attention, so I got to do everything I planned. And then I taught them my song. MY song. No stolen lyrics. No borrowed nursury rhyme melody with new words. A Dexter O'neal Davison II original work. Not only did I have my class singing, the entire room...ahem, THE ENTIRE ROOM OF 300+ people sang my song with me. And I felt this cathartic moment of jubilant freedom. And then I just let it all go for one more round of my song. My song, btw.

And then, before I could even finish my Lesson, the entire room gave me a standing ovation. So I took what I had learned about noisy classroom control and got them all to sit down, so I could finish. And if my kids at the real school, say "No, don't go" with as much sincerity as the other teachers faking it said it.....I think I might not be able to stop. I almost cried. So then I did my exit and went back to my seat.

And Mike, the head trainer said, "Dexter, come back up here." I did. "Take a bow." I did and I got standing ovation number 2.

Then after the whole lesson was over, I was swarmed by people calling me "Champion," which is what we use for winner. And branch officers came up to me to say that my branch was lucky to have me, and that if I ever wanted to switch locations, to let them know. And I was told that I moved Mike, my head teacher to tears. It was euphoric, and I can't believe that it happened. I never thought I would feel this way again. It's the rush I feel after a performance. And I havent felt it in about a year, since my last steel drums concert. It was the best pet. For the DPS.