Saturday, October 12, 2002

CD: Beastie Boys, "Root Down EP"

Some days I get to go in for work and there is nothing to do. When teachers are absent, they oftentimes just have their substitutes watch over study halls, or watch videos with their class. Not a bad job, really. Today was one of those days. All of my classes were canceled for something called "Orienteering," which involves teams of kids walking around the athletic fields, finding different stations and doing tasks to complete a checklist of Fun Activities. My station was called "Grab Bag," where students get a random free prize. That's it. I'm not going to sit out in a wet field in my good shoes for two hours playing trick-or-treat. What does that teach you, huh? So with permission of a number of parent volunteers (they thought I was one of them) I came up with a task:

"Okay, this is called Grab Bag, where you basically get a free prize for doing nothing. But that's no fun, so here's what you have to do. [pointing] I want you to run around those bleachers over there three times. This is the catch: do you know the song for Meow Mix cat food?"

Group of five [puzzled]: "Yeah...."

"You have to sing it while you run, as loud as you can. Got it?"

G5: "Uh...oh...kay..." [ten seconds later] "MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW! MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW...!"

"I said LOUD!"

Subbing rocks.

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