Another Competition

On Thursday our school held a class singing competition. I'm not really sure why. None of the other schools in the district did, just us. Anyway, I was told on Monday that there would be no class on Thursday because there would be this competition and the teachers would be singing the school song (which they had dragged me to a rehearsal the week before, telling me we would be performing sometime in the next few weeks). All the teachers rehearsed on Monday evening, spending at least half an hour figuring out how to arrange everyone on the steps of the stage (leaving all 1200 students in their classrooms doing...things...). Then on Wednesday fourth period was replaced by rehearsal for the teachers, so  5(3) didn't have any English this week. And we proceeded to rehearse in the rain for thirty minutes. Luckily they realized that the accompanying music was pitched in a pretty awful key, too high in one octave and too low in the other, so we eventually switched to doing it a cappella.

Thursday morning itself was the competition. First the vice-principal made a short speech and announced that the competition was beginning (there's a set way of announcing the beginning of an event and it's always said extremely dramatically) and another teacher set off not one, but two consecutive strings of firecrackers. When the last packet finally exploded, we teachers trooped onto the steps and sang the school song. Then each class--all 25 of them--performed. The first and second graders sang the national anthem. The third and fourth graders sand the school song. The fifth and sixth graders sang the official song of the Chinese Young Pioneers, also known as We are the Heirs of Communism.

I was prepared for the performances to be out of tune and consist mostly of shouting. After all, I've taught third grade music here. What I was not expecting was for every single performance to also be out of time with the accompanying music. Not a single class managed to stay in time. Some of them managed it for longer than others, or found the beat again eventually, but every single class rushed egregiously. Even though they had a conductor (mostly teachers' children, or in classes without, another top student).

Amy, dressed for conducting. Also, all the students dragged their classroom chairs out to the track and sat bored,
but happy to not be in class, for two and a half hours.

Most of the classes added something to the performance.

This second-grade (I think) class brought flags with them and did a little salute/flag pose at the end.

Several classes, including 3(2) ban, including head-bobbing portions.

3(1) ban recited something and saluted.

This is the official school uniform (a track suit), not that you'd know it on a normal day in the classroom.

After all the classes performed, prizes were given out, the students dragged their chairs back to the classrooms, and nothing much happened for the half hour until lunch. I asked about the classes after lunch and was told we'd be teaching them. So I ran up to the copier room to make more copies of a worksheet. After lunch and a nice nap, I taught the first afternoon period, then returned to the office to swap fifth grade materials for third grade (including grabbing those worksheets). The students were called to assemble and it was explained that this last hour before they left for the long weekend would be spent cleaning the school. No class. 52 unused worksheets. So far there have been nine weeks of the semester, out of which I have taught all 16 of my periods exactly twice.