I have even been talking up field day to my homeroom since the first day of school. Seriously. On the first day, I told them about field day and I told them we were going to win this year. I may have also told them to work hard in PE, because it is pretty much practice for field day (wait, you mean I should've been giving that pep-talk in regards to the TAKS test or at least the subject I teach instead? Oops, where are my priorities?) I figure it's never too early to plant that seed on the importance of field day, right?
But when I started the day off by gathering the class to take a photo, I started questioning the capabilities of the group of kids I was given. I mean, one kid has a broken arm (which he did get a water-proof cast: way to look out for the whole team kid!), another who couldn't even stand long enough to take the picture, three kids that got in trouble and couldn't even go, girls that are so involved with being cool who knows if they would be willing to play, and lastly, (how do I put this nicely?) well, she'd be great for the tug-of-war portion!
Even though looking at them we looked like the underdogs, I decided I wouldn't let that stop me from trying. So all day I'd throw out comments like, "well after we win..." or "is _______ going to be in our best interest for winning?" At one point in the middle of the game the kids realized there was a way to cheat at a particular event. I told them no way we were cheating, we were going to win fair and square, that way we'll feel good about our win!So you may be asking yourself, how does the normal homeroom teacher behave at field day at my school? The answer would be: not like I did. I decided to go full force on this thing. I've come in second before, may as well had come in last. If you are not first, it doesn't matter. See only first gets a trophy. No second or third place prize. No one even remembers who they were fifteen seconds after it is announced. But most of the other teachers are not concerned with winning. They just go out there and watch their kids play and make sure they play nice. Not I.
I may or may not (but more like may) have yelled at a kid for not hustling. I then followed it up with, "hustle means run!" And I ran in place next to the kid, just in case he had forgotten what it meant. It really didn't do much as far as that kid was concerned, but the other kids got the hint. Just to further stress that note, the head girls athletics coordinator saw this and asked if I wanted to be a coach for girls athletics next year, no thanks, I reserve this behavior strictly for field day. I also may or may not (but really just may) have carefully studied the previous class do the events before us and on our way over to the station told my kids the key strategies needed to win those events. I also may or may not have (but you know which one I mean) asked the worker at each station what was the high score for that spot and if it was only 5 points (most were worth between 50-250) I would ease up on the kids and encourage not stressing themselves over that one event. All of these things are perfectly fine when it comes in the name of winning the trophy for field day...I think.
One of the events, the ring toss, I actually got to participate in! I had to stand inside a hula-hoop and the kids toss other hula-hoops and for each one I caught it was a point. Now, let me say, this is not a pretty sight, especially since I didn't have the time to coach (yell-at) them how to toss it best. I just had to embrace the fact that I got pegged in the face about 20 times with a fast flying hula-hoop. I just had to learn to turn my body in the direction of least impact when all of the kids would throw the hula-hoop at the same time on accident. I just had to deal with the pain my back suffered afterwards from jumping around more in five minutes than I have altogether in five years. But it was all worth it when the worker said I caught 100 hula-hoops!!!
After all the stations were done, we went onto the classic field day event, tug-of-war. Now this has always been my homerooms strong point. We may have never won it, but we usually go far in the tournament! Looking at my homeroom I thought for sure we had it in the bag (even the kid with a broken and the non-hustler got out there and gave it their all)! But that wasn't the case. We got out the first round! My kids blamed it on too many of our kids choosing to take their shoes off (note to self, kids will not be taking shoes off next year, who cares if they get wet?). Tug-of-war is the big event, we have no hope after loosing in the first round!
When it came to the big announcement, they sat all the kids back in the bleachers and read off second and third place (I don't even remember who they were anymore). And then the coach announced, "And our winner is who I will call the silent team. They didn't do very well in the tug-of war but they blew everyone else out of the water on the stations!" I turned to my kids who were all looking intently at me and I said, "I think this could be us! I think we may have won!" Then she said, "The winner of field day with 2,624 points is.........Miss Jones' homeroom!!!!!!!!"
I thought I was going to die right then and there! I was running down the bleachers and to that trophy screaming, "Where's the trophy?!?!" I motioned for the rest of my team to come down to the field and celebrate. If they had anything else planned while the kids were seated in the bleachers I definitely ruined it! Oh we were excited! When we got back to the room, we took a victory picture, oh, and yes, I am in the picture. If you can't see me it's because I look like the kids after a full day of sweating. I'd say they were a bit more enthusiastic in this picture!
A funny comment by one of my students, "Miss, is that real gold?" Yes. Yes, we here in Lockhart have our priorities all out of whack. We had you drinking water straight out of those orange drink holding things (seriously, what is the name of that thing?) with no cups but we will make the field day trophy out of gold. Another kid said, "why did they make the cup blue? You should have one special made with the color of our shirts, purple!" Yeah, I'll get right on that.
Ahhhhhh....I love field day!!!!!!!
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