Halloween Is Never More Scary than in a Classroom

I like complaining about multiple preps. I usually start preparing for my 12^th grade classes, then I move on to 9^th grade classes, and before I collapse on my bed in exhaustion, I scrape some lesson together for my Pathways class. I always dream how nice it would be to teach only one class. Planning time would cut in half. I would have time to exercise and watch movies. I could watch bad reality shows on E! and Bravo like my roommate does! Halloween robbed me of my beautiful dream. Thank the planning Gods that I have three preps in one day.

On Halloween, which fell on Wednesday (the day I don’t have a free conference period), I created the same lesson for all of my classes – both 9^th grade and 12^th grade. Such a horrible idea . . . Halloween really can be a frightful holiday. It started off like a great day. Fun costumes, fun activities, candy! Each period it got progressively worse. It was like living in my own “Tell-Tale Heart” nightmare. The entire faculty at my small learning community decided to dress up in doctor-themed wardrobe. The day before Halloween, I ventured into the fashion district of downtown Los Angeles to find some cheap scrubs. I bought this flowery navy blue set for fourteen dollars. Then, I bought this kid-sized surgeon outfit from the 99 cent store. The top barely fit but the surgeon mask and cap were totally worth the 99 cents. I threw some red paint on the surgeon gown and in big black letters wrote: Warning: I’m a First Year. I wanted to be cheeky. If a student asked, I could wave off the question with a Meredith Grey reference. I bought lots of Toostie Roll-type candy and Starbursts and put it in a pumpkin basket. I placed orange and black butcher paper in the windows. My room had an eerie glow. I had my scary stories, my videos, my Edgar Allan Poe on tape. I was ready for the best lesson EVER. I was going to have fun, they were going to have fun, what could go wrong? How about the best lesson ever five times in ONE DAY.

Each period, my students were more hyped up on the candy they were consuming in each class. After lunch, those periods were disaster. Too much sugar, too little patience. My scary story that involved the overhead being turned on and off like car headlights stared getting really annoying for me. I couldn’t read it with the same emphasis or foreboding. The Tell-Tale Heart video started seeming longer and longer each period. By the time sixth period came along, I was so tired, and I had a splitting headache from all the sugar I was eating (come on, you don’t expect me to ignore the pumpkin basket on my desk). Moreover, after five lessons teaching the exact same thing, you start thinking that your students are getting really stupid. You forget that they haven’t sat with you through the lesson already. So when sixth period starts answering questions incorrectly or when they sit silently when prompted for an answer, you want to shake them. Hello?! Duh! Poe uses foreshadowing! Idiot!

My Halloween cheer wore thin. At 3:12 after my detention kids left, I quickly swept my room (using my 99 cent broom and dust pan . . . love that store!). The floor was littered with candy wrappers and spilt skittles. I packed my bag and left – perhaps the earliest I have ever left school. I somehow made it home, swallowed two Tylenol, and collapsed on bed still in my scrubs. Three hours later, I woke up and sat down at my desk to plan three very separate lessons for tomorrow.