This is pretty typical of me. I start out with the grandest of plans only to find that the best laid plans...well, you know the rest of that. Honestly, I didn't have any fabulous, profound, or life-changing adventure last week to write about. My hopes of riding the hot air balloon were swept away in all the rain and wind we called weather. And now the balloon has flown away to other lands.
Disappointed, I went back to my original blog to find out just exactly what I had gotten myself in for with this year of adventure. Would I really be able to hold up to such a demanding goal? After all, I have a hard time getting the laundry done every week much less setting up a grand adventure in that same time frame. I guess in my mind I envisioned myself zip lining through the rain forest, which could still be possible, or swimming with killer whales, ummm strike that off the list!
Sometimes it helps to go back to the beginning and re-evaluate the goal to make sure you're on target. Here is what I said in my introductory blog in January: "I'm looking to find the adventure in everyday life. It might be something as simple as trying a different flavor of ice cream..." (Corn ice cream, anyone?)Okay, that made me feel one tiny bit better about my intentions. So I started thinking about the week I had. Routine as usual? I don't consider entertaining (I mean teaching) a group of pre-teens usual, but it's my day job and I absolutely love it. And once I gave my week with those kids a good think over, I realized I had experienced one colorful adventure after all.
Take a walk back with me to the days of tie-dye, protests, and drugs, sex, and rock 'n roll. Not that I remember any of that since I was a mere infant at the time. No, my adventure doesn't include exposing 11 and 12-year olds to the vices of the '60s. But we did spend the day making tie-dye t-shirts and head bands in homage to our class novel, Schooled. The book is about a home-schooled hippie named Capricorn (gotta love it, especially since that's my zodiac sign) who finds himself thrown into public middle school. He is elected eighth-grade class president as a joke, but in the end Cap teaches the students a lot about life. He learns a lot about the real world in the process, too.
The bell rang and class started with 25 kids donning white t-shirts and head bands. Those who forgot to bring theirs asked if they could use their socks. "Sure, why not, but only if they are clean" was my reply. I guess that was okay since I didn't hear from any outraged parents. I turned on some Beatles music to set the mood.
I demonstrated the process which went something like this: "Kids, take your t-shirts and bandanas and pull from the center. Now grab the material around the middle." This action produced a room full of strangely pointed phallic symbols made of white cotton. I gave my stern, don't-even-think-about-commenting teacher look to a few boys who thought they might try to make a funny.
Believe it or not, the next step involved giving every kid a handful of rubber bands. I threatened them with their lives if they dared to take any from the room and get caught using them as lethal weapons. The purpose of the rubber bands was to tie up the t-shirt in eight or nine places. This went pretty smoothly considering.
The next two steps could have sent my students on a real high. They took brightly colored markers and colored in all the sections between rubber bands. It didn't seem like it should take a long time, but some students colored diligently making sure every inch of white was covered. That's a lot of magic marker fumes!
The final step in the process was to use a spray bottom to apply rubbing alcohol over the entire shirt. The alcohol causes the colors to run, thus producing the tie-dye effect. This is where my job began. I spread out an old shower curtain and started spraying down the shirts, bandannas, and socks. By the end of the class period, all the t-shirts were doused and laid out on the curtain to dry. I don't think the air quality in the room would pass EPA standards, but we got the job done.
The kids had a great time, learned the art of tie-dying, and gained an appreciation for Paul and the boys. Me, I made a memory and shared an adventure with some of the the greatest 6th graders I know.
