M 10.22.12
- this year marked Septiembre's 5th annual Gala in Literature
- the little kids ("first cycle") read several well-known fairytales throughout the year, in English, then choose one to recreate for the Gala
- for the upper grades ("second cycle"), each grade reads a piece of literature from a certain time period in literature...studies the era, its history, a biography of the author, etc. then performs a rendition of this story at the Gala
- 4th form - Renaissance/Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
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| a tent was rented this year because the night before, and basically all day, it rained....lots, but that didn't stop us! |
- 5th Form - Romanticism: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- 6th Form - Victorianism: The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
- 7th Form - Modernism: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- of course, because this was my first year at this school, I had a lot to learn, not only about the Gala, but about teaching 7th graders and trying to get them excited about the early 1900's
- I think I succeeded somewhat in teaching them about WWI, the Roaring Twenties, Fitzgerald, along with the art, music, fashion, and inventions of those times
- after some background history we jumped into the novel, which is quite scandalous
- luckily we had the kid-reader-ESL version that was pretty mild
- we watched the movie after, as well as the movie, A Midnight in Paris which is perfect to depict the times we were studying...Fitzgerald and Van Gogh were even in the movie (among other famous figures of the times)!
- for the Gala, we had to tone down the theme of drunken parties, affairs and cheating, and instead our characters were all friends, getting together for a high school reunion in NYC after some years
- we tried to sort of do a modern day Gatsby by using cellphones, laptops, and referencing Facebook and Twitter
- we of course needed one (very important) love relationship, Daisy and Gatsby...where Gatsby is still in love with Daisy after all these years...
- after Gatsby receives some strange phone calls throughout the play, warning him not to go to the reunion, he ends up going and getting shot at the end while at the party
- despite the stressors of being a 7th form Argentinean student, rigorously preparing for high school entrance exams, the students pulled off an entertaining, dramatic rendition of The Great Gatsby
- and I'm proud of them for that
- Congrats on your last Gala chicos!
- here are my boys that torture me daily...their poor parents insisted I jump in the photo, although I'm sure they were not happy about it
- mine and Johanna's loving husbands came to support us at the Gala...which ended at close to 8:30
- on our walk home, we ordered sushi to be delivered around 9:15 and invited Johanna and Jonathan to join us in celebration
- it was Johanna's first sushi experience, so here we were trying to help her maneuver her chops sticks
- by the end, she was a pro!
- HOORAY! We're done!
- having never officially been in a play myself, or written a script, found sound effects, and more or less directed a play, I'd say I learned a lot in this stressful and a little bit fun process...so happy it's over though!
- the first cycle's Gala was on a different night, and I was able to catch a bit of it
- here are their bulletin boards:
- Kinder 4: Finding Nemo
- Kinder 5: The Great Circus (~Madagascar)
- 1st Form: Sleeping Prince (~Sleeping Beauty but with a boy...so cute)
- 2nd Form: Winnie in the Winter
- 3rd Form: Alice in Wonderland
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