Tortilla Slap

The first day of school. And I began a long-term in a seventh grade science class. 

In our district, seventh grade is the beginning of middle school. (I know some districts begin middle school with sixth grade. That's why I'm being specific.) And as such, the seventh graders are brand new to the school.

So, the school decided to make the first day of school a kind of seventh grade orientation. Instead of going to all their classes, the seventh graders stayed with their first period teacher for the full day of icebreaking games, a tour of the school, an overview of how the schedule works, and an assembly to welcome the new students. 

(I was given the schedule ahead of time, so I knew what was coming.) 

For a first day, things went fairly well. The eighth grader who was leading the group did a fantastic job. (Although, her tour guide skills do need improvement.) I didn't have to jump in too much. 

But then we went to the assembly...

I have made my dislike of assemblies abundantly clear on this blog. The problem with this assembly, though, was more technical. The sound system was so awful that I could barely make out what the presenter was saying. 

I got the gist as when various administrators were introduced, I already knew who they were. However, the students, who are new, wouldn't have figured out what they were talking about. So, they were bored.

Things could have gone worse. The kiddos were on first day best behavior. If they had tried this later in the year...

But what was notable about the assembly (and why I'm writing a blog post about it), was the last game they played. The earlier games were the usual things such as musical chairs (with a race component) and dodge ball. They did a tug of war. There was even a finish the lyric.

They finished the assembly with a game called rock-paper-scissors... tortilla.

I had never heard of this before, but apparently it's a thing. Mr. S, the leadership teacher, and Mr. F, a history teacher (who's also been doing some leadership stuff), faced off in rock-paper-scissors. The winner slapped the loser with a tortilla.

I... Uh...

I'm sure the students would have enjoyed it way more if they were more familiar with Mr. S and Mr. F. But they enjoyed it just fine. I, however, was mystified by the whole thing.

Just when I thought I'd seen everything...