Uh, Oops....

For certain, each day brings me further out of my comfort-zone. I mentioned on Thursday that I expected to be a very busy bee yesterday--True that! Oh, if I had only known....
     But now that I know what not to do, hopefully I will be better equipped in the future.
     So first thing after our daily staff meeting, I scurried over to chapel and prepared for the worship I would be leading. The students chose their favorite songs and together we interpreted them for worship. But finally, when the dude who was coming to speak arrived; I vanished to a dark corner where I hunched over my clipboard and wrote furiously, hurrying to gloss my newspaper article into ASL before it was time for my class to start. You see, I had not anticipated this. On Wednesday, I had given the article to Betsy so that she could interpret it for her students in her writing class. But apparently this assumption was erroneous because on Thursday she handed the paper back to me and told me to interpret it for my students in my journalism class. A holi-day-whodi-whati? I'm gonna what?! I blinked. I glanced at her, then at the paper, and back again. Surely I had heard wrong....My pulse quickened and the heat rushed to my cheeks. Oh dear. "Uh, I can't interpret this article...there are many multi-syllabic words and idioms...." I tried to dissuade her. "You don't understand!" But I need not have bothered protesting.
     She simply wrinkled her nose, "Well, remember to not add so many big words in the future--but you wrote it, you interpret it."
     She turned to go and I stared at her back, "But...but...but." This was so not a good idea. She stopped and turned back around to face me; my mouth shut with an audible snap. The expression on her face clearly said, "If you have any questions...ask me when you're done." I made a few more lame attempts to try and convince her otherwise--but her mind was made up. End of story. Oh, fine, I'll do it! Not that I had a choice in the matter, though. So as I glanced over my gloss, I suddenly realized I had forgotten one of the words in Sign. "How do you sign the word 'president'? I have never had to use it before...."
     Betsy looked at me with a bored expression on her face. "You used the word, you figure it out."
     I sighed. Oh, honestly. I tapped my pencil on my knee...now what? Having an idea, I waved discreetly at Kevin and when he looked at me, I finger-spelled the word to him from behind my book. I glanced at Betsy where she sat at her computer and slowly shook my head. He immediately got the hint and turning his back towards her, he subtly signed the word to me. Bingo.
     So as the kids traipsed single-file into the classroom and were finally situated behind their desks, I slunk to the front of the room and sat in the "hot seat," my heart beating a million miles an hour. Betsy had meanwhile, apparently changed her mind; so instead of sitting behind the computer, she took a seat against the wall and turned to watch. Not exactly what I was anticipating. I mean, no pressure.
     With eight pairs of eyes watching me intently, I took a deep breath and willed my heart-rate to slow to a somewhat normal pace before jumping right into my story. After the first several minutes, I was finally confident enough to make eye contact with the kids. To my surprise, this was a great help. I looked at them as I explained about my adventures in Boston and my encounter with Native Americans. They nodded in understanding and began asking questions. Yay, it was interactive! And once I finally began, I realized it was not as bad as I had anticipated. But finally I came to the end and they all applauded. Betsy gave me a reassuring smile as I gracefully left the "stage." Only to be called back up moments later.
     Betsy had explained that they needed to write a story in which to apply their spelling words. "Rachel, come up here." She handed me a marker, "If they have questions, answer them."
     I stood with the marker in hand and looked into the tanned faces. Okay then. So I was doing more teaching. I guess it was time to take action then. "Well, you saw the lady," I waved them to their books. Time to get crackin', as my aunt would say.
     And did they have questions! Every couple seconds, I would see a hand waving and would be asked how to spell a word or need to explain a situation. I am beginning to understand what it means to be a teacher--and while I must admit that at times it is quite tiring, it is also so much fun!
     Then, after an hour, came the conclusion of that project. Next, it was into the kitchen for my Home Ec. Class. Putting things out on the counter, I prayed everything would work out well. Betsy was slightly stressed, so I was hoping this would be easy and virtually painless. She wouldn't have to worry about anything, right?
     Ha-ha. Truth be told, I was trying something fairly new. I had decided to make mini-pizzas using Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and rolling the sauce, cheese and pepperoni inside before baking it. That seemed like such a quick and easy thing to do, but once the kids began assembling their own, I watched on with increasing unease. Okay, so...maybe this was not such a great idea. I smiled as they slapped pizza sauce on their biscuit. I pondered if I should at that moment have lowered my expectations. Eh, fo shizzle, they would be fine. I whispered (signed discretely) to Kevin and Larimar, "This is a new recipe--an experiment. I hope you all like it." Larimar giggled and Kevin shook his head. Now, after all this time, you would think I would have learned by now that Betsy sees and hears everything. So it should not have surprised me when she looked over at me with the look on her face that said...well, I wasn't so sure I wanted to know at that moment what it said. Oops, was the only thing that came to my mind. Then, as if deciding the look wasn't enough, Betsy evenly asked, "What did I just see you say?"
     I wiggled my eyebrows at Larimar and slapped pepperoni on my roll, trying my best to act nonchalant. "Oh, I'm trying something relatively new," She stared at me and I began to have third thoughts about this idea. Yup, scratch that--back to the drawing board...."But, Rosa has made them before and I have made very similar things...so, no worries." I reassured her with more confidence than I really felt. Actually, I was reassuring myself as much as I was her.
     Betsy frowned, "Honestly, that was the last thing I really wanted to hear right now...."
     Oh, right. I nodded, "You have my sincerest apologies." I turned back to the students, some of whom had witnessed our exchange. "Ha-ha, wish me luck," I told Kevin as I gave the other kids a huge grin.
     "Okay Rachel, I'm trusting you on this!" Betsy chuckled and turned around. Nothing like pressure, huh? I bit my lip. Oh, Lord; I don't know how, but get me out of this one.

The students making snacks before the near pizza-disaster!

     We finished assembling what then looked like big hunks of chunky, red, saucy dough...wonderful. How appetizing. The kids were then herded towards the tables and were encouraged to play Uno until their food came out of the oven. I took a deep breath and waited--and waited. That had to have been one of the most suspenseful ten minutes of my life. I shuddered to think what could have been happening to those little balls of clumpy dough inside that oven. Heaven only knows what could have been going wrong behind that door. But finally, to my and everyone's great relief, they came out, looking and smelling wonderful. Which had far exceeded my expectations. If they had even survived the oven, it would have been an accomplishment.
     But the students said they liked them, the staff complimented me, and Betsy was impressed, so I guess the Lord did indeed answer my prayer after all! Oh, what a day!