16 weeks, a Belly, and Ballroom

Four months! I can't believe I'm a month away from being halfway there.

Today I had my first full on belly rub. Our school's cleaning lady fully felt me up today at lunch. Strange thing is, I didn't feel like decking her in the face. I don't know why because usually I hate people touching me. I'm the type of person that does not like folks getting into my personal space unless I allow it/invite it.

Oddly, it was really sweet in a way. She has a very large family and it seems like she has taken me, the newly pregnant lady under her wing, maybe because she's done it so many times. She was wagging her finger at my students the other day because they left a highlighter on the floor and she was afraid that I'd trip and fall on it. She wouldn't let me hand her the plate of sandwiches (we had our monthly teacher appreciation lunch today) so she could get one and made someone else do it, and after school, when I ran to the bathroom to pee before our staff meeting she wagged her finger at me and clucked in Spanish that I shouldn't run. Now of course I find it endearing now but we'll see how I feel down the road.

Also in work related news, we had our first ballroom lesson today with the fifth graders. Some of you may be familiar with the documentary Mad Hot Ballroom



It's about a program that Pierre Dulaine, a renowned dancer and teacher (If you saw Take the Lead with Antonio Banderas, they based his character off of Pierre) started to teach children ballroom dancing through their schools. They specifically chose to work with fifth graders, though now they are branching into teaching high schoolers. These fifth graders involved in the program learn five+ dances within ten weeks.

The program originated in New York but they have started to bring it to schools nationally. My school is one of first schools in California to participate. There are only six of us in the whole state and we are all in the same county.

My kids are taking it for ten weeks during their PE period. Of course when they first heard the news they freaked out. In fact, you'd think we were asking them to cut off a limb or something. "What do you mean we won't get to have PE for ten weeks?!" "What do you mean we have to dance with boys/girls?!" Some of them even asked what would happen if they stayed home from school every Wednesday and Thursday. I told them that they wouldn't pass fifth grade if they missed that much school and would have to end up take it again the next year anyway. Some of the moms even freaked out about the classes(moms of boys, mind you)and called the Principal complaining. The principal told the moms the kids had no choice. Bwahahaha.

So today was the first lesson and I catch quite a few of the kids, dare I say it, having a fairly good time. Afterwards one of the boys says, "that was actually pretty fun". Another couple of boys were talking about the class saying, "That wasn't as bad as I thought." "You're right it wasn't that bad. It was still bad, but not as bad as I thought it would be."

Victory!