Jaguar Day

Jaguar Day: an occasion to present the new basketball jerseys at a “pep-rally”, and then let the kids run free for the next two and a half hours.  The entire campus convened in their auditorium, from the youngest Kinder students to the oldest Senior students.  Expecting an explosion of lights and sounds to engage the students, I was disappointed when the entire presentation consisted of the flag ceremony and a high school student reading a speech in both English and Spanish.  There was someone running around in a Jaguar costume, and a young student in a little Jaguar costume, but that was the most exciting part of the gathering, and when they had us chant “We are, we are Jaguars, Jaguars” (same beat as “We Will Rock You”).  Afterwards, they ushered all of the students out of the auditorium to go find an activity to visit.  From that point forward, it was a free-for-all.  I was supposed to help with jump rope, but I decided to be a rogue teacher and start my own activity of frisbee.   I think it was a success, and I only lost one frisbee (which I hope will show up later). 

After we kicked the students out at 11:30pm, all of JFK staff returned to the auditorium for some bonding.  A man in unfortunate bright green track pants told us all (in Spanish of course) about the Jaguar and how it’s a powerful animal.  Then we played a series of games in which I had to follow along blindly because I couldn’t understand much of what this guy said—not just because of my lack of Spanish, but this guy had a type of lisp and did not enunciate well.  The first game we wandered around while the guy sang a song and then when he stopped he told us how many people we needed in a group.  Left over people had to do a little dance while the guy sang.  Then we had to pass balls around in a circle and whoever had one of them when the guy stopped singing had to do the same dance from earlier.  After that, everyone was given a hoola-hoop to place on the ground.  When the guy sang, we had to “swim” outside of the hoops (which I guess were supposed to be boats).  The first time the music stopped, I totally biffed it trying to get in a hoop—I don’t know quite what happened, but I did land in the hoop!  Each time they took more hoops out and we tried to cram as many people in the hoop as possible.  Then we were all given handkerchiefs that we stuck in our pockets, and then we had to run around and steal as many as we could in the time allotted.  There were a few more activities, but the last one was unforgettable.  Track-pants man led us in some dances to different songs.  The first song was about a man who got hit by a train and how he danced—of course we emulated his dance—completely inappropriate, but amusing non-the-less.  The last dance was an interpretive dance to classical music.  It was fun to be goofy with the staff.  The rest of the afternoon was spent in meetings—true excitement!

Was this day a total waste?  No, just mostly! :)