Day 21

Photograph by: Goodwin-Frazier Elementary School

Today was the Talent Show!

I’ve been excited for today all week. Not only have I been managing boring and exhausting gym days every single day this week and last Friday in order to allow students to practice for the Talent Show, but I also hadn’t seen any of the acts beforehand. All of the students had been practicing on the stage in the gym with the curtains drawn, so all of the acts were a complete mystery to me. I could hear the music coming from the stage, but I had no idea what kind of act the music was accompanying.

Today, I was on my own as my cooperating teacher took her “Student Teaching Free Day,” today in which she can take the day off and doesn’t need to have a substitute teacher in place. She picked this day in particular because she said it would be the easiest day all semester. The Talent Show was taking place during every single grade level’s Special period, so there were actually six mini Talent Shows today. All I needed to do was manage the crowd, making sure the students were seated properly and quiet throughout the performances. This was especially easy with the help of the homeroom teachers who stayed to watch the Talent Show and the administrators who came by, such as the principal. The students were well-behaved today, as well.

I was pleasantly surprised with the Talent Shows!

There was an incredibly diverse variety of acts in the shows. I was expecting a majority of singing acts, but there were several other acts including hula hooping, jump roping, magic, comedy, skits, dance routines, breakdancing, yo-yo tricks, piano playing, guitar playing, gymnastics, and even basketball tricks. The diversity kept things interesting and I was really impressed with some of the students’ talent. I also really loved the energy of all the acts and how excited the audience was. The audience couldn’t help but sing and clap along with the musical acts and it was fun to see their expressions when something exciting happened.

I was also surprised at the amount of parents and family that showed up. I was worried that there wouldn’t be a large audience because the Talent Shows were taking place during the school day, but many parents ended up coming. During the final, 4th Grade Talent Show, the gym was completely packed! It was incredibly exciting.

At the end of the day, an administrator said that the Talent Show was fantastic and such a great production to put on right before the start of another round of S.T.A.A.R. Testing next week. “It really lifts the spirits of the students with all of the support and shows them that they can do more than take tests!” she said.

There’s not really much else to report, as this week was kind of overtaken by the Talent Show, but it allowed me to witness how an elementary school puts on a large production like this. It is time-consuming, schedule-altering, and tiresome. The music teacher was so relieved at the end of the day, saying that she could now check the Talent Show off of her to-do list.