Classroom antics (2 of 2): Needed levity.

At my main school, I nicely bitched the freshmen writing kids out for 10 minutes over their disorganization and how they should get their shit together since that kind of stuff is *exactly* the thing that factors into whether they get recommendations or not, and I want them all to do well.

They were very grave, and the mood was low afterwards as we began to discuss some writing issues and then segued into discussion of their drafts.

Luckily, the previous night I had been with some friends to a Wed. night outing where drag performers were doing Cher songs, and at the door they had handed cut-out faces of Cher (4 varieties!) attached to popsicle sticks, and I was able to collect all of them.

So, I had them ordered and laid face down on the table right in front of me to my left, and after the 2nd of the 6 students had discussed their draft, I was like, "Man, the mood is down in here, do you guys want some levity?", and they all nodded.

I then turned to the next student up and was like, "So, are you ready to discuss your paper with everyone?", and when they said yes, I repeated myself more insistently, and then they said yes again, and then I finally was like, "No, are you *really* ready to discuss your paper?".

When they said a final yes, I was like, "Okay, now....   Cher!", and at that moment I held up the 1st mask to all the students.

Everyone really laughed, and then I heard 2 students discussing whether the other masks were also Cher (which they of course were, and which I used in turn on the 3 remaining students in an interesting order, where the 2nd one was weird, the 3rd an 80s short hairstyle, and the 4th and final a dramatic gold headdress).

I also did the Cher mask thing for the next group of 6 students afterwards, but it was late and they were tired, so after the 1st mask, I said I'd show them what the other masks were if they promised to try to focus on the next paper, and they did that, so I re-did the promise thing again before each remaining paper.