Meme again...

In an effort to sort through today (I still can't even begin to try to comprehend yesterday's huge discussion) I'm needing to go back to the Meme thing (shout out to you, Liesl!):
What went well:
Speech auditions! I am excited about the quality of kids we had audition and look forward to holding them to high (but fun) standards and really finding a lot of success... I am SUPER excited about Liesl's lightbulb about having a certain young man do extemporaneous poetry reading... Seriously. He will go to state. I am SO excited.
What went pretty well:
German 1 went pretty well today... I ended up telling more culture today than normal, but sometimes culture can go by the wayside and it is definitely not only already one of the standards of world language education, it's also inherent in many of the other standards. So no problems here.
German 3 went pretty well also. The new way of doing music was fantastic. We listened to it three times and for different things each time (degrees of difficulty scaffoldling throughout) and I asked what they thought. Even Dirk said that he liked it because sometimes listening to it the first time with all the lyrics and not knowing (or having to find out) what they mean is too overwhelming... and he's one of the best students in class. This is great feedback. I'm glad I learned the technique and I know it is pedagogically sound as well as effective! Awesome. They also did more conjuguemos today. Only 4-5 have passed it. They really are having a harder time with this than kids have in the past... but they all recognize how beneficial it is for them to do... despite the fact it might be frustrating. How do I know this? Because right after their complaints (Man, this sucks! I can't do this!), they verbalize things like (ugh. But I know I'm doing better already... or I know it's good for me Frau, but I swear, I can't do this). Then I cheerlead a bit and ask them if they've been having personal bests... and they always have been. So this is all good. We're not going back tomorrow. We'll save it until Thursday.
What could have gone better:
German 2. Seriously. The kids are being lazy. They are tired. They are just not excited... even today when I was excited! So today is an example of an anomaly of the theory that my excitement will always infect the kids. The discussion about the podcast didn't give the results I had hoped for, but perhaps another avenue to try instead. They mentioned an 8th grade class where they did show-and-tell... and could do anything as long as it related. I might just try this. We'll have to talk more about it tomorrow. I think I also need to just get them up and moving. More community building. Something. Maybe Chairman of the Board tomorrow??
Who I need to touch base with:
A colleague about speech team. And I'm not really looking forward to it, but maybe I need the mindset that it truly is painless and without judgment... ask it like Biener would.