Tell me about yourself!

Have kicked off the heels and am sitting Indian style in my desk chair, taking an essay grading break. One great big perk of daylight savings: it feels soooo much less lame to be here until 7pm! "It's still light outside! I've got PLENTY of evening left!"

Today's word of the day: filament. As in, The Noiseless Patient Spider, by Whitman. A good SPRINGTIME word, no? When all the world is cautiously creeping forward, reaching tentative petals out of the cold, wintery ground... we are all still fragile filaments-- not yet the robust vines of summer.

But gosh, we're getting there...!

Have been mock-interviewing my Seniors. They're learning a lot, I think-- lots of trouble-shooting as they watch each other, observe what questions seem especially tricky, and visually recognize what looks and sounds good. "Woah... Chris NAILED that! His answers were so good!" "Jane was really confident, she sounded like she knew what she was talking about." "Tom kept saying 'um.'" "What do you think guys? What did they do well? What could they do better? Let's rehearse this so you're ready for the real deal!"

I'm, of course, enjoying the theatrical potential of the mock interviews. For Samantha's mock interview at Doggie Daycare, I pretended to be an effusive old woman who hugged her on the way in and the way out. "Oooooh, honey I just BET you love dogs!! Sweetie, sit down, tell me all about it. Are you a pet parent? We are pet PARENTS here! We love all dogs, even the ugly ones, we show no pet prejudice!"

For Brian and Jake's mock interview at Costco, I pretended to be painfully nervous, shy, and awkward, and didn't make eye contact with them once. They seemed taken aback, but handled themselves well in spite of it. Nice work guys!

Shane had written down that he wanted to apply to be the Husky mascot, so Mel, our school counselor and I pretended to be members of the cheer squad. We were warm and friendly, and bounced around and clapped our hands. We asked him to demonstrate any special mascot moves he had, and made him end his interview by coming up with a cheer. At one point, Mel asked what would he do if a kid kept hitting him, and acted it out herself-- moving around the floor on her knees and hitting his legs: "hey! Give me a high five, hey!" (whack whack whack) "I'm talking to you!"

Trevor wanted to interview at Disney, so Mel played the part of the starry-eyed Disney advocate, in love with the magic of the happiest place on earth. I countered that, playing the part of the embittered, disgruntled employee. I gave Trevor eye-rolls, sarcastic retorts, and pretended to gag anytime either of them mentioned "Disney Magic." Trevor focused his attention on Mel and enthusiastically described his long-held passion for Disneyland-- doing an excellent job to elude my attempts to rain on his Disney parade.

Dan and Clark both wanted to apply at performance bike shops. I borrowed another teacher's bike and-- pacing up and down the classroom energetically and barking questions at the boys-- asked the guys to tell me all about it. The other students were blown away as both boys launched into technical commentary on the bike's frame, its style, its suitability-- especially as I gave them example customers to discuss the bike with. Both of these students typically struggle with Language Arts and often feel discouraged about their abilities in this class, so it was fun to see them impress their peers with their obvious expertise.

After school, a former student dropped by with her new boyfriend. Without meaning to, I launched back into interviewing mode. "George, is it? Great to meet you. So tell me about yourself! ...You're into literature? Excellent! Any favorite books, or favorite authors? ... And George, how would your friends describe you, do you think? Like-- throw out some adjectives." I couldn't help it. Think it caught poor George off guard, but my former student seemed amused. Whoops.

More mock interviews tomorrow. Hooray. :)