knardini
10-18-2007, 04:23 AM
A long read...
By day I teach 9th grade science and also run a program called renaissance. I have 20 kids on a team that specializes in rewarding students for academic achievement, good attendence, and citizenship. In a JH school that is only 8th and 9th grades we have 900 students with 80% of them with a 3.0 GPA or higher! We've seen these numbers since starting our incentive program 3 years ago...the kids really respond to postive praise and something to work for. In fact I just got the district (after 3 years of trying) to approve a year end trip to Worlds of Fun (theme park) for all my Gold club kids (3.67 GPA or higher all year - we currently hve 325 of them).
Anyway - to fund trips to the movie theater, dances (they get a free DJ:sqwink:) bowling, off the hook assemblies, we buy every kid a themed t-shirt - it takes money, so we raise funds by community donations and have two big fund raisers per year: A haunted house and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The FUN one is our haunted house "Scream in the Dark III"
Our building used to be the old high school (opened in the early 1900's) and has been added onto twice. It's 4 stories tall, and as many rumored stories as there are lockers (a girl hung herself in a bathroom, used to be an old military hospital....). We take this building that is scary enough when you turn the lights off and add 40 cast members, 20 teacher volunteers, 13 scenes, and 2000 kids and make anywhere between $7,000 - $15,000 in 8 hours! We set the entire thing up after school this Friday (in 5 hours) and run 7-11 PM Friday and Saturday...we sell glowstix, concessions and get this - adult diapers as a gag, we'll sell 150 adult diapers to goofy teenagers for $3 a pop!
We've invested around $5,000 in masks, costumes, props, lighting and have come up with some killer (pun intended) scenes. Here are a few of the best ones.
1. Clown scene - big jack-in-the box...a TV that a girl climbs out of the sceen...everyone's scared of clowns.
2. Medical/Doctors scene - 7 wheeled gurneys donated by local hospital, you don't know which body under the sheet it real?
3. Chekered/strobe room (my baby) an entire classroom covered with black and white chekered fabric (floor, walls, ceiling) with two Chauvet strobes pounding away...you walk in and the room is empty until two figures appear out of the walls and head towards you - they are wearing a jumpsuit made of the same fabric and they COMPLETELY blend into the room - the favorite room last year.
4. Little girls room - you watch from the window into a small classroom that has been transformed into a little girls bedroom. She wakes up, looks around the room and gets out of bed to check on a noise and is grabbed and pulled under her bed...just as that happens her twin (actual twin) appears from around the door and slams up against the window in full make up as a zombie girl....good startle!!!
5. Body bag hallway - 20 stuffed dummies hang from the ceiling wrapped in heavy clear (and bloody) plastic bags....two of them hold real people waiting to jump out.
6. This years big project - the maze! Groups enter our old auditorium - picture the stereotypic old high school aud with a balcony and seating for about 600....but this one is in such bad shape no one goes into it. It's being redone (for 5 million) in two years, but in the meantime it's fair game for anything I can throw at it. So first the kids enter one door and see one of my 10 foot fast folds on the stage and a camera filming thier group as they walk towards the screen....they goof around being on camera until they see (on the screen first) a large figure walking up behind them in full costume - and a chainsaw! They race up onto the stage where I built a complete dark maze (40 sections of 4X8 walls) making a dark, tight maze they have to feel thier way through....in the middle there is a window sized opening where when they trigger it I have one of the schools big ol' peavy PA hooked up to one of my amps that will BLAST an electricity noise...a strobe comes on and a figure appears to be getting electrocuted in the opening. They continue through the maze and out the aud.
6. Final scene - titled "don't wake the beast" We invested in a $600 "yeti" costume that makes the actor stand 8 feet tall with an 8 foot wingspan...full costume that is sureal it's so scary. The beast is hanging out in our greenhouse (full length windows on three sides) kids quitely try to creep past...the hallway turns into a cave like lair with the end blocked off...they have to head back past the beast - cue Halloween (michael meyers 2007 version) music blasting while the beast chases the kids out the hallway and to the exit.
By Sunday I'm completely spent but worth it when we sit down and count out $10,000 worth of $5 bills!!!!
I'll post pics and maybe some video in a week or so!
Later
By day I teach 9th grade science and also run a program called renaissance. I have 20 kids on a team that specializes in rewarding students for academic achievement, good attendence, and citizenship. In a JH school that is only 8th and 9th grades we have 900 students with 80% of them with a 3.0 GPA or higher! We've seen these numbers since starting our incentive program 3 years ago...the kids really respond to postive praise and something to work for. In fact I just got the district (after 3 years of trying) to approve a year end trip to Worlds of Fun (theme park) for all my Gold club kids (3.67 GPA or higher all year - we currently hve 325 of them).
Anyway - to fund trips to the movie theater, dances (they get a free DJ:sqwink:) bowling, off the hook assemblies, we buy every kid a themed t-shirt - it takes money, so we raise funds by community donations and have two big fund raisers per year: A haunted house and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The FUN one is our haunted house "Scream in the Dark III"
Our building used to be the old high school (opened in the early 1900's) and has been added onto twice. It's 4 stories tall, and as many rumored stories as there are lockers (a girl hung herself in a bathroom, used to be an old military hospital....). We take this building that is scary enough when you turn the lights off and add 40 cast members, 20 teacher volunteers, 13 scenes, and 2000 kids and make anywhere between $7,000 - $15,000 in 8 hours! We set the entire thing up after school this Friday (in 5 hours) and run 7-11 PM Friday and Saturday...we sell glowstix, concessions and get this - adult diapers as a gag, we'll sell 150 adult diapers to goofy teenagers for $3 a pop!
We've invested around $5,000 in masks, costumes, props, lighting and have come up with some killer (pun intended) scenes. Here are a few of the best ones.
1. Clown scene - big jack-in-the box...a TV that a girl climbs out of the sceen...everyone's scared of clowns.
2. Medical/Doctors scene - 7 wheeled gurneys donated by local hospital, you don't know which body under the sheet it real?
3. Chekered/strobe room (my baby) an entire classroom covered with black and white chekered fabric (floor, walls, ceiling) with two Chauvet strobes pounding away...you walk in and the room is empty until two figures appear out of the walls and head towards you - they are wearing a jumpsuit made of the same fabric and they COMPLETELY blend into the room - the favorite room last year.
4. Little girls room - you watch from the window into a small classroom that has been transformed into a little girls bedroom. She wakes up, looks around the room and gets out of bed to check on a noise and is grabbed and pulled under her bed...just as that happens her twin (actual twin) appears from around the door and slams up against the window in full make up as a zombie girl....good startle!!!
5. Body bag hallway - 20 stuffed dummies hang from the ceiling wrapped in heavy clear (and bloody) plastic bags....two of them hold real people waiting to jump out.
6. This years big project - the maze! Groups enter our old auditorium - picture the stereotypic old high school aud with a balcony and seating for about 600....but this one is in such bad shape no one goes into it. It's being redone (for 5 million) in two years, but in the meantime it's fair game for anything I can throw at it. So first the kids enter one door and see one of my 10 foot fast folds on the stage and a camera filming thier group as they walk towards the screen....they goof around being on camera until they see (on the screen first) a large figure walking up behind them in full costume - and a chainsaw! They race up onto the stage where I built a complete dark maze (40 sections of 4X8 walls) making a dark, tight maze they have to feel thier way through....in the middle there is a window sized opening where when they trigger it I have one of the schools big ol' peavy PA hooked up to one of my amps that will BLAST an electricity noise...a strobe comes on and a figure appears to be getting electrocuted in the opening. They continue through the maze and out the aud.
6. Final scene - titled "don't wake the beast" We invested in a $600 "yeti" costume that makes the actor stand 8 feet tall with an 8 foot wingspan...full costume that is sureal it's so scary. The beast is hanging out in our greenhouse (full length windows on three sides) kids quitely try to creep past...the hallway turns into a cave like lair with the end blocked off...they have to head back past the beast - cue Halloween (michael meyers 2007 version) music blasting while the beast chases the kids out the hallway and to the exit.
By Sunday I'm completely spent but worth it when we sit down and count out $10,000 worth of $5 bills!!!!
I'll post pics and maybe some video in a week or so!
Later