Middle School Challenge

Today I experienced the most fun five minutes I have ever had with middle school students. It was the Middle School Challenge Run, a competition between Shuksan, Whatcom, Kulshan and Fairhaven to see who can get the most participants at a 2.3 mile fun run in Whatcom Falls Park.

A little background: Shuksan always gets last place. The highest number of students we have had particpate is 55. Respectable, but not enough to compete with Whatcom or Fairhaven. Those other schools have such a higher level of parent involvement, and their students are, in general, so much more involved with school activities that it is hard to compete against them in anything. Their track teams are three times the size of ours, if that's any indicator. When Whatcom or Fairhaven wins an event like this, it is just an ordinary day. It is expected. If Shuksan could win in event that is all about participation it would be HUGE.

This year, a supermom with girls on the track team headed up the promotion, and I was led to get behind the event as well. 3 weeks ago, with about 50 kids signed up, a teacher announced that he would run laps for any student that beat him at the event. I got on the intercom and announced to the school that I would let the students shave my head if we got 75 students. A few other teachers made friendly wagers, and the student body got on board.

Today at the event, we had a lot of kids come out. The run/walk came and went. I was awarded "Most Glory-Hungry Teacher" by my colleagues for being the first adult to finish. My pride would not allow me to let a Shuksan student beat me!

An hour later, we gathered around for the announcement of which school had the most participants cross the finish line. 4th place with 90 odd students: Kulshan. 3rd place with 119: Fairhaven. This meant that we had eclipsed the Shuksan record and set a new standard simply by not being last! With a lot of buldup, they made the announcement...

"This years Challenge Run winner, setting a new city record with 166 particpants... Shuksan!"

And there was much rejoicing among the people. They called for a school administrator to come up, but I couldn't see one, and a fellow teacher started pushing me toward the stage. I pushed through the crowd of kids, grabbed the massive trophy, and hoisted it above my head. Then I faced the crowd and started screaming. The kids started freaking out too, and as the announcer continued to say things about how well Shuksan had done, I just kept screaming and shaking the trophy in the air.

Some kids standing in front of me wanted to touch the trophy, so I started walking through the crowd, yelling for all of the Shuksan students to reach out and touch the trophy. It was hilarious and awesome. Some moms yelled at me to pull all the kids aside for a photo, so I led them with the trophy and we gathered into a huge excited mass and took pictures. Then we screamed some more.