Leveling Up

Every year, the school where I teach hosts a holiday-themed door-decorating competition. It is entirely possible that this competition is meant to be student-driven, but I have only ever once had a homeroom that was actually interested in putting forth the effort to bring a design to fruition. Therefore, I have only ever once participated in the holiday-themed door-decorating competition. I mean, who has time for such nonsense right before the holidays? With papers to grade, presents to wrap, and a faculty play to both write and perform (there will likely be a future blog pertaining to this topic), December is one of the busiest times of the year.

Two of the students in my coworker Mary's homeroom did want to decorate their door and they knew Mary would be all in because the design they came up with is Taylor Swift-themed. Merry Swiftmas, everyone!

Truly, I had every intention of not decorating my door for the umpteenth year in a row.

And then Tiff issued a challenge.

"Hey English department," Tiff called from down our shared hallway. "Get on our level!"

It was the absolute wrong thing to say to someone who minored in art and enjoys a good challenge.

I will say that the social studies department, of which Tiff is a part, had definitely risen to the door-decorating occasion. Comprising Dawn (ridiculously crafty and full of energy), Wes (brimming with school spirit... to the point that he owns a Santa suit), Landon (new to the department and willing to take orders), and Tiff (always up for a good time), the four had set about creating a snowball fight at their end of the hall.

Outside-of-the-box is where my thoughts like to travel, however, and since Mary already had a Merry Swiftmas door in the works, it seemed logical for the English department to embrace the concept of music. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and whatnot. Annie called dibs on Bruce Springsteen, Summer adopted the genre of house music, and I went with my all-time favorite band, Reel Big Fish. Happy Skalidays, folks! Let me tell you what I did...

For those who are unfamiliar with ska music, it's a genre that's related to reggae, has upbeat tempos, and generally incorporates a bunch of horns. It experienced its heyday back in the late nineties, with the summer of '97 often being considered the "Summer of Ska." A considerable portion of the sound was produced in southern California (Reel Big Fish, No Doubt, Sublime, Save Ferris, The Hippos, etc.), but the aptly named Mighty Mighty Bosstones were out of Boston, Massachusetts, Less Than Jake was making noise in Gainesville, Florida, and Mustard Plug was skanking up a storm in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

"Skanking up a storm?" you may be wondering.

"Skanking up a storm," I will confirm because skanking is the dance associated with ska, and rude boys and rude girls are those who are found skanking at shows, often clad in checkered attire and pork-pie hats. It's a whole thing and you can look it up for yourself, but I'm providing a bit of background because I want my door design to make sense.

I think the only other thing you need to know is that my favorite band, Reel Big Fish, has a logo known as a mean fish who appears on their merchandise. He is usually smoking, but smoking is frowned upon in school so I went ahead and altered him just a bit.

Let's go ahead and take a close look at this design, shall we? Feel free to zoom in.

First of all, take note of the fish. Those mean fish have joined forces to form a snowman of sorts, but rather than smoke in the building, one is playing the trumpet (a nod to RBF's Scott Klopfenstein), another is playing the trombone (a nod to RBF's Dan Regan and Grant Barry), and the third is sucking on a candy cane (a nod to the holiday season).

That checkered stripe is there because it screams "Ska!" and the rude boys and girls are the students in my homeroom. I met them at the door as they walked into class on Wednesday morning, camera at the ready and commanding them to smile. Every single student obliged! Not a single kiddo darted away or refused to be photographed, and that is because all twenty-one of my homeroom students are amazing humans.

Equipped with twenty-two pictures (I'm on the door with the kids), I then had to print the photographs, cut out our heads, print a bunch of rude boys/girls clipart, cut out their bodies, and then reassemble the heads and bodies to create whole dancers. I went through a lot of X-acto blades, but it was worth it.

Do you see how the greeting says "Happy Skalidays" instead of "Happy Holidays"? That's because that's a perfect pun. And do you see how the gift tag says "From: All the Rude Boys and Girls"? That's because I'm clever. And do you see the pork-pie hat hanging on the letter A? That is because I would have been remiss not to include a pork-pie hat and I didn't feel like cutting out twenty-two tiny pork-pie hats. And do you see the snowflakes? Eight of them are created from Reel Big Fish albums that I scanned, cut out, folded, and cut out even more! My friend Heather, who majored in art and now teaches art, told me today, "I looked at your door. I cannot believe your attention to detail. Everything is accounted for!" It was the best compliment.

Here are some pictures of my English-department coworkers' masterpieces:

And here is what the social studies wing looks like:

The English department has also brought in some trees (one does require a tree or two to rock around, right?), an assortment of lights, and a bluetooth speaker so that we can blast Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" when the students pass through the hallway each morning.

Judging is on Monday, but I don't actually care about winning. I just care about beating the social studies department. And I think that we probably/hopefully have. Because did I mention that our "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" sign can be read from both sides? That's right: I cut out fifty-six letters and two apostrophes. And while the social studies department does have a sign, it can only be read from the front.

Do you think we managed to get on the social studies department's level?

I sort of think we surpassed it... but boy did we ever have a blast doing it! Thanks for extending the challenge, Tiff! This is the most fun I've ever had decorating a door!