Taco Tuesday - Work Celebration

We were going to celebrate Cinco de Mayo but the 5th of May fell on a Sunday.  So instead we opted to go for Taco Tuesday on the 7th of May.  We had some funds left over from our last celebration which enabled me to supplement and to collect less money from the staff that wished to participate.  This time we had the food catered from Moe's Southwest Grill (a chain restaurant specializing in southwestern food) for our lunch.  We chose the Taco Bar option and drinks and desserts were supplied by staff members.

I had told them after the baseball party that I wasn't going to supply the entertainment this time as "I had hung up my castanets years ago" - but planned a surprise nonetheless.

It started with a beach ball, some newspaper, and a flour and water mixture.

One layer a day of newspaper strips dipped in flour paste (aka papier mache)  for three days meant this ball came with me wherever we were going that weekend.  The bottle is there in the picture for reference to size.

 

Once dry, I dipped into my stash of saved tissue paper (remember I'm a saver and it felt good to put a dent, even though small, in this stash) and did some folding and snipping and glue-gunning to get this hanging globe which would be our pinata.

Tuesdays after school are set aside for staff meetings.  I conspired with the principal to have the meeting changed from the Media Center to the Gym and the gym teacher helped to set this up.  One of the other teachers brought in his blender and was making virgin margheritas for whoever wanted them.  When the meeting was over (he made it short and quick) it was time for the fun.  (Note:  I do not usually attend staff meetings as they are primarily for the teaching staff and the principal will fill us in on any pertinent info back in the office, but this day I stayed.)  

I was a little surprised that there were quite a few present who did not, or pretended not to know what to do with a pinata.  They were a little laid back about participating until the principal told them that besides the candy in the pinata, there were 5 numbered ping pong balls that corresponded to incentives he came up with that involved "time and money".  (Extra prep time, extended lunch, $ for supplies, etc.)  

We got through three teachers before the ball cracked and then, much to my dismay - the person who cracked it took off her blindfold and stuck her hand into the pinata searching for a ping pong ball at which time she was joined by some others who saw what she was doing.  Not exactly fair play - but there was no stopping them at that point.  Still it was fun.  You hear words like "climate" and "culture" these days when it refers to working with a group of people and things like this tend to improve climate and culture.....I'm told......at least for a little while.

I think I'm done for the year with these extra events.  We do have a school-wide event coming up this week, our annual Memorial Day Commemoration, but the whole staff works on this one.  There will probably be an end-of-the-year party at some point after school somewhere and we have 4 teachers retiring so there is a retirement dinner also - again not in my court.  I plan on working one more year and I'm thinking it will be hard to live up to everything we had going this year.....we'll see.  I'm open to ideas!