Halloween

Mr. Mark brought Halloween to the Eastern Bilingual School with a homemade bed sheet with the characters Happy Halloween drawn down the front.  Have never been swarmed by fire ants or pirhanas before but I think I now can empathize with those who have.  I was easy to spot in my blue sheet as I spooked up and down the halls and once the students learned that by saying "Trick or Treat" I would give them candy, I was quite literally mobbed.  While I could not see clearly through the eye-holes, I could recognize the hundreds of hands in my face and the hysterical shouts of three syllables that were supposed to be the traditional Halloween request but most certainly were not.  When I could not dole out the goodies fast enough, they went for the bag themselves and tried to rip it out of my hands.  Rather than taking one and moving off, some children would pocket the candy and start screaming for another.  A veritable feeding frenzy.  Some of the teachers actually screamed and ran when I entered their offices, only to be calmed by an outstreched hand with candy.  Throughout the day as I taught classes, I would enter a room and the frenzy would begin anew.  Not sure if they actually grasp anything about the holiday other than the candy but I did get every single kid in the middle and high school to speak English (or at least their best utterance) at least once in a single day.  A good day for any teacher.