Deal or No Deal?

My seventh grade concert choir was a semester class this year. This means that I got new kids after Christmas. I had about 50 students in my first semester choir. When it came time for the Fall Choral Concert, only 19 showed up. Perhaps its because I'm new at this, but it kinda hurt my feelings. I thought I had made enough of a connection with these kids to make them want to attend the concert.

Christmas came around and Santa brought me a new batch of seventh grade choristers. Now you're probably saying to yourself, "why doesn't he just give them an F if they don't go to the concert?" I can't. Apparently, I'm not able to give grades for anything that takes place after 3:15.

I had to come up with something to get these kids to come to the concert. Now, don't get me wrong. There are a bunch that will come anyway because they like the class and they want to come. But, there are a handful that "have cheerleading" or "a baseball game" or really just don't care. So, I bit the bullet today. I made them a deal. We agreed that if they have 90% attendance at the Spring Choral concert this coming Thursday night, then I will try out for American Idol. Yeah, I went there. If you know me, you know I'm not too fond of American Idol. However, many of my students daily urge me to test my skill against its judges. "We would have the whole school voting for you!" they say. So, I thought, if this is what they want; they'll have to earn it. There are 54 people in this choir. 90% of 54 is 48.6, which I rounded up to 49. Thus, if there are 49 or more seventh grade concert choir members at Thursday's concert, I'm going to be looking up audition dates and locations.

I think I'm pretty safe. Although, there were some of the baseball guys second guessing that all important game. There were a few girls going up and down the row asking "Are you going? Are you going? You?" Who knows- they might just pull this one out! Stay tuned.