This lock in was easily the best one that we have been to, thanks to our great students. This past summer one of my greatest prayers for this school year was that the students we would have would join together in new ways and that more people would step forward to take leadership and responsibility of things at IA. With so many people gone this year, including most of the students/families who usually have taken the initiative to organize and lead things, there was both a real need and a great opportunity.
We needed students to step up in ways that they hadn't before, and now there was a chance for people who may not have had the opportunity to play bigger roles in student council, chapel, theatre, and other activities before. The students have more than risen to the occasion this year! We talked about this some after spiritual retreat back in September, but it is still encouraging to see the students continuing to build community and take responsibility in new ways.
Our student council organized the lock in and had a full slate of fun activities. In the past things have tended to be a bit informal, which can be good and bad since it can result in a school full of students wandering around aimlessly at 4 a.m. This time, there were games, movies, activities, and a good mix of free time and group activities. They even had relatively healthy snacks, which meant that instead of eating a constant stream of cookies and candy throughout the night and feeling terrible the next day, I instead got to munch on grapes, peppers, cucumbers, and carrots (and some cookies too). They did a good job of picking fast paced, high energy games and slower games and alternating them so that people didn't get too tired at the beginning. There is a fine art to constructing a lock in to maximize fun and participation and minimize boring things like falling asleep.
Almost everyone made it to 5:30 a.m. without falling asleep, at which point most of the students slept for a couple of hours, although a few determined souls burned through the night and made sure that no sleep was had:-) I made it until about 6 a.m. but then finally fell asleep with my head on my desk for a little over an hour. Amanda got a couple of hours of sleep as well.
Here are some photos that document the festivities:
Not much of this actually happened:-) For the record, this student was only pretending to be asleep when Amanda took the photo.
The Foosball table, possibly the single most popular item that exists in our school, got a decent workout during the lock in.
Students dancing and relaxing as they got settled in.
The 9th grade boys love to imitate their teachers:-) Here are two of our Korean students striking a Mr. K pose.
Twister was one of the many games that we played.
Our Japanese twins were particularly skilled at Twister:-)
We even had individual Twister!
With a floor covered with mats, the temptation to make a human pyramid was just too great.
Our high school boys can be quite acrobatic!
We played one game where you had to try to rip off the name tag on the back of each other. It was a lot of fun and apparently based on a Korean game show. This student's name is definitely not Max, and I'm not sure why she was given this name tag:-)
More Foosball fun.
Spoons was another fun game that helped pass the late hours. For those of you with sharp eyes, the clock on the wall shows that this photo was taken at 3:26 a.m.
After a night like that, Amanda and I headed home to get a few hours of real sleep. It's always fun to be able to spend time with our students at things like this. It gives us a chance to get to know them better, and it gives them a chance to see a whole different side of us:-)
Thanks for reading!
-Matt
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