MJ the Musical

Thursday, May 16, 2024

I subbed in special ed today. I was team teaching in the same Algebra class I taught yesterday – same subject and grade, just at another school. The differences in the classes was amazing. Yesterday was a traditional math class – write down the definition and formula, watch two examples, do two practice problems, ask questions, time for a worksheet. Today was very different. Kids can use headphones while they watch the teacher’s video of the lesson (a recording of exactly what she is doing in front of the room). The kids like it because they can run it at two times speed and/fast forward. They can also pause while they write something down. They also never get asked to participate. The kids choosing to listen live are not distracted because the others are wearing headphones (and interestingly I mean headphones in a lot of cases – not as many earbuds). When these kids finish before the teacher, they can go on to the online assignment, which is multiple choice (no showing your work). THEN they can do whatever they want – game, watch Netflix, or whatever. There were a fair number of people who just started with the do whatever you want (unfortunately). There was a lot of movement in the room, because those not paying attention to the teacher walked around to get things or show others something. It seemed chaotic to me, but I also thought maybe it was perfect. I cannot know which is better, but I certainly would like to.

I checked yesterday to see if anything was scheduled at Target Center, which is adjacent to the theater where we had MJ the Musical tickets. Indeed. Timberwolves v Nuggets in an NBA playoffs game. At exactly the same time. For an expected same length of time. I bemoaned it at work today and someone suggested I covertly watch the game on my phone while at the show. NOOOOO. THAT’S not the problem 😂

We went early to get in the ramp. We got Jersey Mike’s on the way. We went just a smidge too early. Our ramp reservation didn’t start until 6:30 and we arrived at 6:20. We snuck into an unloading zone for a hotel around the corner for 9 minutes. There was a concerned looking guy on the sidewalk who was really checking us out – until a black SUV pulled up next to us, put on his flashers, hopped out, and delivered two cases of beer to the guy. I guess he was wondering if we were harboring his beer. We went into the ramp and ended up on the almost top floor. Good thing to be an hour early. We ate our sammiches (so many sammiches lately) and watched the guys watching the cars, then closing our level. As we walked to the elevator, Keith saw an empty spot exactly where we wanted to be parked. It had been taken when we came in and somebody must have left. It was almost straight across from the twirly-down exit. Keith went back and moved our car there.

The show was amazing. The guy who played MJ was fantastic – very light on his feet. All of the dancers were astounding. They were out on stage before the show started, so we got them in the picture of the day. We so lucked out with moving the car. We were able to zipper in and get on the twirl-down-and-out quite quickly. The basketball fans were flooding the ramp as we scurried out of the theater ahead of that crowd. The wolves won 115-70, which doesn’t seem like a playoff score, because aren’t they both supposed to be good at that point?