Ride of the Valkyries -- as interpreted by middle school students

Over the past few months, I've done a lesson with all of my upper school students (grades 5-8) on music interpretation. I played "Ride of the Valkyries" and they had to answer questions about what the story was, who was in it, where it was, when, how it felt, etc.  In every single class, at least some of them were convinced it was from Star Wars. These are some of the responses. Most of the names are kids from the classes.

"School explodes, Csabi and Zalan survive. Zsolti is a zombi and Csabi kills him"

"C3po is dead in a World War in Budapest at Heroes' Square.

I also started taking pictures of the stories after the kids wrote them on the board... here are some of my favorites:

One day, the coconut go to school and meet the banana. The coconut hate the banana. So they fight. The coconut won.

One day the banana go to the chocolate planet and he meet the pineapple. They fight but the clown stoped they, because he love olives.

 One day Luke is go to Darth Vader with Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris is stuck Darth Vader's hair the chewing gum. And Darth Vader is don't put out his hair.

One day, Chuck Norris is go to Yoda. They are speak a long hours when come on Luke and die Chuck Norris. Yoda is go to Sweets Planet and eat lots of sweets.

 One of my 5th grade classes with their stories

Miklos is extra crazy mummy and kill Panna with a Miss Rose's music book.

Miklos dancing (the kan-kan) and singing the star wars music. He's wear the red skirt. The red flower in Miklos hair.

I can see Dori and kill them with a sword. After eat the heart.

Szabi and Niki go to the cinema. They see a horror film in 3D. An the monster kill Szabi.

Miss Rose singing in the school at night.

Bence is talking in Miss Rose's lesson in the evening.

Frankie left her leg at the disco and it go to dancing when she sleep.

Viktor Orban (Hungarian prime minister) goes to Bikini Bottom in the 1550's because Spongebob needs a new best friend. They have a great time, and they make Krabby Patties.

 Gyulabaci (principal of our school) and Hitman kills Pinocchio in Gyulabacsi's office. After they eat Pinocchio's bottom in a hospital.

In the 21st century Sponge Bob is going to catch a shark but the shark is not very happy and the shark eat Sponge Bob. He didn't die, he is going back in the time. He is very scared and he is woke up. This is a bad dream. (one of the students who often struggles -- I was very proud of her)

Obi Wan: An UFO killed Anakin.

Anakin: An UFO killed me.

In this time, Darth Vader started dancing for this music: Gangnam Style, and the Dark Emperor, Dora, Diego, and Jack Sparrow ... sorry ... Captain Jack Sparrow did the same.

In 300BC, Dora the explorer is singing gypsy music. After she meets with PSY at the Krusty Krab. Spongebob serves them hamburger. :) At the end, they make a Harlem Shake video.

At the 19th century Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader fought at the White House. The President killed himself, because he heard the music which was boring. Then Dora the explorer went to the White House and she saw when they were fighting. Then she picked up a sword and killed Darth Vader. After it she went back to the TV and sang a song called Gangnam style and started dancing.

In 3200 BC yoda singing in the white house with the beautiful spiderman.

Dora THE EXPLORER

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away ... When Dora was playing computer games, she was attacked by Darth Vader. Dora dueled him for 5k$. Dora won and she killed her pet monkeys 'cos she won. After one week Dora died in a heart-attack.

HOPE YOU WILL ENJOY

"The force may be with you"

While I am very much looking forward to not teaching middle school after this year there are fun bits sometimes.

In a perfect world..

I would divide my time evenly between the following -  in no particular order -

• Singing
• Eating
• Cooking, baking, cake decorating
• Sleeping
• Dressing shows for an opera company
• Reading
• Traveling
• Teaching
• Going to Mass, praying, etc
• Hanging out with friends (could be combined with almost any of the above)
• Wasting time on the internet

Too bad this isn't a perfect world.

On the bright side, I do get to do most of those things on a fairly regular basis :)

Four weeks in and all is well

Happy Fourth Week of Advent! While that is enough to celebrate in and of itself (well, mostly because it means Christmas is nearly here), this year there is extra reason to rejoice (ok, maybe this would have been more appropriate last Sunday... lol). Today marks the fourth Sunday that the new translation of the Roman Missal has been used throughout the English-speaking Catholic world.

I have been excited about the new translation for over a year and a half after attending a workshop for musicians. As someone who has studied Latin (not that much, but enough to know the Mass parts) and also knows the Mass in Hungarian along with understanding enough Spanish, French, Italian, and German to follow along some what, it was easy to see how great of a gift these translations would be for our Church. Compared to the languages listed, the English one was hardly an accurate translation of the Latin. "And also with you" does not translate to "Et cum spiritu tuo" like "Es a te lelkeddel" or "Und mit deinem Geiste" or "E con il tuo spirito." Conversely, "And with your spirit" as in the new translation is a perfect fit. I don't know a word of Tagalog but just looking at the text for the Confiteor shows that "sa aking salà, sa aking
salà, sa aking pinakamalakíng salà" shows that "through my fault" is repeated thrice and with an additional word the third time. (All of the translations, except the Hungarian, are from "The Traveler's Mass" page on http://www.angilella.it/missa/ )

Another big advantage with the revised translation is the uniformity throughout the English speaking Catholic world. In the past, there have been different translations (albeit with only small differences, but differences nonetheless) in different countries. This became interesting with a group of Catholics from different English speaking countries like the English Mass community that I was part of in Hungary. The new translation solves that problem.

I know that many people were unhappy about the revision. The use of more sacramental vocabulary was off-putting to those who want the Mass to be as common as possible. They argued that it was foolish to "go back 40 years" and have to relearn something "so ingrained." "Bah Humbug!" say I! The Mass is not something common. It is a miracle. An amazing gift that we could never fully comprehend. So why should the language used be anything less? And as for relearning... go to daily Mass for a few weeks. I can't guarantee that you'll get it perfect right away but the extra grace will benefit you in more than just remembering to say "and with your spirit!"

Finally, a very clever parody as to why this is such a good thing. Just like sacramental language sounds funny in this setting, so is "kitchen English" ridiculous for the most sacred ritual on Earth. I doubled over laughing as I read this out loud to my family after a friend posted it on facebook.

(http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=16347 although, many of the people who commented didn't seem to realize that to make something worth parodying it has to be good. They seem to think that this is an example of why the translation isn't wonderful... silly people.)