Prom

Me before my 2006 prom - a lifetime ago!

When I first started at my current school, I signed myself up as a faculty student council class sponsor. I and a new chemistry teacher began with the freshman class of 2019, and we follow that class through high school. There are some good stories worth sharing as we planned Homecoming hall decorating, class chapel services, and the Christmas semi-formal, but this weekend culminated the biggest student council endeavor yet: successfully planning and executing Prom.

As a teacher, I will tell you that prom is super obnoxious. For at least a month leading up to the event, even my dedicated AP students are off-task. If they are on their phones, 90% of the time they will be looking at dresses and hairstyles. I actually had some students leave school early this past Friday to make their manicure appointments. After prom they spend whole class periods dissecting the DJ playlist and dress decisions. It is ridiculously distracting, but I suppose, a rite of passage for these budding Americans.

This photo was sent to me by our beautiful prom queen, Jada. It's hard to tell, but her date actually temporarily died his hair blue to match her dress. That is dedication.

My student council girls started planning prom March of their sophomore year. They toured over a dozen locations, and spent hours on Pinterest brainstorming theme ideas. They did a TON of work, and honestly, my co-sponsor and I did not need to do too much more than fill out the purchase orders and monitor email threads. The real trick was that the venue specified "no glitter" on the decorations. They did some really thoughtful things than anyone who is wedding planning as well might consider:

SNAPCHAT FILTER
I do not snap. I am too old I think. But my students all Snapchat. For about $15, they designed their own Snapchat filter for use at the prom building.

Some of my StuCo girls by their Snapchat sign

SHOE SHELF
Since so many girls abandon their elaborate sparkly, spiky heels as soon as they arrive at the dance, my girls rented a "shoe shelf" for them to tuck their heels in. They also provided baby wipes so if girls chose to dance barefoot (ewww) they could wipe their feet off before putting their shoes back on at the end of the evening.

Forgive the lighting, but the shoe shelf was well-utilized!

WATER
The venue we used didn't allow for anything except packaged food, unless we hired a caterer. The girls rationalized that since everyone was coming from dinner, they wouldn't be hungry. If they provided punch, it might get spilled on someone's dress or leave stickiness on the floors. Also punch bowls are potentially spike-able). So they provided water in big clear classy beverage dispensers. Our only clean up at the end of the evening was picking up cups and taking the trash out -- we were done in 10 minutes.

PHOTO BOOTH
A last-minute add-on, this was probably the most popular addition to the night. A photo booth with goofy props printed strips for souvenirs (gone are the days of themed champagne glasses that mothers can dump on daughters when they move out #truestory).  My chaperone friends and I enjoyed it too.  The sombreros started disappearing onto the dance floor so one of my chaperone duties was periodically retrieving them and returning them to the photo booth.

And because my students have been asking, here is is me at my high school prom (I'm still friends with both of my dates, in case you're wondering).

Junior Year 2006

This dress was covered in gold glitter; my poor date was vacuuming out his mom's car for weeks.

Senior year 2007

A less glittery dress and a terrible haircut. It's not in this picture, but I actually made my date's corsage out of origami paper. I was quite proud of that.

Students checking in for our prom - the lobby was quite elegant

As we return to school today, I have two days until my AP English test and nine school days until summer. And prom is done. Prom is done.