January 2009

insert blank stare here

January 27, 2009 19:50

Conversations from a before school Suzuki class which should not need to be repeated after 100 days of school:

"You do realize the parent is supposed to attend the lesson" (that's why it is BEFORE school!)

"Your fifth grade sister is not your parent"

"Coming for the last 8 minutes of every other class does not equal regular attendance".

"Recording for home listening? What recording?" (from someone whose older child allegedly took Suzuki lessons, albeit from someone else).

Now, despite the above, I have to say my early morning class (whose parents come and make sure practice happens at home) is zipping along at record speed. Oh, and nobody broke a cello this week. I also have to squeeze some practice during my lunch for a upcoming strolling gig. My office is next to a staff bathroom. Today, I found out I was providing some musical entertainment ( La Vie En Rose) for a 4th grade teacher who had to sneak in a quit potty break.

And how did I finish the day ? A third grader, who never practices and whose parent once interrupted another one of my classes to ask me if we were learning anything, says as she is leaving-- "I think I may quit next Thursday".

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Oh where, oh where is my peg/or sound post/ or tooth

January 15, 2009 20:41

Since I do not have a classroom this year and my 3rd grade class is large, I have students drop the instruments off on the stage and I use my lunch/planning to get them all tuned, etc. Before class, one of my violin students who never drops her instrument off early says "My E string popped and I can't find the thingy it goes around". Now, we have been mostly on the D and A, so I am 99% sure that there is only one way the string broke. After we got down to the auditorium, one of my violin students trips over a cello. Oops. Well, the bridge falls, but it doesn't break, so I peer into the cello and see no soundpost. I gently shake it a little to where it has gone. THERE IS NO SOUNDPOST. What did my 3rd grade cellist do with the soundpost? I can't ask, because she doesn't show up for class. So after I have to give the requisite lecture about how we treat our instruments nicely, we finally can start our "Three Note March". So I model, we sing letter names and fingerings, we begin to play, and students are called away for a picture. Pretty much a very stinky class. All those interruptions prevented them from appreciating the giant red X on my left wrist (a visual aid for those students who continually substitute their wrist for head support.

At the end of the day, I can catch the kids who missed class, because they have to go wait in the auditorium to be picked up to go home. Excuse #1: I didn't have my violin because "I was in a rush". Did the sister have the violin? Of course. Did he leave his homework at home? Oh no. And why did the cellist not come? Because her teacher tells her she can't, she hasn't read enough books. This I believe, because the kids who miss are always from her class.

Hey, only 11 classes tomorrow. And since I already had one kid pull out a bloody tooth during an elementary music class on Wednesday, I should be good for the week, right.? And then I can begin my long weekend and start memorizing love songs for a strolling gig I have on Valentine's Day.

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random thoughts after a migraine

January 7, 2009 21:04

Migraines may get you out of teaching recorder for the day, but I would prefer that I don't have to spend tomorrow hiding from all light or sound.

My advanced 2nd grade student has declared that Dancla's Air Varie Op. 89 #5 is the declared the greatest piece ever.

A practice chart with 100 gumballs (1 to color for each practice session) is very exciting to my children, even though they do not eat gumballs.

I still do not know why I dreamed that oboes were going to be made out of a fancy grenadilla floor that was discovered in Turkey.

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no more slacking

January 5, 2009 21:05

The Many Messiahs of Chrismas are done. Vacation has vacated. So I went back to school today, though we are kid-free until tomorrow. We had the prerequisite itinerant meeting first (where we ate, stared, learned one piece of information in 60 minutes...) followed by time spent at both schools. I always catch the ends of meetings (mostly a good thing). Today involved many abbreviations, DRA, RTI, TABS, ITBS, CRCT,...makes you want to run from the room screaming. I also finally got to move the remainder of my music materials to my lovely learning cottage. I was able to straighten out many things, but alas, my word wall (word walls are mighty important down here in Georgia) was left untouched due to the giant wasp that sitting on "ritard". Tomorrow, I return to the usual-peg wrestling, string wrangling, rosin/rock stop shuckin' and listening to the oft-used-first day back from vacationing student howdy "I forgot I had class today". Back to business as usual.

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More entries: December 2008