Here we go

Today was the second week of 3rd grade orchestra, aka 45 kids trying to play together at 8:05 on Wednesday mornings. I was trying to finish tuning the last few kids when it was brought to my attention that there was a kid who was about to cry. Thankfully 5th grade helper #1 took the child out of the room and successfully avoided a complete meltdown. A few minutes later that child came back and we finally started playing. As the last note of the first song was dying, someone called out my name, bringing my attention over to the violin section where a child held an instrument that had literally exploded in his arms. This time, 5th grade helper #2 was called on to take the child down to the string and assist him in finding a different violin to play. So in the first 15 minutes of the rehearsal we had two near catastrophes. I can't tell you how thankful I was to have those 5th graders to help out. There is no way I could've left 45 kids alone in the school gym to deal with the things at hand.

As I was driving home and rethinking through this event, I couldn't help but laugh. Last week a teacher in the faculty room said to me that she doesn't know how I do what I do, listening to violins all day. I told her that I could never do what she does--be a classroom teacher, I would go crazy. I would take broken instruments and crying kids over a classroom job any day.

(If you're interested in what how the violin exploded--the tailgut on the bottom of the tailpiece broke. This part literally holds together the whole instrument (strings, bridge, tailpiece). See below for a diagram.)