Concert Time!

And thus begins the end of the year concert season. My concert at church is this Friday night. I am very thankful to finish up most of my "getting ready" tonight, as the rest of the week is very busy. It should be an exciting concert, the 4th graders are playing When I Survey the Wondrous Cross on recorder, as well as Do Lord. I wasn't sure if it would come together or not, but I guess the Lord is going to be merciful as it sounded great last week.

What a Week....

Two things this week have caused me to be very thankful for what I have. The first is my classroom. Because the NYS Education department sees it necessary to test fourth graders in English, math, and science, the rest of us in the building have to suffer for three weeks out of the year. This week's science testing is the worst because I am actually kicked out of my classroom. As a result, I am having orchestra rehearsals in the gym and teaching lessons in the auditeria (cafeteria/auditorium). So I am shuffling things between four rooms in order to teach this week.

Teaching lessons in the auditeria--here's an example: I was working with a group of 3rd graders yesterday afternoon. The kids are up on the stage playing, I am down on the floor (because that's where the piano is) trying to keep the kids focused and actually accomplish something. As I'm trying to focus them, the custodian walks in and starts folding tables. Lunch ladies are cleaning up around us, and I'm trying to get the kids prepared for an upcoming concert. We are about to start a song and one of the kids turns to a friend and (completely out of the blue) says, "I have a game at home with recipes where you can make cookies." At this point I truly wanted to throw in the towel and go home for the day.

Today a couple of other teachers and myself took a group of kids over to a nursing home to perform and play bingo with the residents. I found out this morning that I was in charge of a whole busload of kids, some were my kids, some were chorus and band kids. It absolutely amazed me that the 3rd graders were quite well behaved and the 5th graders were out of control. Go figure.

We also found out today that one of our student's father passed away last night. When you stop to think about it, that really puts things into perspective. I worked with this student for two years and had many pleasant interactions with this man. I pray that his family would come to know the love of Christ in the midst of this--that He would be their strength during this time.

Colleagues

For the most part I thoroughly enjoy the people I work with, but there are a few people who truly get under my skin. One of them has the gift of writing incredibly rude e-mails that you wonder if they are written just for the sole purpose of being condescending towards others. As you might guess I have just read one of those e-mails and am now feeling better after venting. Have a good night!

Back to School

After a relaxing week off, it was back to school today. So at eight o'clock this morning my fourth and fifth graders started coming in for orchestra. One of the first things I got asked was, "so did you hear about the shooting at Virginia Tech?" Boy was I completely unprepared for that! Not only that, but what do I say in response? So I replied that yes I had heard about what happened, and that was practically the end of the conversation. But five minutes later when we were all settled and ready to start playing, one of my kids blurts out from the back of the cello section, "and in the orchestra news for today, the shooting at Virginia Tech." Great. Think about it, how are you supposed to respond to that? Here I am teaching in a public school, and I am restricted by a law that says I can't talk to the children about the hope and peace that we can have through belief in Jesus Christ. That we can trust Him when horrible situations take place. And let's not forget that what took place there could potentially happen at any school. But I can't offer my students any hope because the public decided that God should not be present in the public school system. Then we wonder why horrible things happen like this.

Budget Update

This Tuesday is the final budget meeting where residents can voice opinions relating to the budget. I have a couple of parents lined up to speak, so I am thankful for that. Because I am there three days a week, my hands are slightly tied as to how much I can do (talking with parents and spreading the word). My hope is that the few parents that I was able to talk with Thursday are spreading the word and making it known about the possible cuts to the music program. The Lord was gracious Thursday in the parent contact that I was able to make, so that was encouraging. So Tuesday is the night. Since I have parents going, I'm planning on going to the meeting as well, so it will be yet another late work day. I do pray that the Lord would give me grace and bring me through this season soon. It is wearing me out!

For an update with more depth, see my other blog: Musings of One Servant

Budget

As I am sitting here writing, the board of education is having a meeting relating to next year's budget. Big cuts are being talked about, cuts that will directly effect classrooms, including my own. Unfortunately the cuts that are being proposed were not all well thought through, so it looks like waiting is the name of the game. Please be in prayer for this situation. Thanks!

Hooray for Friday!

I am so blessed not to have any commitments tonight. I have been able to do some cleaning, organize last year's lesson plans (from church) and get caught up on typing up this years plans. Our K-4th concert is towards the end of May and I only have 7 classes left, so concert planning has been also added to the list. While planning the concert at church is a lot of work (in many ways more work than planning my concerts for my string kids), it is relatively low stress because I program things we have been working on over the course of the year. The challenge is planning material that the parents haven't heard before. I have been teaching some of the 4th graders since they were in kindergarten!

Since the kindergarten and 1st grade will perform together for the concert, I started having them come together last week. It is nice because instead of teaching five classes each week, now I am only teaching four. The downside is that now 20 kids are trying to have a music class in a room that is too small for us. And yes, we do folk dancing--which to the passerby looks like controlled chaos. Today's challenge: multitasking. Two of the girls in the class are sisters. While they are a year apart they are so similar that it is easy to mistake them for twins. This proved to be a problem for me as I had a hard time remembering who was who while I was trying to teach them how to do-si-do, keep the chaos under control, and be some child's partner. It really is a riot. But thankfully each week gets a little better as they (slowly) learn to discipline/control their dancing. At least the small room keeps them confined as we are working on it!