Happy Spring!!
A lot has been going on and it's been about a month since my last post. Two shows are done and over with, I've been to Kabuki SO many times yet I don't think I'm sick of sushi yet (although it helps that the staff there is, for the most part, really great, the owner is extremely hospitable and there's a cute waitor that I'll be talking more about later... lol. Middle of last week I got an e-mail regarding Bishop Hendricken needing a few more string players to help out with their "Beauty and the Beast" show that's going on next weekend (Thursday @ 7pm, Friday @ 10am and 7pm, Saturday @ 10am and 7pm, Sunday @ 2pm for anyone interested!!) I called Matt to see if he'd be interested playing cello since they asked for 1-2 violins and cellos. He was excited about it (seeing as how he was cut from The L5Y) and then earlier this week he got cut AGAIN. WTF people.
I was feeling really awful about it especially if he had already taken the 4 days out of work for the shows, he would be losing money he can't afford to lose... Turns out he hadn't taken the days off yet and was going to try and finagle his schedule by swapping with other people. He said also that there were 6 people looking for shifts anyway so he didn't take the time off. After he told me that I didn't feel as bad but still... he got cut from two different shows within a month of each other. -_-
Today is the first day of Spring (wooo!!) and it's GORGEOUS outside! Too bad I'm going to be in a show rehearsal for most of it :( I'm going in from 4-7pm even though the tech rehearsal is 10-7.... I basically told the director that since he's asking for musicians so late in the game that there's no way we can attend all the tech/dress rehearsals... So I'm going to the one today, I'll go to some of the one Monday afternoon (it conflicts with RIPCO and I'm sitting concertmaster for this concert, yay!, so I don't want to miss rehearsal), I'm not going to the Tuesday afternoon one since I'd have to cancel FIVE students, I'll go to the Wednesday dress rehearsal seeing as how that's the last one and I can reschedule some of my students to earlier in the day. Then Thursday-Sunday for performances.
I subbed for Doc Smith yesterday at Broad Rock Middle School. First time I've EVER been on the second floor in the x amount of years I've been there (I think 3 summers plus Performance Festival stuff?) I had two 74-minute 6th grade band classes, first one started at 7:50am.......... o_x The first class actually went pretty well but the second one was really rowdy and there were way too many saxophones in that one :P One of them managed to get his f'in swab stuck in the neck of the saxophone halfway through rehearsal... Mr. and Mrs. Dunne were both there subbing for other teachers and I got to speak with Mrs. Dunne and also Mrs. Denelle (who was the teacher that shared a double classroom with my 6th grade teacher) for awhile at lunch and also during one of the IB periods (no idea what that means) where we took all the kids outside and walked around the track a few times. It was a gorgeous day yesterday too :) I was let out a half hour early since they didn't need me for the last half of the Language Arts class I was covering with 2 other subs, haha.
On Thursday I subbed for Jen again at Wakefield Elementary, this time it was kindergarten and first grade general music. I wish I had more experience with kindergarten aged kids but when I was student teaching, their classes fell on Monday's and we had a lot of Monday's off... Jen was there teaching the first two kindergarten classes so I could get a gist of what the lesson plan was, had a lunch break (where I had conversations with Mrs. Antosh and Mrs. Cerrito!) and then I was on my on for the two first grade classes and one K/1 split. It actually went pretty well and we got through the lesson in each class without too many problems. I'll be subbing for my former cooperating teacher at West Kingston (my old elementary school!) on Monday for 3 kindergarten classes, 2 second grade classes and a 2/3 split... It's a shortened day due to the CPT meeting time at the end of the day but that's 6 classes squeezed into a 5 hour day. I remember those days... lol. It'll be fun though :)
Thursday night I also went to WKES to see my 4th and 5th graders perform in their chorus concert. It was great to see all those kids again, especially since they were so excited to see me there :) I just started teaching one of the 4th grade violinists (I had bumped into his mom and given her my business card back in December at the WKES craft fair saying that I thought her son had a lot of potential and wanted to teach him in my studio come January) and he and another 4th grader and 2 fifth grade string players played 2 or 3 songs with the chorus -- they did such a great job!! Some other members of the chorus also accompanied on piano, played hand bells, trumpet and recorder for certain songs. My string student that I mentioned above, came up to me afterward and thanked me for coming. His mom said that it was really great of me to come back and show my support for previous students. I walked into the music room where the chorus kids all went after they finished and a lot of kids came flying over to give me hugs :) I love that age group!
Wednesday night a couple of us met up at Kabuki to celebrate Lindsay officially getting hired in New Haven! This part of the entry won't make much sense boy-wise so I'll have to update about that later so this can be the tail-end of that update. I need to go jump in the shower and I SUPPOSE I'll head out to that show rehearsal that I'm already 4 hours late to :P
I was feeling really awful about it especially if he had already taken the 4 days out of work for the shows, he would be losing money he can't afford to lose... Turns out he hadn't taken the days off yet and was going to try and finagle his schedule by swapping with other people. He said also that there were 6 people looking for shifts anyway so he didn't take the time off. After he told me that I didn't feel as bad but still... he got cut from two different shows within a month of each other. -_-
Today is the first day of Spring (wooo!!) and it's GORGEOUS outside! Too bad I'm going to be in a show rehearsal for most of it :( I'm going in from 4-7pm even though the tech rehearsal is 10-7.... I basically told the director that since he's asking for musicians so late in the game that there's no way we can attend all the tech/dress rehearsals... So I'm going to the one today, I'll go to some of the one Monday afternoon (it conflicts with RIPCO and I'm sitting concertmaster for this concert, yay!, so I don't want to miss rehearsal), I'm not going to the Tuesday afternoon one since I'd have to cancel FIVE students, I'll go to the Wednesday dress rehearsal seeing as how that's the last one and I can reschedule some of my students to earlier in the day. Then Thursday-Sunday for performances.
I subbed for Doc Smith yesterday at Broad Rock Middle School. First time I've EVER been on the second floor in the x amount of years I've been there (I think 3 summers plus Performance Festival stuff?) I had two 74-minute 6th grade band classes, first one started at 7:50am.......... o_x The first class actually went pretty well but the second one was really rowdy and there were way too many saxophones in that one :P One of them managed to get his f'in swab stuck in the neck of the saxophone halfway through rehearsal... Mr. and Mrs. Dunne were both there subbing for other teachers and I got to speak with Mrs. Dunne and also Mrs. Denelle (who was the teacher that shared a double classroom with my 6th grade teacher) for awhile at lunch and also during one of the IB periods (no idea what that means) where we took all the kids outside and walked around the track a few times. It was a gorgeous day yesterday too :) I was let out a half hour early since they didn't need me for the last half of the Language Arts class I was covering with 2 other subs, haha.
On Thursday I subbed for Jen again at Wakefield Elementary, this time it was kindergarten and first grade general music. I wish I had more experience with kindergarten aged kids but when I was student teaching, their classes fell on Monday's and we had a lot of Monday's off... Jen was there teaching the first two kindergarten classes so I could get a gist of what the lesson plan was, had a lunch break (where I had conversations with Mrs. Antosh and Mrs. Cerrito!) and then I was on my on for the two first grade classes and one K/1 split. It actually went pretty well and we got through the lesson in each class without too many problems. I'll be subbing for my former cooperating teacher at West Kingston (my old elementary school!) on Monday for 3 kindergarten classes, 2 second grade classes and a 2/3 split... It's a shortened day due to the CPT meeting time at the end of the day but that's 6 classes squeezed into a 5 hour day. I remember those days... lol. It'll be fun though :)
Thursday night I also went to WKES to see my 4th and 5th graders perform in their chorus concert. It was great to see all those kids again, especially since they were so excited to see me there :) I just started teaching one of the 4th grade violinists (I had bumped into his mom and given her my business card back in December at the WKES craft fair saying that I thought her son had a lot of potential and wanted to teach him in my studio come January) and he and another 4th grader and 2 fifth grade string players played 2 or 3 songs with the chorus -- they did such a great job!! Some other members of the chorus also accompanied on piano, played hand bells, trumpet and recorder for certain songs. My string student that I mentioned above, came up to me afterward and thanked me for coming. His mom said that it was really great of me to come back and show my support for previous students. I walked into the music room where the chorus kids all went after they finished and a lot of kids came flying over to give me hugs :) I love that age group!
Wednesday night a couple of us met up at Kabuki to celebrate Lindsay officially getting hired in New Haven! This part of the entry won't make much sense boy-wise so I'll have to update about that later so this can be the tail-end of that update. I need to go jump in the shower and I SUPPOSE I'll head out to that show rehearsal that I'm already 4 hours late to :P