can't sleep. maybe recounting my life for the past week will put me to sleep.
I'm not going to pretend that I'm the busiest of anyone, but I'm pretty busy. I wouldn't generally list all of the details of my life expecting anyone to care, but I can't sleep, so I'm killing time.
Last week I chipped a tooth. This led to my first dental visit in what I figure must have been around 15 years. That's not so bad, because that means I average less than a cavity per year. I had ten. I didn't want to have to worry about scheduling it around school, so I used one of my last planning days to have a ton a fillings put in and to repair a chipped tooth. My mouth is finally starting to feel like a normal mouth again. That much work made everything feel weird.
I also auditioned for a local semi-professional choir. I saw the term "semi-professional" on the website, but I'm not sure what it means. I don't get semi-paid or anything. The choir is really good, though. We had our first rehearsal this past Sunday night, and it's different from any choir I've ever been in. The music is a fair degree more difficult than anything I've done before with much less time drilling notes and more time on musicality. It's going to be a cool experience, I think. I'm thinking it will require a bit of individual practice, though. We're doing Beethoven's Mass in C. It's with an orchestra and real soloists and everything. 5 movements and about 42 minutes. Much music to learn.
Then of course choir started at church this week. I enjoy choosing the music (I'm not sure if there is anyone else around who would make sure to get in a few songs with percussion), but I wouldn't mind giving up the position of director if there were someone else who could do it. Of course there isn't though, which means that I will probably be blessed with the job forever and ever and ever.
Of course I can't leave out the beginning of school. It has been keeping me busy, for sure. It has also been my least stressful class so far. I've heard from a lot of people that I have a reputation for being the strict teacher, and so far the reputation is working. I haven't had any problems with late assignments yet, even from those that have been notorious, and I'm fully prepared to come down hard on the first one to get lazy. Hopefully a good start will save me all the work of keeping track and catching kids up later in the year.
Tomorrow is another new experience - this year we have combined the 5-8 grades into one music class and choir. Who is in charge of it? It's me! Yeah! The idea was suggested to me, and I actually pushed to make it happen. Why doesn't someone ever stop me before I volunteer for good ideas that are a ton of work? Just another thing to add to my list of things I don't feel adequately prepared for. It's an hour long class with 40-some kids. The first one just might be a disaster. I know there are a lot of kids that WILL sing for me, but there are a bunch of kids in the 7th grade that are all about proving that they now are too cool to do anything that 5th or 6th graders (or their teacher) are doing. I'm hoping that the very nice 8th grade class and the 7th graders that aren't too mature for me will be influential enough to bring the others around.
Also, I have the 3rd and 4th graders tomorrow for current events. I did this last year, too, but it's a new class with a few new kids I don't know. It's OK, though. Like I said, the kids that don't know me are scared of me. I've been surprised to hear that even a few of the ones that have known me for as long as I've been here are a little nervous about being late on a math assignment or something.
It's odd that you can be falling asleep in your chair at 9 o'clock and decide to go to bed early only to lie awake for two hours. What's that about?
Last week I chipped a tooth. This led to my first dental visit in what I figure must have been around 15 years. That's not so bad, because that means I average less than a cavity per year. I had ten. I didn't want to have to worry about scheduling it around school, so I used one of my last planning days to have a ton a fillings put in and to repair a chipped tooth. My mouth is finally starting to feel like a normal mouth again. That much work made everything feel weird.
I also auditioned for a local semi-professional choir. I saw the term "semi-professional" on the website, but I'm not sure what it means. I don't get semi-paid or anything. The choir is really good, though. We had our first rehearsal this past Sunday night, and it's different from any choir I've ever been in. The music is a fair degree more difficult than anything I've done before with much less time drilling notes and more time on musicality. It's going to be a cool experience, I think. I'm thinking it will require a bit of individual practice, though. We're doing Beethoven's Mass in C. It's with an orchestra and real soloists and everything. 5 movements and about 42 minutes. Much music to learn.
Then of course choir started at church this week. I enjoy choosing the music (I'm not sure if there is anyone else around who would make sure to get in a few songs with percussion), but I wouldn't mind giving up the position of director if there were someone else who could do it. Of course there isn't though, which means that I will probably be blessed with the job forever and ever and ever.
Of course I can't leave out the beginning of school. It has been keeping me busy, for sure. It has also been my least stressful class so far. I've heard from a lot of people that I have a reputation for being the strict teacher, and so far the reputation is working. I haven't had any problems with late assignments yet, even from those that have been notorious, and I'm fully prepared to come down hard on the first one to get lazy. Hopefully a good start will save me all the work of keeping track and catching kids up later in the year.
Tomorrow is another new experience - this year we have combined the 5-8 grades into one music class and choir. Who is in charge of it? It's me! Yeah! The idea was suggested to me, and I actually pushed to make it happen. Why doesn't someone ever stop me before I volunteer for good ideas that are a ton of work? Just another thing to add to my list of things I don't feel adequately prepared for. It's an hour long class with 40-some kids. The first one just might be a disaster. I know there are a lot of kids that WILL sing for me, but there are a bunch of kids in the 7th grade that are all about proving that they now are too cool to do anything that 5th or 6th graders (or their teacher) are doing. I'm hoping that the very nice 8th grade class and the 7th graders that aren't too mature for me will be influential enough to bring the others around.
Also, I have the 3rd and 4th graders tomorrow for current events. I did this last year, too, but it's a new class with a few new kids I don't know. It's OK, though. Like I said, the kids that don't know me are scared of me. I've been surprised to hear that even a few of the ones that have known me for as long as I've been here are a little nervous about being late on a math assignment or something.
It's odd that you can be falling asleep in your chair at 9 o'clock and decide to go to bed early only to lie awake for two hours. What's that about?