I don't like this...
This has been a wild and wacky day in a couple of ways...and there's still about a third of it to go. I started off having to teach at my farthest summer school. It's nearly 45 miles from my house; you could consider it on the North Shore of Chicagoland. So I get there, and I remember being told by the principal that the staff was pretty much gone during July, but someone should still be around to let the kids into the building and unlock the library for me. (The music room is...nearly unusable; that's all I'll say.)
I get there really early, like an hour early, because I don't want to have to worry about traffic. Plus, I can go through my conductor's book to figure out what the kids will play in the group lesson and make it interesting. Well, I was there, and I went to the music room to unlock the stand rack, and I sat around for a while doing my lesson plan. Seven-thirty rolled around, and still no one had shown up. The library is straight down the hall from the office, so even though it's a long hallway, I can still see if someone else is over there. By seven-forty I started getting nervous...still no one else was around, and my earliest students have arrived at 7:45. I took my stuff to the music room, as horrible as it was, and started making signs saying, "Band is in the music room" to put on the front door. I stuck a note on the outside door to the music room and went to put one on the school's front door...when I discovered the front door had been propped open with a phone book. Also, a sign stating that band would be in the library (we were in the cafeteria for two weeks) had been moved so that people entering the building would see it. I got down to the library and saw the door had been unlocked. Okay, good...but now I had to walk back down to the music room, grab my stuff, take down the sign...*sigh* And it's not like these rooms are that close together. The floor plan of this school leaves much to be desired. By the time I got everything back to the library I met the mystery person, a woman named Mary Pat. She was all concerned that I'd be using the music room: "I saw that someone had set it up like the lessons would be in there." That's because I didn't think I'd have access to any other rooms! Well, she didn't know what time to arrive because she's not been here for summer lessons before. Basically her job right now is to unlock the doors for me.
At least I got through lessons...barely. Only six kids were there--two sixth graders and four fourth graders. One kid had an issue with her sax and could hardly play; the trumpet player couldn't tell that he was hitting the wrong notes; and two fourth grade girls were bickering with each other (and me) the whole time. Calgon, take me away. And today's music was horrible. They couldn't play it. I don't know what I'm going to do for Monday--the music just gets harder, and with so many young students, I'm really going to have to tone it all down.
My lessons were all right, at least. I give three private lessons at this school. One kid didn't show up. One was the trumpet player, who (I discovered) hardly practices. The last was one of the bickering girls. She's always saying her clarinet doesn't work when actually she just needs to work harder. Any time you come to something new, you have to work at it until you get good at it. She doesn't seem to realize that.
The ride home was uneventful, though I could see clouds rolling in. About one o'clock I could hear rumblings outside...and then bright flashes started appearing outside. There was a *lot* of lightning. I swear a bolt hit the house, but it must've hit the lightning rod on the roof. I heard this odd sound, then immediately after there was a bright flash and a huge crash of thunder. Thankfully, nothing was set on fire. I was freaked out enough that I turned off the computer--pretty hard for someone who wanted to work on this and my long-due emails! And, the worst thing--in the middle of this storm, the kids next door let their dog outside. I heard another odd sound that turned out to be water gushing down our gutters, and while looking outside I saw the dog trotting around outside. The backyard has no real shelter for the dog, so she was just trotting around close to the fence. I felt so horrible for her. At first I didn't think anyone was home, 'cause they've been known to just leave the dog out and there weren't any cars in the driveway. I watched her for a few minutes and then I saw her make a beeline to the back stoop, and it looked like she went inside. I watched for another minute and I didn't see her again. I am not a big fan of those neighbors; they're not the brightest lights on the Christmas tree.
The good news: While I've been typing this I've been watching Jeopardy!, and yes, Ken's still on...and today he finally tied the one-day record of $52,000 won. Alex Trebek was chiding Ken for not going $1 more to have the record all to himself. :) I still think I could take him. I'd be better than the lady that was on today. I don't want to dis her because she's from the Chicago area, but come on--she kept shouting out the answers without ringing in! I've *never* seen anyone do that.
I get there really early, like an hour early, because I don't want to have to worry about traffic. Plus, I can go through my conductor's book to figure out what the kids will play in the group lesson and make it interesting. Well, I was there, and I went to the music room to unlock the stand rack, and I sat around for a while doing my lesson plan. Seven-thirty rolled around, and still no one had shown up. The library is straight down the hall from the office, so even though it's a long hallway, I can still see if someone else is over there. By seven-forty I started getting nervous...still no one else was around, and my earliest students have arrived at 7:45. I took my stuff to the music room, as horrible as it was, and started making signs saying, "Band is in the music room" to put on the front door. I stuck a note on the outside door to the music room and went to put one on the school's front door...when I discovered the front door had been propped open with a phone book. Also, a sign stating that band would be in the library (we were in the cafeteria for two weeks) had been moved so that people entering the building would see it. I got down to the library and saw the door had been unlocked. Okay, good...but now I had to walk back down to the music room, grab my stuff, take down the sign...*sigh* And it's not like these rooms are that close together. The floor plan of this school leaves much to be desired. By the time I got everything back to the library I met the mystery person, a woman named Mary Pat. She was all concerned that I'd be using the music room: "I saw that someone had set it up like the lessons would be in there." That's because I didn't think I'd have access to any other rooms! Well, she didn't know what time to arrive because she's not been here for summer lessons before. Basically her job right now is to unlock the doors for me.
At least I got through lessons...barely. Only six kids were there--two sixth graders and four fourth graders. One kid had an issue with her sax and could hardly play; the trumpet player couldn't tell that he was hitting the wrong notes; and two fourth grade girls were bickering with each other (and me) the whole time. Calgon, take me away. And today's music was horrible. They couldn't play it. I don't know what I'm going to do for Monday--the music just gets harder, and with so many young students, I'm really going to have to tone it all down.
My lessons were all right, at least. I give three private lessons at this school. One kid didn't show up. One was the trumpet player, who (I discovered) hardly practices. The last was one of the bickering girls. She's always saying her clarinet doesn't work when actually she just needs to work harder. Any time you come to something new, you have to work at it until you get good at it. She doesn't seem to realize that.
The ride home was uneventful, though I could see clouds rolling in. About one o'clock I could hear rumblings outside...and then bright flashes started appearing outside. There was a *lot* of lightning. I swear a bolt hit the house, but it must've hit the lightning rod on the roof. I heard this odd sound, then immediately after there was a bright flash and a huge crash of thunder. Thankfully, nothing was set on fire. I was freaked out enough that I turned off the computer--pretty hard for someone who wanted to work on this and my long-due emails! And, the worst thing--in the middle of this storm, the kids next door let their dog outside. I heard another odd sound that turned out to be water gushing down our gutters, and while looking outside I saw the dog trotting around outside. The backyard has no real shelter for the dog, so she was just trotting around close to the fence. I felt so horrible for her. At first I didn't think anyone was home, 'cause they've been known to just leave the dog out and there weren't any cars in the driveway. I watched her for a few minutes and then I saw her make a beeline to the back stoop, and it looked like she went inside. I watched for another minute and I didn't see her again. I am not a big fan of those neighbors; they're not the brightest lights on the Christmas tree.
The good news: While I've been typing this I've been watching Jeopardy!, and yes, Ken's still on...and today he finally tied the one-day record of $52,000 won. Alex Trebek was chiding Ken for not going $1 more to have the record all to himself. :) I still think I could take him. I'd be better than the lady that was on today. I don't want to dis her because she's from the Chicago area, but come on--she kept shouting out the answers without ringing in! I've *never* seen anyone do that.