It's the middle of the school day, but for once I don't have anything to do. Interval (morning break) is about to start, which is normally a twenty-minute opportunity to scramble to catch up on lesson plans. But I've just finished writing my last lesson plan of... ever? Well, of student teaching, at least! And I have nothing to do ( Read more... )

One week from today, I will be on a bus, on my way to the Auckland airport. Yet today I am moving house ( Read more... )

I'm writing from the lounge of the hostel Katy and I are staying at in Nelson, on the South Island. WOW it's been a busy past week or so! After two days of staring at the wall last weekend (decompressing from school), I kicked life into high gear, getting lessons planned and other things wrapped up before Katy's arrival on Monday, the day after ( Read more... )

Last night I went to a rehearsal of the Bay City Band, a community band that I was asked to join, as they don't have a mallet percussionist and I'll still be in town at the time of their next concert. They meet for two hours every Thursday in a community band room just a few blocks from my house. The youngest members are still in high school, ( Read more... )

It was a day of ups and downs - literally as well as figuratively ( Read more... )

Another music dream last night! Well, this morning, technically. I woke up to my alarm, but as it was 6:30, I thought I'd better hit the snooze. I did, and I fell asleep again and dreamed I'd missed an important glockenspiel audition! As a result, I lost my place as mallet percussionist in the Concord Symphonic Band! Which is really ridiculous ( Read more... )

Last night I had a dream that Alana and I were teaching a class together. Alana said, "Now Miss Carroll's going to improvise a song called 'The American Two-Toed Sloth.' " So I sat down at the piano and started making up a really slow, creeping song that had the Star-Spangled Banner buried way down in the left hand! It was such a funny dream, I ( Read more... )

Are you bored? Well, you need not be! Try any of these entertaining alternatives:

http://www.urban75.org/useless/bored.html

And, just for fun, here's a guy who's certainly NOT bored:http://www.

Tonight I was discussing New Zealand school kids with Amanda, my host-roommate-person, who's also a teacher. We were agreeing with a statement my GST supervisor made to me, that New Zealand girls are less sophisticated than girls in other countries, such as the US and Britain. Of course, this isn't true across the board, but in general, I've ( Read more... )

I LOVE mallet percussion ( Read more... )