My latest rounds with the kids

So yeah I haven't posted since last week and for that I apologize.

Last Friday I taught the kids. I started and did warmups. And then I taught de gospel train. It went OK. Dr. Forbes said my warmups were better than my teaching, because all I taught were dynamics. And I'm thinking "woah... i didn't even realize I was doing that. I didn't want to do that!" But the warm ups went really well. I'm glad I did them, because now they like me. :) It's sort of funny, because one of Leslie's kids (Leslie teaches Sunday School at church and she's awesome) is in the choir, and she came up to me after church on Sunday and said "Good job Friday." i'm thinking she meant the Concertino, which is where all Millikin Choirs except UChoir sing. And I'm like, "Thank you, but I didn't sing." and she meant teaching. So that was cool.

So on Monday, I taught again, this time with Loch Lomond. Last time I heard them sing it, the tenor part was completely wrong, so I tried to get them to sing the right part. Turns out this time they knew their part pretty well. So I tried to bring thru emotion and teach them proper diction... Dr. Forbes liked my passion. The kids liked it too. But I had to focus a bit more... everything Forbes wrote about me was negative except for the passion thing, so that kinda sucked. But the postive thing was positive! That's one more positive thing I usually get... I used to get 0. Now I usually get 1 or maybe 2. So I'm climbing up there in the teaching ladder.

I don't teach until probably next Friday, although I think I am going to Moweaqua sometime next week as well. So I'll post sometime next week.

Two down, One to go

So here are my teaching experiences for the last two days.

MONDAY
Second time practicum went to Maroa-Forsyth. And it was interesting. The four of us (Cory, Molly, Wendy, and myself; Jarvs and Forbes didn't get there until a bit later) got there before the actual choir period, we got there for one of his other sessions where people not in the actual choir period work on choir music... don't ask, it's really stupid in my opinion, I figure if you have 105 people in a choir and 30 or so can't be in the choir because of class time conflicts, create a second choir. So we did that until that period got over and the choir came in. And we taught. It was Cory, Wendy, then Molly. And I tried helping the tenors... the one next to me kept asking "why is she doing that warm up?" and other stuff... and then one of them said they couldn't read bass clef. I don't care if you are a tenor or a bass or a soprano but everyone in music should be able to read bass clef. I teach on Friday when we go again. But now I got more of a sense of me knowing what I have to deal with and how to get these kids engaged... because they definately were not.

TUESDAY
I had my clock set for me to wake up at 6:15 this morning. Went to bed around midnight, thought ok I should be fine. Not the case. I slept thru my alarm and thank God my internal clock woke me up around 7:05... problem was I had to be at Moweaqua by 7:45. So I didn't even shower I just quick got dressed. I got there around 7:50. I went as fast as I could without going so fast the cops would pull me over. But I got there. And for the next 3 hours I proceeded to observe and interact with 5th, 4th, 2nd, and 1st graders. So that was interesting, yet fun. I'll be doing that a few more times. Moment of the day: the kid sitting next to me in the circle said "My brother is 13 and he's as tall as you!" Yeah. Fun. He then proceeded to tell me his cousin was 13 and was shorter than him... anyways, the teacher told me a bit about the high school choir and get this... they have all girls except for ONE GUY. One guy in the choir. Whoo. I guess 2nd semester they are getting one more... She also wants me to accompany. So my piano skills will be worked to the bone. I better start practicing again.

I don't know, I work really well with elementary children. Because I sure interacted with them today. It was fun. But at this point I still want to conduct high school or something. Conducting is my favorite part. You can't do that with elementary children. I also love complex high school music. But I still don't know yet. I've said always, student teaching will decide what grade I teach. That decision is inching ever closer...

Here we go....

So in order for me to student teach, I have to have 20 hours of observation at the location where I student teach. So I called music teacher at Moweaqua, where I am student teaching. She wants me there on Tuesday at 7:45 AM. Takes me 20 minutes to get there so I'm going to leave at 7:15 at the latest, more likely earlier in case I get lost or take a wrong turn or something which probably won't happen but still I'd rather leave a little window of time just in case. Which means I have to get up at like 6:30 or earlier. Probably more like 6.

Guess I better get used to it.

Branching off of that, she wantys me to look older than the kids, so she wants me to wear a tie and stuff. It probaly won't mattert too much with the elementary kids, but when I student teach high school... that's the whole thing with the goatee. So, I'm considering waiting until I get back here from Christmas.... Let it grow over Christmas vacation and take it from there, instead of waiting a week. These things take time and these things don't look good after a week.

In other news, I got the job at Blockbuster! So I got some extra income to pay off next semester and stuff. Very happy am I.

To keep or not to keep?

I'm putting this in my professional journal because I want to know now if I should have a goatee for when I am student teaching. Just give me your honest opinion by voting below.

Goatee... last shaved Saturday Sept. 11


If for some reason the poll doesn't show up go to my website.

Spreading too thin?

I may be spreading myself too thin now. On top of my classes and stuff, now starting soon i'll have early Mondays in Maroa, and probably early Tuesdays and/or Thursdays in Moweaqua observing for student teaching. Plus I have a huge major research paper I need to do in Ethno, and other homework. That on top of the fact that I am in UChoir, am already largely involved with InterVarsity, and may be getting a job. It kind of sucks, but I'm thinking I have to quit MVOP and if that isn't enough I'll have to quit church choir. But I need time to spend doing homework, to gather myself, and to be with God. Man.

Oh, well, I guess I better get used to it.

First day of Practicum was today

We are going to be dealing with a 70+ voice choir with 4 tenors. More on this later; right now I'm off to an interview... not for a teaching job of course but a job at Blockbuster. Wish me luck, the details of that interview will probably be in my LJ.

Test

I changed the name of my blog and now it is taking forever to publish, it stays on 0% for like 3 minutes... so I'm going to post this to see if it will help it any... I doubt it...

I have decided...

To change this blog to my professional journal. This blog will record all of my teaching experiences, emotions, and thoughts about my present academic journey and my future in the field of education.

Starting now.

Today I was sitting at the Nina Thiel table in PMC and was talking to Tony about my teaching. I said I don't know where to teach yet. And he said, "Try Colorado." Now this is like the third or fourth time someone has immediately suggested or said something about the Coloradian music education system for me. I remember Mrs. Bartel talking about how they reinstated 70 or so art and music education programs in the Denver School System. Maybe this is God trying to tell me something...

Dream again

I had a dream last night that Kenai got mangled and his snout was cut off so he had no nose and his coat was really bad.

Random

kerjiwsf? adfginrdfganf309 98fy23b0 fd90sh ~~1!!!!!!

Cool I just saw a commerical for Annette's church on TV and I was seeing if I could see her but I didn't... next time I look I'll look for Tamara I'm sure she's in the choir

Dream

I had a dream that the Packers won their final preseason game 91-7, and that the punter missed a kick but then grabbed it off the ground and kicked it again; it was like a replay on the news and the announcer said "This shouldn't happen" and stuff like that.

I can't wait for the regular season to start! Sept. 13. Plenty of time for us to get ready.