Plan B?

This week, Ms. Bondy has had me perform for the kids. She sees this as my last week here and she wants to take advantage of that. So, I had my friends bring down my clarinet and piano books. I made a CD of my songs for juries and took on the adventure of performing for nearly 10 classes a day. That's close to 6 hours of singing. My voice is pretty much shot today.

I love to see the kids' faces flush with shock when they first hear me belt out "Non posso disperar." For them, I've mostly been the quiet one watching in the back, writing in a notebook. Some of the classes have seen me lead actions for different songs, but that's about the extent of my interactions with them. It's hard to describe seeing kids realize that they had misjudged me. If you took my voice out of the equation, you could probably hear a pin drop because the kids were absolutely quiet.

I had so much fun performing for the kids and then answering their questions afterwards. A lot of the kids asked me if I was an opera singer. I had to let them down a little and tell them my voice wasn't strong enough to be one. That didn't stop them from telling me that they liked listening to my voice and keep wanting me to sing more. Talking to Ms. Bondy later that day, we were talking about opera singers. I told her, "Yeah, it was always my dream to be an opera singer." Her response was, "I thought you wanted to be a teacher." That line had me really thinking. What is my dream? Honestly, its been to be an opera singer. It combines two of my favorite loves. Theater and singing. But, I don't have the voice for it. I don't have the volume or the strength to cut it. So have I given up and settled for being a teacher? When do you leave your dreams and settle for reality? Or should you ever?

At the end of our reflections, it asks us the question of whether we still want to be a teacher after our experience that week. This one might be the hardest to answer. At my graduation, Sam, who's like a second mom to me, wrote in a book that she gave me. "Always live a Plan A kind of life. Don't waste time on a Plan B." I've always believed in the importance of following advice. I hate when others don't take my advice so I try not to be hypocritical and make sure to follow other's. So right now, I'm really not sure what to do.

Week 2 A little late

This week, I got the privilege of following around the band teacher at Riverside. He's a good friend of mine from different theater productions we've been involved. It was interesting to see him in his element, teaching 5th graders how to play instruments. I always love to watch people in their element. Whether its competing, singing, or acting on stage, I still get goosebumps watching someone achieve their dreams.

The band room is nonexistent. He teaches lessons in the locker room. It made me and the music teacher almost feel guilty for having such a better room. Talking to him though, he definitely sees the glass as half full. He said that he prefers teaching in the locker room, because he thinks its more out of the way and so its easier to get things done. Whenever the kids meet for full band, they take stands and folding chairs into the gym and rehearse. Charlie has a rule that he does not remind kids about band. He tells them that it is their responsibility, whether they show up or not directly relates to their grade. As a result, only 4 kids showed up on Wednesday. He was not put off by this, and instead changed it into speed lessons for the four that showed up. He had them each take a corner and practice on their own. He would then go around to each individually and work with them.

Talking with him later about whether he was discouraged by the small amount of kids. He said he was a little bit, but he also appreciates the dedication by the four that showed up. He said that they work harder than some schools that have lots of people in band. It gave me some insight into the fact that sometimes numbers don't matter. It really depends on the kids and the teacher's outlook. Sometimes you just gotta see the glass half full.

Quotes from Week 1

(Talking about going to see the Sioux City Symphony next month)

Ms. Bondy- "We're going to see a concert at the Orpheum"

Little Boy- "Oh! The Beatles?"

Little Girl next to him- "No! Lady Gaga"

(Still talking about the Symphony)

Little Boy- :Isn't the Orpheum where we saw Oprah?"

Ms. Bondy- "No, you saw the OPERA"

(Looking at a picture of Sergei Prokofeiv)

Kid- "That guy looks like Michael Jackson!"

(See for yourself, its the same picture we have in the classroom)

http://hkballet.com/2007/press/2009/0923/img/prokofiev.jpg

(Talking about Martin Luther King's accomplishments)

One boy- "He freed the slaves"

Another boy- "They blew up his house!"

Little Girl- "Rosa Parks is his wife!"

(Ms. Bondy is holding up a tambourine)

Ms. Bondy- "Does anyone know what this instrument is?"

Little girl- "It's a tangerine!"

Ms. Bondy-"Well....it's.....it's close"

(Talking about Sergei Prokofiev, composer of the quarter)

Ms. Bondy- "....and he died in 1953"

Girl- "Did he get too old?"

Week 1

The first day, I showed up at 7:30. Big mistake. Word of advice, ALWAYS find out what time school starts so that you do not show up obnoxiously early. Turns out school didn't start until 8:45 and the teachers weren't required to be there until 8:10. So guess who had to entertain herself for 40 minutes. Oh well, I just used it to get acquainted with the music room, looking through some of the textbooks, posters, etc.

When the music teacher finally showed up, Ms. Bondy, I knew we'd hit it off. She's such an amazing Christian woman, I see exactly why Mr. Robbins said I'd enjoy studying under her. I thought she looked a bit familiar and I couldn't figure out why. Through talking to her during the week though, I figured out that we actually were in a play together last summer. I in the show and her in the pit band. Turns out that we both have a love of community theater.

The first and second day, I mostly just watched her in action. She truly cares about the kids and will always say hi to them in the hall. Each of the kids truly sees her class as fun and are always willing to learn. I spent the day just watching how she controlled the kids and taught them things I confess I didn't even know. (Ask me how old Sergei Prokofiev was when he died now!) She taught me that they can remember and retain a lot more than I thought they could. Also, I observed how absolutely ADORABLY CUTE little K5-2nd graders are :)

The third day, I got there a little early. I was just hanging out in the music room when I could hear Ms. Bondy talking to a student out in the hallway, Morgan. She brought Morgan into the room and mentioned she could organize the bookcase if she'd like. She saw me in the room and explained to me that she was here early and asked if there was anything Ms. Bondy needed done. Once Morgan was done cleaning (which honestly took like 2 minutes), she sat down on the risers kind of close to me. She looked extremely bored and I was just kind of doodling in a notebook, so I asked if she knew how to play the piano. When she said she didn't, I invited her to come join me. I told her to sit down next to me and watch what I do. I then taught her how to play Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater. (Its a cute little tune only using 5 notes) Her face beamed with pride when she was able to play it completely back to me. I don't think words can describe the feelings you get when a little 3rd grader discovers a love for music. She was so excited that I taught her another two songs before she left to go to her own classroom. She gave me a hug before she left that just melted my heart. Later, talking to Ms. Bondy, it turns out that she lives with her dad, her mom's not in the picture. I honestly hope I helped her that day or made some sort of difference. Ms. Bondy said she could tell I did already just by the fact that I paid attention to her, even for that small amount of the day. (She also mentioned I'd be very good at teaching beginner piano lessons, and that if I charged a dollar or two less than others, I'd probably make a killing over the summer. Note to self: Definitely think about this!)

That afternoon, Morgan's class came in for music. I had never seen her so attentive. She was paying attention to everything. She politely asked if she could play the songs she had learned for the class. The classmates were all excited to hear her. (I could tell she had been talking about it during the day.) The last five minutes of class, she played her songs. She played them almost perfectly, which is good, because I was nervous for her. It felt like it was my own "mini-recital." After that, there was time enough for me to play a quick song before they left. I played this jazzy song that the kids loved, claiming it sounded like a song off of Mario. haha. Morgan asked me if I'd teach her again the next morning. Unfortunately, I had to say I couldn't because we teach at a different school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but to keep checking in. Now I just have to go learn some more easy songs to teach her!

The end of the week was a lot easier. There was a late start on Thursday, and the teacher called me telling not to go to Roosevelt and just meet her at Riverside that afternoon. I got to the office, to check in as normal, and the secretary told me that she had Ms. Bondy on the line. She handed the phone to me and I was soon informed that she was stuck in a drift down the street from her house. She was fine, but there was no way she was getting to school in time. (The tow truck got stuck too!) After she had talked to the principal, he invited me into his office. (Let me just say it was really weird feeling like I was in trouble in the principal's office.) He told me that he wasn't going to leave me to teach the music class alone so they were just going to cancel it for the day. He still wanted me to get the credit though, so he had me do a bunch of tasks all afternoon. This involved LOTS of copying. (Let's just say me and the copier are best buds now.) He also let me go half an hour early because he wanted me to beat all the traffic home. (This was the day that the record lows hit and windchill was horrible) Friday, school was cancelled. Yay! Snow days rock :)

Paraprofessional/Practicum

Well I survived week one of my practicum...barely. And by that, I mean I only survived barely a week. A nice little snow day on Friday helped finish it out. So far, I cannot believe how incredibly exhausted I am. People I've mentioned this to just tell me, "Ha, just wait until you do your student teaching!"Might I point out that this is not necessarily something I am looking forward to? I don't think I've gone to bed past 10:30 all week. Its also killing my ability to sleep in because I keep waking up before 9. Boo! It'll certainly be different when I'm back at USF.

Teaching at an elementary school has definitely been interesting. I figured out before I even came to college that I wanted to teach music in high school. I had a great choir director myself and could easily see myself doing the same thing. However, I was not able to find a high school to do my paraprofessional at. (I'll admit, I wasn't putting too much effort into it either.) Well, the first week of my break, I went to a church game night. Some of the adults in our church were talking to me about how finals were, how long I'd be back, etc. One of them was Mr. Doug Robbins. He was particularly interested in that I was going to be doing my paraprofessional during January. He asked if I had picked a school yet, and I told him where I wanted to do it but had been unable to contact the principal. (I had completely forgotten about the fact that Doug was a principal.) He told me to let him know if it didn't work out because I was welcome to do it at his school. I called him the next day to let him know that I wanted to do it at his school. Even now, I still think I only did that because I was too lazy to contact the other principal.

Over break though, I started to wonder if I'd like teaching elementary kids. I had always been set on high school, there had to be a reason for that, right? Well, thinking back, I realized it was probably because I had a HORRIBLE elementary music teacher who still scares me to this day. So I thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad. After all, I am a pretty good babysitter. Its gotta be close to that right?