Summertime, and the livin's easy

I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post!  It's truly a testament to time flying when you're having fun.  I'm really enjoying working with these girls in the glee class - they're bright, fun, and easy to work with.  Last Friday, we performed Sweet Caroline for one of the teachers whose birthday was that weekend, and for the students as they ate lunch.  People loved it!  I couldn't believe how well the girls did, and how well their performances were received.  Classes have been going really well, and we have been covering plenty of ground.  My friend who teaches the dance portion of the class and I generally trade off.  That way, one day is singing-intensive, and the next is dancing-intensive.  It keeps things fresh and gives us a break!  The girls have learned their first dance, and have been working on five songs, two of which are totally memorized.  We have quickly realized that the girls learn songs super quickly, but take a while with the dancing.  That is to be expected, as kids have been singing since they could speak, and they know these songs from listening to the radio, whereas they don't know the dance steps.  At first I got carried away with the potential for a set list - I wasn't even sure if we would complete 3-4 songs, and all of a sudden we were way ahead of schedule!  However, I think I've finalized the set list and we seem to have settled somewhere around 8 songs.  Probably only half of those will have dance routines, but that just means we have extra time for high-quality singing.

Another item I've been striving to balance is having a classroom open to contributions from students but still being in charge.  So far, I've been very open to students sharing their opinions about ideas for performance, and even what we do in class.  Although I set the agenda for the day, if they request to sit instead of stand, I will usually let them as long as they sit with good posture and sing well.  I want the girls to have as much freedom as I can give them without the classroom turning into anarchy, but there are times when I need to step in and make a decision.  It's tough, because I feel bad when I have to say no, but I'm glad to have that authority when the classroom gets a little crazy and chatty, like it did today! I guess I'm a little torn, because most of my teachers were harsh disciplinarians, and I often behaved well out of fear.  I want my students to behave well out of respect for others and themselves, not because they are afraid of consequences.  Today the girls were super chatty, so we were considering modifying our point system - so far, they have earned enough for a free hour in class on Friday.  I don't want to start erasing points for disrespectful behavior, but something has to be done.  I'm not sure if that is a more realistic model - in life, if you screw up, your reputation is tainted - or if it is better to reward good behavior and ignore disrespectful behavior.  Either way, the girls and I will have a chat tomorrow, and I might honestly leave it up to them.  

So far, this experience has been incredibly fun.  I've been getting MUCH better at piano and singing (I go in a little early everyday to prep and to read thru some Adele), the girls and I have been finding a lot of success in working together, and I'm done by 12:30 and free to enjoy the rest of my day.  It still feels a lot like student teaching - I know when things go very well, and I know when something is unsuccessful either due to natural difficulty, or due to my error in preparation.  I feel a lot more pressure, but a lot less guilt, if that's possible.  I am responsible for identifying my own successes and failures, and for compensating and continually balancing day in and day out.  I feel less like I've let someone down and less scared of a bad grade or a bad evaluation if a lesson isn't 100% successful, probably because I just suck it up, reflect on the day, and make it better the next day.  Working with human beings is never black and white, but my reflection process kind of is.  I've already done my own personal journal after week one was over, except this time I didn't have to fill up a certain length to satisfy a teaching requirement - it was all for me, and all for the benefit of the girls.  It's quite nice!

More on the class - I was really nervous about putting on my first concert, especially with this being a show choir concert and me not having any experience with dancing or (real) singing.  I'm pleased to say that I'm insanely pumped for the concert!  The girls and I have talked about performance anxiety, and even though they were all a little nervous (more than I was, oddly enough!), we all got such enjoyment out of performing one song for our friends and teachers that I know any future performances will be a thrill.  Since one of our girls is leaving halfway thru the summer, we will do a midway concert at the end of next week to showcase what we've learned before we jump into session two.  I'm trying to get the songs learned sooner rather than later so that we can spend the final week and a half refining and preparing for our performance.  Here's what our set list looks like for now:

Sweet Caroline
Forget You (harmony, echos, solos)
Just the Way You Are (two part harmony and echos)
What Makes You Beautiful (I'm aware this has no musical nourishment, it is just for funsies)
Halo/Walking on Sunshine Mashup (mashups are tricky for us!)
Maybe rumor has it/someone like you Mashup, if the girls are ready for it/promise me not to belt
Blackbird
Thriller Mashup

Whew, that's a lot!  We might have to scale back, but since we have such a long program for 12 3-5 graders, it certainly wouldn't be a shortcoming by any stretch.  Ok, so here are my final final words on the class thus far - at the end of week 1, I pulled out my checklist to make sure we were hitting the items I wanted to cover in this class.  I'm pleased that we are, and even added a few to be covered that I didn't originally think would happen.  For instance, we aren't reading any music in the class, but we have gotten into solfege and warm up in major and minor.  I'm looking forward to introducing pentatonic warm ups, and to aurally covering the difference between minor modes.  Heck, we might even get into modes!  It's nice to have 2 hours of class - I can set aside 15 minutes of warm ups and cover a huge amount, and not have to worry about cutting into rehearsal time.  This will NOT be the case during the regular school year, but at least I can scale back the time, keep the proportions, and still git 'er done in 45 minutes.  I've found that so far, taking the time to cover musical concepts and demand excellence in warm ups is insanely worth it.  However, even with covering all of these topics that I didn't understand until freshman year of college, none of this feels really special or advanced.  It kind of just feels normal.  I'm glad that these girls will progress through their musical studies thinking that knowing these concepts are normal.  I guess this whole music teaching thing just feels normal, not like any magical teaching breakthroughs that I might've hoped for.  

In other areas of my life, I've been enjoying my new bike, and how bike-friendly Kailua is, but I desperately need a place to ride that doesn't have so many driveways.  If I have to slow down before every driveway to make sure I'm not going to get squished like a bug, it gets a little old.  However, I have become much more conscientious, which I appreciate.  It's nice to be out on the road with nothing but my bike and my camelbak.  There's something refreshing about that!  In other transportation-related news, I'm buying my annual bus pass on July 2nd.  $660 isn't bad for a whole year, although it is quite the step up from my $110 TCAT semester passes.  However, it is worth it.  I also met with a financial advisor yesterday, and he told me that the best thing I can do with my graduation money is to keep it where it is, educate myself on my student loans (payments start next month for me due to consolidation...yikes!), and actually KNOW what my expenses are so I know exactly how much I have remaining to spend or invest.  Then, if I want to start investing or start up a retirement account, I will know what is possible.  I think that this is the first time in my life that I will be budgeting.  It sounds bad, but up until this point, I didn't really have to watch my money.  I had money from working in the summer and money from working at school (it also didn't hurt that my mom still gave me my allowance) so I kind of always knew I had enough to cover my books and purchases.  My parents covered all of my necessities like groceries, our apartment lease, flights, and bus trips (or more accurately, thanks student loans and scholarships!), so I never had much to worry about.  I was truly lucky.  Now that I want to be more independent and actually have a real paycheck, it's time for me to keep track of this stuff.  I'm using software to help me, and it's becoming painfully obvious that I waste a lot of money on takeout.  Also, I'm not a huge shopper, but the last few weeks have involved several big purchases (that I was planning on, but still...). It's time to step up and pay my own way, so today I packed a ham and tomato sandwich, and enjoyed the free-ness of it.  It wasn't take out sushi, but again, it was free, and it did the trick.  I probably could afford a new car living at home, but I don't even begin to want to pay for that, and I am perfectly content waiting for the bus (I'm writing this on the bus!), which is cheaper and less dangerous. W00t

One last thing - my grad party was this weekend, and it was awesome!  It was great to see friends and family and celebrate in a low key yet high fun way!  I am so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life!  It was also nice, because I began to see some of those people in different ways.  For example, my former music teacher asked me to call her by her first name, my boyfriend was tremendously helpful and put up with my introducing to family and friends like a champ, and I'm beginning to see who my true friends are.  It's weird, but I began to see the people at my party as people who would survive the transition into the next phase of my life, and it was insanely exciting.  I've had my doubts in the past, but in a way, that night kind of cleared them up, and I was ok with how my near future looked.

Perhaps I'll fall into the habit of only blogging once a week, and writing way-too-detailed blogs. Sounds like a plan!  Now, off to Waikiki for a piña colada with my sister!

DA