NJMEA

So much to post about, so little time...

This past week was a quick one, as I only actually taught two days of school. I taught on Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday, I had a sub in for me all day because I am part of the superintendent's "steering committee." I signed up for it in the beginning of the year, thinking it would be a good way to kiss up to the new boss. Also, being that it is my last non-tenured year, I wanted something good to put on my annual performance review. I really didn't know what I was getting into. Basically, we are like his advisory council or something. If there is a major school-wide decision that needs made, he tells us what he would like to see, and then we come up with a solution. Pretty powerful, huh? Wednesday, we talked about the district's retention policy (or lack there of). I was originally afraid that I would not be able to contribute much, since I am never really deal with students at risk of failing due to their music grade, but I did fit into the group well (made up of a 4th grade teacher, a 2nd grade teacher, and the school nurse), especially with my computer and typing skills. While we were discussing, I was typing an outline of everything we had decided, and then printed out a copy for everyone at the end.

Thursday was a horrible day of school, with pretty much every class I had being difficult. All I could have hoped by the end of the day is that this weekend's convention would get be recharged for school, because I had one of those "am I in the right profession?" moments on Thursday.

Friday and Saturday were the NJMEA annual convention in East Brunswick. Usually, Meg and I go up together Friday morning, go to sessions during the day, to go the concert and the after-concert gala, stay the night at the Ramada, go to the Saturday sessions, and head home. This fun professional-development-filled weekend 'get-away' is one Meg and I look forward to, only this year, Meg is on maternity leave, so I had to go by myself. Obviously, I did not stay the night, just commuted back and forth each day. I didn't have as much fun without Meg there, but I can now answer my question, "am I in the right profession?" with a definite "yes!" Just in the wrong job, that's all.

Saturday I came home very excited about pretty much every workshop I went to. Here is a quick list form summary of some of the stuff I learned:

• Gordon's Music Learning Theory (www.giml.org) - a whole theory for how kids learn music, which is completely backwards from the way I learned and how I teach it. But it makes a lot more sense. Compares music learning to the way we learn a language: Listening-Babbling-Thought-Speaking-Reading-Writing. Notice how reading is the 2nd to last step. Well, what is the first thing we do when we teach music- "This is a quarter note, it is 1 beat." If a kid doesn't understand what that actually sounds like, he'll never get it. The worst part about this, is it makes me want to revamp my whole general music and band curriculum, which would take a lot of work, and require a lot of funding. But I plan to slowly introduce some of the teaching techniques I learned at this workshop.
• New discipline techniques: These are a stretch, and sound tough to implement, but the presenter made it sound very nice. Basically, give the kids two choices, the rules, and the consequences. Keep everything simple. Don't yell, don't argue, don't ask for good behavior. All things that I do and shouldn't. My favorite technique he discussed is when a student is misbehaving, he just puts a check next their name in his gradebook. Doesn't say anything to the student until after class--just marks their name, and leaves everyone wondering who got in trouble.
• A new recorder method called Recorder Excellence, which correlates with the Standard of Excellence series that I use with my band. I was very impressed with the book, but it is way to expensive for my budget. I saw this session on Friday and was really impressed, but am less impressed now that I know a little about Gordon's theories, since this doesn't exactly follow the same logic. I also got a nice new recorder for free.
• Speaking of "free," I have been meaning to get a new microphone for my laptop for a while. Browsing the exhibits, I stopped at the Kjos booth, and saw they had microphones that go with there iPAS assessment software, but would also work as a regular computer mic. There were only $9, so I was going to buy one, but the guy at the booth told me I could have it for free--so now I just need to find time to hook it up and play around with the assessment software.

So basically, yes, I am in the right profession. I just need to find a school where there is administrative support, both for discipline, and for music. Most of what I learned works best in a situation where the band program is actually curricular. Being that my program is extra-curricular, there is not a whole lot, besides attendance, that I can 'officially' expect from them. I spoke to David Newell, the guy who did the discipline workshop, about implementing his ideas at my school. He was shocked to find that I only get to work with my group once or twice a week, and that it was extracurricular. He asked if there was any chance of getting that changed, and I told him it was much more likely that I would change jobs, to a school that would have a program like this.

I need a fresh start somewhere. I need kids that I have never taught before, so I can get a new reputation for myself, instead of the joke that most of them think I am. I need to do things the right way. I need support from staff and administration, and parents. I realize the opportunity is not very likely, and that I may be stuck where I am for another year, or more, but at least now I can look forward to when I do finally get that dream job.

Well, I gotta 'face the music,' (no pun intended). Tomorrow's a school day, with a long, five-day week, so I better get some sleep.

Icy Week

This week was little different than most, and I can now say that I have had enough of winter. We had Christmas, and now we had snow, and now that they are both over, I am ready for spring. Unfortunately, we have a while to go yet.

It started snowing on Tuesday, which made the kids at school wacky. The snow got heavier during the day, but it was supposed to turn into freezing rain on Wednesday. If anything, I thought we would get only a delay. Well, the phone rang around 4:30--I had the day off!! I know I'll be paying for it in June, but right now, this was about to be the best Valentine's day ever.

After de-icing the walks and taking some cool pictures...

(click here to see more)

...I spent the rest of the day hanging out with my baby and my Valentine. We didn't go anywhere or do anything productive all day. I did have time to make this e-Valentine, my first creative experience with GIMP. I still have a lot to learn, but so far, I think I actually like it more than my illegal version of Paint Shop Pro.

(click for Valentine's Day Photo Shoot)

I also wrote my letter to Meggie. We decided this year to use our budgeted Valentine's Day gift money to go out to dinner, and to write each other letters as our gifts.

We exchanged letters on Thursday, after we went out to dinner at Cotardo's, this Italian place we love in Blackwood. It was a great end to a long day, evening though we had a delayed opening at school.

Friday was another long day, and then Woo-Hoo, a three-day weekend. We did our weekly shopping Friday night, where we found the Baby Einstein lizard puppet--while Maddie just happened to be wearing the matching outfit.

After a little puppet show, Meggie put Maddie to bed, and we finished packing for our 36 hour trip to Gettysburg. However, for the amount of stuff we had to pack, you would have thought it was a 36 day trip. We had borrowed my parent's van, because the four of us (Meggie, Maddie, Max, and I) were all going to Gettysburg on Saturday morning. This meant packing the dog's crate, all of Max's stuff, the Pack-n-Play, the bouncy seat, the CD player (for white noise), the bouncy seat, clothes for Maddie, food for Maddie, toys for Maddie, and our suitcase.

Saturday morning, I loaded all of this stuff in the van, with barely any room to spare. The trip to G-burg was pretty uneventful. We did have a little adventure on the PA Turnpike. We stopped at the Lawn service plaza to feed Maddie. Maddie now prefers her bottles to be warmed (a new development in the last week), and the car bottle warmer was taking forever to warm up. I ran back into the plaza to heat the bottle with hot water from the bathroom, except that they have those auto sinks that only have warm water. So, I got in line to by some coffee (it was self-serve, so I was just going to fill my cup with hot water), and went to fill up the cup, only to discover that you couldn't get just hot water. So, I filled the cup up half way with coffee, and let the bottle warm in that. Yeah, I'm not looking at winning any 'parent of the year' anytime soon.

The rest of the trip was busy, but it went well. It was pretty much seeing one family, and then the next. Sunday was a little more relaxing. We were originally going to leave earlier, but Saturday was so busy, that we decided to stay and unwind some more. Mom took us out to TGI Fridays for lunch, and then we went shopping for baby clothes in the outlets.

After that, we packed up the whole car again, and drove home, this time without stopping.

We got home, and unpacked everything, and pretty much collapsed in bed. Thank goodness I have off today.

So far today, I have been hanging out with Maddie and Meggie. I did money stuff, and am now blogging (duh!). My project for today will be filing a bunch of papers that have been sitting in the "To-be-filed" bin since before Maddie's birth, and then I am going to re-do the organization system on my desk, since it is not really working right now.

Then tonight, is bells, and then a busy 4-day week, with another yearbook deadline looming, and the NJMEA conference next week.

Spirit Week

Last week was one of the the most hyper weeks of the school year. Both for the students, and for me.

I was VERY busy with the yearbook this week. We had a deadline of 32 pages (26 had already been submitted), and we had to check and fix two batches of proofs. Really, it wasn't a whole lot of work, but trying to get this stuff done while you are trying to teach and direct bands isn't very easy. The most difficult part of all of this was actually taking the pictures. My co-advisor, who is not exactly tech-savvy, is usually the one to take all of the pictures, while I take care of creating the pages on the computer. However, she was out the first three days of the week due to an ear infection. This was a little flashback to last year, but at least I knew she would be back to help me by the end of the week. Since she was out, I had to take a bunch of pictures that we needed to submit those last 6 pages. This was not easy, as many of the people had to take pictures of were adults (class aides and office assistants), who are not very nice about getting their picture taken. I don't get it. Maybe I am really vain or something, but I kinda like having my picture taken. I probably got about half of the assistants photographed, the rest I either couldn't find, or they ran away from the camera. Oh well, doesn't bother me, I'd just better not hear any complaints when the yearbook comes out.

The good thing about this week was that I hardly had to take any schoolwork home at all this week. I am making my best attempts to stay caught up at school, so that I can enjoy my time home. Life at home is also going well. Maddie is on much more of a routine now. When I get home, Meg has just finished feeding her, so I take over and spend time with Maddie while Meggie makes dinner. We eat, and the 3 of us hang out for a while. Around 8 or so, I give Maddie her night bottle, and usually have her in bed by 9. That gives Meggie and I some alone time till about 10 or so, which was spent this week catching up on Seinfeld: Season 7.

* * *

This weekend has also been very enjoyable. Friday night we had our usual grocery-shopping routine. Saturday, I did money stuff in the morning, and had a lot of Maddie time in the afternoon. We "waltzed," which is where I put on some kinda waltz (The Blue Danube, yesterday0, and dance around the room with her. I also played with the link-a-doos for her (these plastic toy chain things--she loves just to watch you shake them around), gave her a bath and a massage, and then got her all ready to go to my parents.

We dropped off Maddie at my parents, and then Meg, Nick, and I headed to Brigantine to Laura's house. Her Christmas gift to us was tickets to see Brian Regan in AC. We ate a Ruby Tuesday's, right outside of Caesars, and then headed over to the Borgata for the show.

With the exception of the fact that I was squished up against this weird guy because the seats were so close together, I had a great time. My throat was actually hurting after the show from laughing so hard. He did all new material, and it was all very funny.

We got back to my parents around midnight, woke Maddie up and brought her home, and finally got to bed after 1 or so, which is a really late night for us.

* * *

Today has been a very lazy day. I haven't really done anything productive, except to blog. Oh, I ordered rechargeable batteries for all of Maddie's stuff, and that is pretty much the most productive thing I have done. Oh yeah, I brought the laundry downstairs.

My plan for the rest of the day is to continue being lazy, get dressed, showered, and then go over my parents for dinner.

Then, another school week (three day weekend ahead!), which hopefully will be a little easier.

Super Weekend

Well, not that I actually watched the Super Bowl or anything. Meg and I actually watched the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet, while we rearranged furniture in the family room, and while I studied music for the next season of handbells. I am not much into football, but since the Super Bowl is always on Sunday, and we are usually over my parents (who are avid football fans), I usually end up watching some of it. However, we went to Adelphia's in Deptford for Sunday brunch to celebrate my mom's birthday, so we ended up not eating dinner there tonight.

I'll work backwards, since I started with today...

This morning, I subbed for our choir director at church. The choir sounded great, but Meg and I couldn't stay for the whole service, since had to get to the brunch. We also took Maddie along (to church and the brunch), and she was very well behaved--only cried once at brunch when she needed changed.

Saturday was very relaxing--the only thing we really did was go to Sam's and do our monthly stock-up. BTW- the "grocery experiment" from the summer works, as we actually came very close to sticking to our budget this past month (finally!). I also got my grades as finished as possible (we are still one of these archaic schools that does their report cards by hand, so tomorrow I have to copy my printed out grades from my computer onto the report cards). In between hanging out with Maddie, Meggie, and Maxy, I found some cool Open Source software at www.sourceforge.net, and I am happy to announce that I have a completely legit computer (if you exclude all of the illegally downloaded music), now that I have replaced Cool Edit with Audacity and Paint Shop Pro with The GIMP. Also for the fun of it, I downloaded Scribus, an O.S. alternative to Adobe InDesign, which I use at school with the yearbook (I can't actually use it to work on the yearbook, as all of the yearbook files live on the school server, but it is still cool to have a program like this).

Friday afternoon was grocery shopping, quickly followed by a meeting with Jane (choir director at church), to go over music since I will be subbing for her a couple times in the winter/spring. I then rehearsed the piece with the choir that I conducted today.

The school week was a pretty busy one, considering I only worked four days. It is the end of the marking period, so I spent most of the week doing all of my last minute grading. I have been trying not to take work home, but I had to on Tuesday, and Wednesday, I was at school till 6 grading stuff. I brought home work to do on Thursday, but was so fed up with everything that I put it off, and then miraculously found time to do it on Friday.

I would like to think that this week will be easier, since my grades will be done as of 12:15 tomorrow (hopefully), but next Monday (2/12) is our first yearbook deadline. We are in good shape, with 26 out of 32 pages submitted. But we have to finish six more pages, and pretty much all of the pages need a bunch of work. So, I'll have to wait till next week before I can relax again.

Weekends are pretty much what are getting me through the school year. I LOVE weekends. I get so much time with Maddie, and I get to relax, and take time to 'play,' and to do housework (believe it or not, I like housework). The only thing left on my to-do list to do this weekend is to make a to-do list for future weekends, so I will do that now:

My Winter/Spring Weekend To List
To be completed in any order at any time, no deadlines or due dates here

• Remove all leaves from the property (front, back, and side)
• Clean up the front and side gardens
• Remove all dog 'waste' from under the pool deck (yes, I said under the pool deck!)
• Put chicken wire around the deck so that Max can't do his business under there any more
• (later in the spring) Install lattice around the deck, since chicken wire looks ghetto
• Move wall shelves in office to new 'office area' in family room
• Continue rearranging of family room and set up the 'music area' and the 'play area'
• Move third wall unit from my parents house and set up with the two that we already have
• Install a whole house fan in the hallway
• Clean out the shed
• (If $$ allows) Build workbench in shed

That's a pretty good list for now. I know there were more things I had thought of earlier, so I will have to add them later.

Well, it is a school night, so I am off to bed.