Teaching Moments
I just returned from a walk with my two nieces and nephew. What a perfect autumn evening -- crisp, smoky, and clear. One house already had a pumpkin on its step! Jessie was on skates, and Zoe and Will were on scooters. I was quite impressed that two year-old Will was not only expertly riding a scooter as tall as he is, but he went around the whole block on it! Being an auntie is pretty cool. I just wish I could be near Jed, Chloe, and Tucker, too! :-(
The first week of school whizzed by quite smoothly, I thought. I haven't noticed any outright bad kids, though some require more attention than others. Today the third through sixth grade class had vocal assessments so I could assign parts for the Christmas musical. Unfortunately the girls outnumber the boys, and a very small percentage of those boys can actually sing in tune. This makes the selecting process very difficult, especially as there are some important boy rules, like Joseph, Zechariah, and Gabriel. Then there are a number of girls who are pretty good singers and who all want the main parts, of course. Somebody is bound to be disappointed. Choosing Mary will be a challenge, because I don't want her to be taller than Joseph! Most of the boys are on the shorter side. I need to really pray for wisdom that I'll make the right choices. Oh, to further complicate things, the one boy who can really sing well has major self-esteem issues and made it very clear to me that he doesn't want a solo or speaking part. I told him he doesn't get a choice in the matter. :-D Heh, heh, I'm such a heartless teacher sometimes.
Here are a few teaching moments from this week:
I got a book of Broadway solos for a twelve year-old voice student. When I gave it to her during school lunch (she's in my school), she went absolutely crazy, jumping up and down and screeching with joy! Warm fuzzies for the teacher. :-)
A thirteen year-old boy voice student shocked me with this: "I shot a bird and gave it to my cat, but he just bit off its head and left it! Can you believe that?" Me: "You shot a bird??" Him: "Yeah, I shoot lots of birds around here for target practice. I've gotten black-headed chickadees, robins, squirrels, woodpeckers. I want to shoot a blue jay, but my dad won't let me." I sat in stupefied amazement, my face full of pity for the poor creatures. I'm not opposed to guns or hunting, but shooting cute little creatures for sport just hits me totally wrong. I didn't feel like I could say anything about it, though, especially if his parents encourage his shooting rampages
A seventeen year-old harp student sat down for her lesson and told me she was tired and "a little shaky" after doing 100 push-ups during cheer practice. My eyes bugged out. I wimp out after ten, and that's with my knees on the floor! Evidently during some stunt during a game, one of the girls had gotten dropped, so the whole team (squad?) was penalized with pushups. She's got some hefty upper arms, and I sure wouldn't want to arm wrestle with her!
Such are just a few examples of the interesting incidents I encounter. Working with people of so many different ages, backgrounds, and personalities certainly adds variety to my job!
The first week of school whizzed by quite smoothly, I thought. I haven't noticed any outright bad kids, though some require more attention than others. Today the third through sixth grade class had vocal assessments so I could assign parts for the Christmas musical. Unfortunately the girls outnumber the boys, and a very small percentage of those boys can actually sing in tune. This makes the selecting process very difficult, especially as there are some important boy rules, like Joseph, Zechariah, and Gabriel. Then there are a number of girls who are pretty good singers and who all want the main parts, of course. Somebody is bound to be disappointed. Choosing Mary will be a challenge, because I don't want her to be taller than Joseph! Most of the boys are on the shorter side. I need to really pray for wisdom that I'll make the right choices. Oh, to further complicate things, the one boy who can really sing well has major self-esteem issues and made it very clear to me that he doesn't want a solo or speaking part. I told him he doesn't get a choice in the matter. :-D Heh, heh, I'm such a heartless teacher sometimes.
Here are a few teaching moments from this week:
I got a book of Broadway solos for a twelve year-old voice student. When I gave it to her during school lunch (she's in my school), she went absolutely crazy, jumping up and down and screeching with joy! Warm fuzzies for the teacher. :-)
A thirteen year-old boy voice student shocked me with this: "I shot a bird and gave it to my cat, but he just bit off its head and left it! Can you believe that?" Me: "You shot a bird??" Him: "Yeah, I shoot lots of birds around here for target practice. I've gotten black-headed chickadees, robins, squirrels, woodpeckers. I want to shoot a blue jay, but my dad won't let me." I sat in stupefied amazement, my face full of pity for the poor creatures. I'm not opposed to guns or hunting, but shooting cute little creatures for sport just hits me totally wrong. I didn't feel like I could say anything about it, though, especially if his parents encourage his shooting rampages
A seventeen year-old harp student sat down for her lesson and told me she was tired and "a little shaky" after doing 100 push-ups during cheer practice. My eyes bugged out. I wimp out after ten, and that's with my knees on the floor! Evidently during some stunt during a game, one of the girls had gotten dropped, so the whole team (squad?) was penalized with pushups. She's got some hefty upper arms, and I sure wouldn't want to arm wrestle with her!
Such are just a few examples of the interesting incidents I encounter. Working with people of so many different ages, backgrounds, and personalities certainly adds variety to my job!
posted by Kristi | 6:52 PM
9 Comments:
Will IS a whiz on that scooter, isn't he--he seems too small to have that kind of balance.
Maybe you could bribe the shy boy with the good voice. =)
Good job passing your test! Next time, toot your horn, we won't mind. We know you can play the harp well, you should be able to toot well, right? (That didn't sound quite right, did it) =)
Yay for the shooter kid! America needs more like him.
bleeding heart liberal.
:) heh, heh, heh...
*the liberal slam was meant to be funny, just to be clear*
The rule we have in our family for BB shooting: My embellished version.
“Whatever thou does shoot, whether it be thy dog, or thy cat, or the fowl that fly’s in the air, or thy brother” (just kidding about the brother). “Thou will’est most surely eat of the meat of what thou has’t slain.
Aye, two day’s thou shall eat of the meat of thy labor. And if thou has killed a large creature thou shall be obese, and thou will never shoot thy BB gun again at anything thou see not pleasing to munch… (2 Tash 5:12-13)
Hmm...raw or in a pie?
(BTW, it's 'flies' not 'fly's')
Yay for happy teacher moments! Your experiences are so different from mine in some ways, but so familiar in others. Come out east soon, so we can compare further notes! I'm so glad you have a blog.
Tash: That was mighty funny:)
On cheerleaders doing pushups: it happens regularly during the football games at my high school. Each time our team scores, the cheerleaders all get down and do pushups corresponding to the number of points our team now has. Some stunt, huh? So after one touchdown they do 7, after 2 they do another 14, after 3 they do ANOTHER 21, etc. And yes, they must have killer arms. They are not "girl" pushups either. Last year, during the championship game, our team scored 40 or 50 points. Those cheerleaders must have been inwardly groaning each time our team scored. More recently, they didn't do them after our team scored its sixth touchdown. This prompted our band to begin a chant at the cheerleaders that I found rather funny: "We want pushups, we want pushups."
Sorry teacher. Will I have to do 100 pushups for my error?
200.
lol...
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