I'm really bad at telling stories.

In my classes we're doing a listening activity that's being spaced out over the course of a couple of days. I informed my students of what days we're doing the activity so they would know in advance if they would have to make up said activities from absences, etc. (AP testing is going on full force). AP English was today, and two of my seniors came in to do the activity they missed. While I got them started, we started talking. The truncated version of the convo (we talked for a while) went a little something like this:

They asked if I had any plans on getting a master's degree (I want to, but don't know in what yet) and I said I probably could easily just get one in administration or something. This led to a discussion where they basically told me that as a teacher, I deserve better - a topic that they admitted to talking about together many times outside of class (one of them said that she was going to write me a letter about it) - and that I should be teaching somewhere with more students that actually appreciate what I'm trying to do in the classroom.

I told them the news that with the budget cuts and everything going through CPS, I'm being let go by the school. They were disappointed, but I also told them that this is giving me a chance to find a better position - one where I can put my talents to their best use doing instrumental music. They were surprised that general music is not my forte (haha hahahaha hahahahahahaha ha) since I come across so knowledgeable about all the topics we've done. And considering I'm the fourth music teacher they have had this year, they have a lot of grounds to judge the qualities of a qualified teacher. They said they were happy that I was the final person in the position.

I like to think of the whole general music situation this way. Someone could be an elite chef but have trouble finding work, so to make ends meet they just flip burgers for a while at McDonald's or something. They're in the field, and they're good at what they do, but it's not the proper fit. Sure, I'm finding really quickly that I actually really am doing some really good things in the classroom, but I can't go on teaching general music. It would slowly kill me.

But seriously. This conversation. It made my day.

I joined a community band. The first rehearsal was last week, and boy did it remind me how much I love playing in an ensemble. I like playing alone. I enjoy playing with accompaniment. I love playing with others.

Er...

Last week was the first rehearsal. I got many compliments on my playing and had a really good time - making me look forward to today's rehearsal with much excitement. Um...today's rehearsal was not so great. We spent a lot of time hashing out an arrangement to The Phantom of the Opera (and anyone who really knows me knows how I feel about Andrew Lloyd Weber) under a god-awful conductor. In his defense, I'm assuming he was asked last-minute to get up and run the piece, but even so. His gestures were awful. His four-pattern looked like he was doing the robot. He stayed with a marcato pattern through the entire piece - even through the legato sections. And he really didn't have command over the ensemble. No wonder we kept stopping and restarting over and over again. And when we finally finished the piece (and I was gladly putting it away), people asked "can we run this again?"

I involuntarily let out an audible "Really??"

Someone else that was apparently more capable of handling that piece took the baton and hit certain sections, but that still left me in a sour mood the rest of the rehearsal. We ran through another piece that someone brought in. In short it was a cliché battle-theme anthem or something that was written very poorly. Yet people enjoyed that as well, so we're probably going to see that on our first concert. Nice. I'm assuming we're not pulling out any incredibly difficult pieces (yet) since we're trying to get a sense of the general abilities/limitations of the ensemble, but still. Let's get some decent pieces (STANDARDS?) that we can play? And conduct?

I was really looking forward to a fun rehearsal since this week at school is not really doing it for me (and it's only Tuesday... Christ...). 9 more weeks until the end of the school year? I can do this?

the old school
the new school
my battle against deodorant
the proposal, and the newfound musicianship
student loan boo boo
sweet tea vodka

So in the meantime I got a job. HS position, there's a teacher going on temporary absence, general music. I'll be technically a sub until he's gone, and then I'm on full-time.

I knew I was going to be starting today, but it was only last night that I found out that I'm actually going to be teaching students today. 5 classes?

I'm still fumbling around the apartment. I got up way too early and am just killing time until I have to leave, really. More details about the position later.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee