Monday was a long day. I didn't watch the Super Bowl, but I stayed up a little later than I should have. My morning was in slow motion while time whizzed by, and I got to school just on time. My first period is a small (8 students) Advance Choir class. Three of my students did not come (blessing in disguise). This gave me the opportunity to work with a couple of students on their Fame songs.
During my planning period, I needed to get my registration for Music Performance Adjudication (a.k.a. Contest) filled out and mailed. I saw that the deadline was the previous Friday. Crap. I emailed the person in charge of organizing to ask if there were any spots available. He gave me a quick response to let me know it was filled and then some. I was kind of disappointed, but guess what.... blessing in disguise. I started my third period orchestra class, and they were asking questions about Contest. I just blew them off until there was about 10 minutes left in class. I let them pack up early. I was so stressed out with everything going on and disappointed. I told them, "I have some bad news. I did not get our registration in, so we are not going to Contest." Tears were welling up, and I took a deep breath. They don't care about Contest as much as they just wanted to get out of class! They were sweet, though. One student noticed my watery eyes and asked, "Mrs. King, are you crying?" Crap. Whoosh goes the water works. I didn't totally lose it, but I was crying. Two of my seniors ambushed hugged me.
We will travel to one or two of the elementary schools to perform for Music in Our Schools Month. Since I am working on my National Boards, the musical, and Summer Strings Camp I am happy to have one less stress. This will also give us a couple of extra weeks to work on our music, and we can add another fun piece. Blessing.
After school, I had a National Boards meeting. This is for people who have entries to be read. I have not started writing, but I had videotaped my classes three days last week. I was able to get help and guidance for writing my fourth entry. This is about my activity and connections outside the classroom. It is very difficult to answer "Why" I do anything. Because I'm a glutton for punishment? I like to keep the feeling of being overwhelmed? Haha! Anyhoo... I was getting ready to leave, and the person in charge noticed my camera. She asked if I'd like one of the certified people to watch one of my videos. Uh... well... sure, why not (blessing in disguise). First, this woman made me feel very comfortable inviting her "into my classroom". After some fumbling and changing rooms, we got my video to work. I showed her a scale lesson, and then I moved on to instruction. Her feedback was wonderful! She said the point of all this is HOW I write about my video, not the video itself. She told me there is plenty to pull from the video. Needless to say, I left that meeting feeling much better about this process.
Monday was such a strange day filled with so many blessings. I must admit, I'm glad that day is over!
