Back to normal....

Or so I think. My first real day of teaching was yesterday (I only work Mondays and Fridays, and we hadn't had any of those yet). If financially we can make this schedule work without my having to teach more lessons, etc then I think we'll all be happy as a family.

I see myself becoming more involved in a local school, with a small local staff, no more trekking across the state. I still miss my old school very much, but hopefully I will have the space here to do some teaching the way I want to, embark on some meaningful projects for the kids, get a musical community started.

My greatest challenge yesterday was a class of 5/6 graders - simply a challenge because it was a larger class than the others. Still MUCH smaller than my last general music classes, and this time I had a classroom and equipment - I was able to modify the lesson as I went to fit the space. Next week I will be even more prepared, now that I have seen them in the space, and we can get more music done with less administrative babbling from me. I may be able to do something special with this class, as I have the numbers for a real ensemble, to do a real musical, or whatever I can dream up!

I'm excited at the possibilities. I was able to see the whole school body at an assembly as well - I kept thinking "when will the rest of the kids arrive?" - a student body of 73 still seems small to me after a band of 65. So let the school-wide multi-age singing and playing begin! Today I research what we will sing next week, so I can assess where we're going in that direction!