Choir Directors Convention

I am back from the convention. It was great. I have massive piles of new music to add to my single-copy library (from which I choose most of the songs my choirs sing), and many new ideas to take to the classroom once school starts. I have two hand-outs I want to keep in the front of my folder to remember those things I was taught this week. If I don't do that, it will never end up making a difference in my teaching. When I get into those moments when choir rehearsal is becoming a drag, I need those quick energizer activities at my fingertips. When a kid is baiting me to argue and get upset, I need that list of quick one-liners to diffuse the situation. The key will be remember that they are there, and remembering to USE them!!

It was great getting to hang out with the other choir directors in the district. We have so many wonderfully talented people right here in our very small sphere, and we really do support each other very well. This year I didn't hang out in the hotel bar with the directors from a nearby district like I have in the past. I know they were there. I've seen evidence on facebook already. I just didn't end up going over there this year because I stayed in a hotel that was closer to the convention center, and for some reason I didn't end up there... Curious...

I also got to hang out with my voice teacher and academic advisor from college. She was also my Music Ed prof, and mentor. She and her husband are always at these conventions. Seeing her and getting to eat lunch with her was a very rare treat. She had some wonderful insights on grad school that have given me the nudge I needed to know where to apply. I was torn between two schools in my area, and I am no longer in doubt. Now the question is when to start... More on that later.

The day after my lunch with her, I ran into my old choir director from college. He was only there one day, and seeing him is another rare treat. He came to my tiny-choir school in March to work with my students before contest. That was such a blessing. It was my new favorite day of my career so far... Anyway, he's up for doing that again this year, which is downright AWESOME!! I'm definitely looking forward to that!

The ladies I roomed with wanted to go see "Horrible Bosses" on Thursday night. It was so funny. The language was horrible as the bosses, but it was FUNNY. If you can tolerate the f bomb repeatedly, I recommend that movie. No spoilers here. I'll move on.

I got some business taken care of at the exhibits. T-shirt art ordered, trip date booked with festival company (going back to the waterpark!!)... Boring stuff like that. I scored some free pizza kits from a fundraising company that sells them. The man kept talking to me and I kept listening and then he offered me free stuff. Works for me!

I brought home some gifts for my girls. I got Big Girl a piano necklace since she plays piano, and I got Little Girl these funny treble clef glasses because as soon as I spotted them, I knew that she would LOVE them! Maybe she'll let me borrow them for special days at school when I may need to be super silly.

OK, so the thing about when to start grad school... I have thought I would go back to school since about a few years after I graduated from college. My priority was starting my family. As long as I was a stay-at-home mommy, grad school didn't seem like a relevant concept. Since starting back to teaching two years ago, it's something I've thought about more and more. Hubby and I agree that it needs to be a financial priority for our family in the upcoming years. I have looked into it and found a masters program that offers classes in the summers for working teachers, and that is what I will do.

The question is whether I start in 2012 or 2013. The reason to delay is an opportunity to travel to Europe. The best man in our wedding is a major in the Air Force and his family is stationed in Germany. They live close to France and Spain, so our trip would be more than just to Germany (we've been there before, but it was with a large group and we didn't have much control over our schedule or which attractions we visited). An opportunity like that doesn't come along all the time. He has been stationed in Europe before, and we were not in a position to take advantage of the offer. I think it was when our kids were little, and finances were tighter. Anyway, that's the question of when. Everyone I've talked to has encouraged me to go to Europe over starting school if we get the opportunity to go.

So I have some action items on my agenda for the short-term: 1. get passport renewed, 2. get convention handouts laminated and in my folder, 3. make sure to take the rhythm cards to tiny-choir school, and stuff like that. I have medium-range goals: 1. plan trip to Europe, 2. take GRE and start application process for grad school, 3. sight-reading every day with students, EVERY DAY no matter what, even if it's just 2 measures...

Those things may not seem like they are related, but they don't have to be. This is my stream of consciousness. You're welcome to get out of the water...

The song in my head came on the radio on the way home today. "Barracuda," by Heart. It doesn't get much cooler than that.

Choir High

A fellow middle school choir director in the district is getting married this weekend. She and I generally have to curtail our conversations in meetings and such. We never run out of things to discuss, and I definitely consider her a friend.

For her wedding she has several choral selections she wants performed. Of course that means assembling a choir. I have been honored to be included in this choir.

Last night was the one and only rehearsal for the wedding choir. It was very much fun to see some other familiar faces in that choir, people I know from singing in other choirs, and one girl I went to high school with. I've remarked before about the choir world being a small one, and it was definitely another confirmation that it surely is.

I don't think any of us had really spent much time with the music prior to last night's rehearsal. At first it wasn't all that great. There were plenty of mistakes, as there always are early in the rehearsal process. But this choir got everything fixed faster than any choir I've ever sung with before. There was no discussion of "off on 4 there" or basics like that. Once the difficult spots were ironed out, it was a matter of interpreting the expression of each piece which mostly came naturally. There was a magical moment as we rehearsed the last song of the evening when the bride, seated in front of us, was moved to tears. We all felt it.

THAT'S why I do this. That's why I love choir.

I came home after two hours of rehearsal on a choir high. I was keyed up and excited to tell Hubby all about it. I think I overwhelmed him.

As my head hit the pillow last night, I thought about the fact that I get to do choir for a job. I get to do this thing I love, share this thing I love with my students. I get to go through the process and hopefully get to that places where the music moves us to tears. I am extremely blessed. My cup runneth over.

This was just the attitude adjustment I needed going into the convention, and the impending school year.

Last night I had in my head, "Erev shel shoshanim," "Dodi Li," and "Seasons of Love." (We're not doing "Seasons of Love" a capella, but you definitely get the idea. The other two YouTube examples are the same arrangements we're singing.)

Goals for 2011-2012

I have been turning my thoughts back toward school this week, as I gear up for the convention. Two things I want to do this year in my classroom, which will hopefully enhance the learning for my students have been rolling around in my head.

1. Play more recordings of GOOD choral singing for my students. It needs to be at least once a week. My students aren't listening to good singing by and large, and their idea of good singing and mine are often quite different. They need to hear what a good choir sounds like. Regularly.

2. Use my rhythm cards more. I made a whole set of rhythm cards when I was a student teacher that I used all the time when I taught elementary music. I haven't hardly used them at all as a secondary teacher, and it's a shame. I should be pulling them out over and over again, especially at the school where I tend to have lots of kids move in through the year. There are games we can play, and I can reinforce those music-reading skills which are so vitally important to the sight-reading process. I have taken it for granted that they'd be too easy, but I know there are some tricky ones in there, and I can mix and match... There are so many days when it's two weeks until a concert, and we know our music well enough to take some time out to do something else (and should for sanity's sake!), and I just haven't thought about those old rhythm cards enough. I need a magnetic chalk or dry-erase board, and then I'm good to go.

All it takes to implement either of these things is a little forethought and planning. How hard is that?

Ask me again when the school year is rolling and I've got a hundred other things going on!

One of these things is not like the others...

One of these things just isn't the same. Can you guess which?


We often think Daisy looks like a stuffed animal. I found this amusing and had to share!

So the song for today is "One of These Things" from Sesame Street. :o)

Here it comes...

This week is the choir directors' convention. It's the unofficial start to my school year. Choir directors from across the state get together, read through new music, visit vendors' booths, and learn from others how to solve problems in our classrooms or rehearse better, or whatever. It's a nice time to socialize with other choir directors around the district and region, and hang out in the hotel bars after hours. (I sit with my diet coke and watch the others drink, in case anyone is wondering. I have plenty of fun without drinking alcohol.) It's like a working vacation.

The only down side is that it means school is right around the corner.

But a good thing is that school is right around the corner.

I'm having mixed emotions about starting this school year. The spring semester of this past year was a very rough one, with major debates about school funding and lay-offs of teachers and morale so bad, and I definitely don't want to go back to that atmosphere. I miraculously survived the cuts (which I am not taking for granted), and I am returning to the same position I have had for the previous two years. The insecurity released upon the teachers of our state has not left me. I don't feel free to just do my job.

I have shared previously about the fact that I teach at two schools, one with the largest middle school choir program in the district, and the other with the smallest middle school choir program in the district. In both cases, we have to keep enrollment up for me to have a job. The big choir school is adding a choir class from last year to this year, so that's good. Enrollment is up. At my other school, the choir program went from 9 students in May of 2010 to 19 student in May of 2011. That's over 100% increase. That's good. But is it good enough? I feel like I have to fight for that choir to exist. Am I ready to fight another year?

How do I get kids to sign up for choir (at the tiny choir school)? It's a tricky question. I am not allowed to "RECRUIT". Most of the growth I've experienced has come from the counselors steering students to my class when they move in to our school. The counselors trust me more the longer I'm there. Four of my five boys last year were move-ins. And that's great. I love that I get students that way. The downside of this is those students missing whatever I've taught through the year in the way of music literacy and good vocal technique. Those kids just aren't going to be ready for contest come March or April the way the others are.

I really do love my job, teaching kids to sing in an ensemble to the best of their collective ability, and teaching music literacy. I always think I can do better. I have the same self-scrutiny and criticism about my teaching as I do about mothering. There's always so much that can be done better. And I do get down on myself when I see mistakes. The good thing about teaching is the start of a new school year, before the mistakes are set patterns. There's always that chance to set new, better patterns that improve the choir, the class, and even the teacher. With parenting, it's much harder to find the point to start over and correct the mistakes and set a new trajectory going forward.

I can see many differences in my teaching and in the students I've had between the two years I've taught since having the girls. It will be interesting to see what's different this year from last year. I need to keep my perspective on anticipating the good and not on dreading the bad.

So here it comes. Summer is nearly over and Fall with its new beginnings is almost here. What will this year bring? Time will tell.

The song in my head today has a story to go with it. "You Make Me Smile," came on the radio this afternoon as we left church. My dad had been sitting next to Big Girl in the pew this morning, and he said those words to her, "You make me smile." "No, I don't," she said. "You choose to smile." How right she is. It's a choice.

Kid TV Shows

I know it's better for my kids to watch kid shows on PBS than for them to watch most other things on TV, or stick needles in their eyes or something. But by golly, those songs are so difficult for me to ignore, and even more difficult for me to get out of my head. In the spirit of this blogger's renewed zeal to blog, I just have to share this little gem with you. Good luck. Have a nice day.

Facebook Quandary

I have realized in recent months that the total failure of this blog can be attributed to transferring so much of my attention to facebook. If I feel the need to share my thoughts, I do it there instead of here.

There are many bummers resulting from that. I have people in my life who used to read this blog, and I'm pretty sure they aren't checking in any longer. And I don't blame them.

This has been a bummer for me, time after time, to see that bookmark button for my blog at the top of my browser and ignore it. Actively ignore it. I know better. There's nothing there. At least nothing new.

Facebook has the interactive thing down, but it also keeps everything very shallow. You're limited on how many characters you can put in a wall post, and in order to get a complete thought out, you have to spill over into comments.

Anyway, my husband is no longer on facebook. He was weirded out by the new facial recognition feature for when you upload pictures. I get that. It is creepy to have facebook telling me who is in the pictures I just uploaded. It's not the capability that's so bad, it's the potential for misuse that you can't control that is so bad. I generally have the feeling that I have nothing to hide, and I don't. But even in the heyday of this blog I left out details to protect my family and especially my children.

Facebook is designed to suck us in. After watching "Social Network" it was obvious that it was designed to keep people clicking. They know how long we are logged in and what we click, what keeps our interest. They are studying us by our interests, and our friends, and SELLING the information. Thinking about it in this light makes me want to delete my profile like my husband did to his.

The other side of the coin is that I know I have connected in person with people as a result of reconnecting on facebook. Friends from college or high school who are now in the area where I live are now a part of my life again because we found each other on facebook. That's a good thing. Real life is a good thing. Facebook can make communication easy, and improve real life.

Facebook can also feed a fantasy life, making us think we have connections to people beyond what is real. I know I don't really have 650+ friends. If I need something, there are not 650+ people coming to my aid. In a true crisis, I don't turn to all 650+ of those people and pour my heart out. There are not enough hours in the day to do such a thing. I know there are friends I can truly count as friends, and friends that are facebook friends. There is a difference, and in my adult understanding of life, I can see the difference. There are some people, young people mostly, and mentally ill adults, who may not see the difference. Facebook is dangerous for such people. They can put way too much emphasis on their friend count, and whether they feel good or bad about themselves can be based on something so arbitrary. It's like the facebook South Park episode. Funny, but sad.

And then there are the addictive games. I know that if I didn't play Bejeweled Blitz I'd have some other go-to game that I could play mindlessly any time I was bored at my computer. I can't blame facebook for that. But still. It's there and it keeps me going back because I'm competitive and I want to see my name in the top 5 for the week.

I am saddened when I think of all the other things I could be doing with that time. Let's limit this thinking to JUST what I can do on the computer. I could be blogging or making digital scrapbook pages. Either of those things require creativity and thought, and have more of a lasting impact on my life than facebook. The digital scrapbook pages are eventually printed and put into a book to be held and admired. My kids love looking at the pictures of themselves, and they even love it when I'm making the pages of them. They feel special. And it's a keepsake that will be treasured for as long as I live if not longer. And as for my blogging, it is a public journal. It's a verbal picture of what's going on in my life and the only place I really get to write freely. I really have missed it these last two years when I've been so bogged down by work and then frittering away my time on facebook.

So the question remains, "Is it worth-while to be on facebook?" I'm afraid the answer is yes. The connections are worth it. The fear part for me is that I know myself, and what's required for facebook to not take over my life is SELF-DISCIPLINE. I don't like self-discipline. It's hard and I'm a big, fat baby. I'm always better at making the good choices when I don't really have a choice.

Since the question was originally raised a week ago or so, I have taken a few photo albums off my profile and thought about culling my friends list. I haven't done it because I want to avoid the embarrassing re-add. You know, when someone you've taken off your friends list sends you another friend request... Yeah. I've been on both sides of that in the past. It's not a good situation.

I guess going forward, I want to resolve to live more fully in the real world and less in the facebook world. Will that happen? I guess time will tell.

Oh, and I almost forgot the most interesting part of this blog - THE SONG IN MY HEAD! I have had that dumb song, "Gives You Hell," in my head for the last few days. It's driving me nuts. At least you can trust that I'm being honest. Why else would I own up to knowing this song well enough that it gets stuck in my head?