Flying Solo

As promised, here are some stories from the past few weeks........

Normally, the first week is just supposed to be observing the mentor teacher, getting a feel for the classroom, figuring out classroom rules, learning student's names, that sort of thing. Well, my mentor teacher, Rob Schmidt, is also one of the tech guys for the school. My first day started out great. I scoped out a great place at the front of the classroom to sit and watch both him and the students during the class. Things were going great until within the first 2 classes, he got called out of the classroom 3 times for tech problems. This is what I call immersion by fire. I had never even heard any of the music before, but ready or not, I was all of a sudden in command of the classroom. Luckly, each time was no more than about 5 minutes. Scared the tar out of me, but I survived. The next couple days, since I had already been initiated, he threw me up in front of the class a few more times similar to the first day.

After being randomly thrown in front of the classroom pretty much every day my first week, I felt great and ready for anything. Or so I thought....... Every Friday we go to the high school to help with jazz band sectionals. My first Friday, I got a text from my mentor teacher at about 6 am to call him. I was already in the shower, so I didn't get it until I was about ready to walk out the door. When I called him, he told me he was staying home sick that day and that I was going to be on my own the whole day. He told me to skip the high school jazz band sectionals and just meet him at the school to go over a few things I would need to do that day. To say the least, I had a mini melt down after I got off the phone with him. It scared the tar out of me, but I made it through. He even decided to blame his getting sick on me. He said he knew I could do it, everyone else knew I could do it, but I didn't, so he had to get sick to give me the opportunity to prove it to myself. It didn't work. After that day, I wasn't sure this whole teaching adventure was going to be worth it. Don't fret, though, I've gotten over my initial fear and am slowly getting more comfortable in front of the classes and really starting to enjoy it.

Another baptism by fire experience I have was actually in an elementary setting. Every year the doing a recruiting "tour" to the elementary schools that feed into their schools and have all the 5th graders attend an instrumental petting zoo. They give them a pep talk about joining band and orchestra and then let them try out a couple of the instruments to see what they want to play. As the kids lined up to try the instruments, you had about 30 seconds to teach each kid how to play the instrument and let them make a little noise on it. I was perfectly happy just watching from the sidelines to pick up a few tricks for teaching beginners how to actually make sounds on their instruments (since I've never really learned how to teach this). Well, Steve France (the sales rep from Summerhays who I've gotten to know a little over the past couple years) decided he wasn't going to let me miss out on any of the fun. After the first group of kids, he called me over, handed me a cello, and said have fun. After the first one, it was kind of fun. I pretty much just had to say the same thing over and over. It was fun to see their amazed faces as they realized that putting their fingers down on the strings would change the pitch.

Well, that is the end of my immersion by fire stories. I'm sure there will be more to come, especially with SUPAF (Southern Utah Performing Arts Festival) coming up in just a few weeks. They want me to conduct at least a few pieces at the festival with the bands. They are even trying to convince me to conduct the sixth grade band. Keep in mind I've only ever worked with 19 out of about 120 6th graders. Also keep in mind that there are multiple 6th grade classes that all rehearse on their own. They will have one rehearsal before the actual performance where they will all get to play with each other for the first time. And they want me to conduct this group...... AHHHHHH!!!!! I don't think it is the best idea, but if Schmidt gets his way, it doesn't really matter what I think. He's very persuasive when he wants to be. But then again, Jenson women have a history of being stubborn. I plan to use this to my advantage.