Bring on the new year!

It's been quite the adventure since I last posted. First off, my car died the Monday before I got out of school for Christmas break. Luckly some nice lady picked me up and took me back to the school. Then I ended up having to borrow another teacher's car that day and the rest of the week to get to all my schools. In order to get home for Christmas, my best friend Matt was nice enough to drive me to Spanish Fork and then I rode the rest of the way with Dave, Brooke, and Sophie. While in Oak City for Christmas, my dad and I went to Spanish Fork and found a 2009, white toyota corolla that I really liked. We had some complications while trying to buy it, but it all worked out in the end and I love my new car! And I've officially named her Piper! I'll have to take some pictures here soon to post.

For Christmas, I got some great things that I've wanted for awhile. Among them a kindle and DDR (dance dance revolution). I've already read a few books on the kindle and love it. I've played DDR a little bit, but it isn't as much fun to play by yourself. I'll have to find someone to come play with me.

After Christmas, I came back to Price and started packing everything up in my apartment. The next day I had some friends (Matt, Erik, and Brandon) come help me move all my stuff to the new apartment. I've had everything I use daily and on a regular basis unpacked for awhile now, but I still haven't touched my spare bedroom yet. Eventually I'll get to it and organize everything in there. I also haven't taken pictures on the new apartment yet, but I'll try to do that soon and get them posted.

We've now been back in school for 2 weeks now. Let's just say this has been the hardest break to come back from yet. For me (and the rest of the teachers for that matter) and the kids. I had one teacher refer to it as the January blues. Apparently it's normal, so I don't feel too bad about not wanting to go back to work. Ever since I've been back, though, I can't seem to get caught up. I've been trying to get music from the last concert sorted and put away along with getting music ready for our next concert. Not to mention trying to start organizing everything for our solo and ensemble competition coming up that Steve and I are in charge of this year. I'm requiring all my kids to do either a solo or ensemble in class and then I will have to pick 20 solos or ensembles to send to the actual festival.

I had a very interesting experience in one of my classes this past week. First off, this little girl has been giving me a hard time all year. She doesn't want to be in band, but is being forced to stay in it by her grandma. This has caused her to take it out on me in class by refusing to do what she is supposed to. I've had to get after her pretty much every day to even get her instrument out and then trying to get her to play is like pulling teeth. Not to mention I have 20 other kids I have to try and control at the same time. Well, the other day I started talking to her sister that is in one of my older classes. I explained the situation and told her I needed to talk to her grandma at some point to try and find a solution. Well, the next day this little girl exploded in my class. The second I tried to talk to her about getting her instrument out to play, she started yelling at me about how I was a liar and had lied to her sister about how she didn't play in class, etc...... Normally I have students conduct the warm ups anyway, so I had some of the kids take charge and took her out into the hall where she started bawling while still yelling at me. I tried to calm her down and explained that I had warned her this was going to happen last week and that I have given her plenty of time already to "shape up". Five months to be exact. Up until now I hadn't said a word to her sister or grandma about what was going on, yet she was still mad that she had been caught I guess. I also asked her to look me straight in the eye and tell me honestly that she had been doing what she was supposed to in class. She knew full well she hadn't been, so obviously she couldn't do it and flatly refused to look at me at all. After talking to her and trying to calm her down for a bit, we went back into the classroom and she played the entire class period. I tried to compliment her on it, but she just gave me the cold shoulder as she went out the door. We'll see how all that turns out next week.........

Well, not much else has been going on. Mostly it's just getting ready for the next concert as always with festivals looming ever nearer. This next concert should be fun though. Since registration is also coming up in the Spring, I figured getting the kids excited and doing some "fun" music this concert right before they register would be beneficial. One band is doing themes from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the other band is doing themes from "Batman". The other songs aren't ones they'll recognize, but they have more catchy melodies and should be fun for them. With the percussion class, it won't be happening this semester, but I've passed out a piece called "Fresh Trash". It is a song that is played on metal trash cans and has some very visual aspects to it along with auditory. It is a pretty difficult piece for middle school, so I decided I'd give them a few extra months to work on it. We've hit it pretty hard for the past two weeks and here pretty soon we'll start focusing on the coming concert and get back to it next term. They are really excited about it, though. Now we'll just have to see if they can pull it off. We might end up having to have auditions for it.

Anyway, I hope I didn't put anyone to sleep from this long post. I'll try and get some pictures taken this weekend and post them of the new car and apartment. Try being the key word............