2 more days!!

Two more days of school left.  (I think I can, I think I can)  Fifth graders are busy wrapping up a project.  I believe they have been using recess time to work on it which is somewhat impressive (except they should have got it done in class, too much fun stuff to play with in Garageband).  The fourth graders are finishing up with recorders and they actually don't sound too bad.  The little kiddos are getting the chance to play with a PVC instruments donated to us by one of the high school seniors and there is a little bribery with some Animusic videos as well.

Then its time to gear up for summer; State FFA Band, golf, baseball games, a wedding or two, sax quartet, jazz band, Symphony in the Flint Hills, Kid's College, guitar class, wheat harvest, did I mention golf?  

My awesome golf girls!!!!!

Hitting the books

I, for one, have been thankful for the less than May-like weather the last week or so.  It has made it so much easier to stay inside and work on getting the class ready that I am going to start teaching for Cloud County Community College.  I will be teaching online Music Appreciation starting this summer.  Music Appreciation seems like an odd thing to teach online because there is not way to ensure that students are actually listening to the musical examples provided in the book.  I am trying to put checkpoints along the way to make sure that they have to talk about what they heard in the music.  I am debating about doing some drop the needle tests (which as a music major I hated) but some of the listening examples are so obscure and it is incredibly easy to cheat these days thanks to programs like Sound Hound.

The weather is supposed to warm up and I figure I am around the halfway point with the class.  I would gladly take a few more unseasonably cool days between now and June just so I can wrap things up with the class and still make it to the golf course every once in a while..... 

Another week down

It is now officially May.  April was such a strange month, hot, cold, wind, rain, clouds, and gloomy.  Here is to hoping May is a bit more pleasant.

Today I got to make another trip to the Motherhouse in Concordia.  The Sisters hosted a community recital.  On today's program were a trumpet soloist who will be moving on to Fort Hays State, a clarinet quartet called the Licorice Sticks (which I got to play with today in the absence of one of the regular members), a tuba soloist who will be attending KU next year, the piano teacher from Cloud, and a former student who is absolutely amazing on the classical guitar.  Such a talented group of musicians and a great little place to perform!!

Yesterday I spent part of the day working on our playground project.  Seeing an entire playground go up in a matter of days was pretty amazing.  So many people contributed their time and money to make this playground happen.  I was especially happy to find out that there were some music type activities included in the playground.  I am anxious to hear what the kids think of it.

This next week will mark the start of Ladies Golf.  I have greatly missed my "summer friends" and I am really looking forward to getting back out on the course.  I haven't swung a club yet this year so Thursday night could be interesting!

This week is also That's Entertainment.  This will be the first show that I will actually get to watch.  I have always helped with running lights or being the stage manager so just sitting and watching will be a little odd.  I am looking forward to seeing some of my "kids" singing and dancing their hearts out. 

Oh, and did I mention?????  19 days of school left!!!!!!!