What's up?!

What's up?! I am fully aware that I never post in this blog and I don't even have any good excuses like my computer was down for three months and so I couldn't get computer access. Anyway, I have had a gazillion concerts recently and so today we kind of chilled and watched part of a video today. I normally don't do that for strings, but apparently I need to give them a break every now again or in 6th grade they really complain and say things like, "We never get to do anything fun like play a game or watch a movie in here." Of course I normally answer by saying, "Every day is fun in strings!" It's kind of like when your parents tell you that even though there is a Mother's day and a Father's day there is no Kid's day because every day is Kid's day.

We watched part of a barrage video and I now have my whole spiel down. (Barrage is a strings band and they play rock, fiddle, and other types of music. They are pretty cool, they are made up of violin and viola players, bass, guitar, and a drummer). First, I have to let them know that these people dress kind of like rock musicians so they should be aware that one of them has a midriff shirt on and they look a little grungy just like your favorite bands. Also, I have to warn them that there will be dancing and singing and that they really get into the music when they play, they are not spasming. That pretty much takes care of it. If I give my preemptive speech they really enjoy the music and are super impressed with how well they play. Occasionally I have to stop the tape and say, "No, they are not in love with each other they are just being entertaining for the audience." Sometimes I think maybe my kids should get out more. I guess it is my job to expose them to things and make their world a little bigger.

Motivation

Close to the holidays motivation is a bit tough. 5th graders are still going strong, becuase they can't belive they can now play Jingle Bells on their instruments. They look excited even when I tell them to take out their bows! Every direction I give them is exciting! 6th graders, however, are a little harder to motivate sometimes. They still get excited about certain songs, but it's not the same as when a 5th grader comes in telling me about all the songs they have performed for their parents. I just started using a new trick to try to get my 6th graders to go home with the same excitement.

Whenever my 6th graders look bored and I feel bored, I just have them close their books and I teach them a song by rote. This week we learned Star Wars, which was super fun. They get excited when they get to play "a real song". I already have some other ideas running around in my head. I was thinking about teaching them The Hockey Pokey and Pirates of the Carribean. Maybe I can even use these rote songs as leverage. They can be my new reward for good rehearsals.

It All Happened in Just a Year

This year is the first time I have the same students two years in a row. It seems to be a good thing and a bad thing. The positives are that I got to start them from scratch. I taught them how I wanted them to play and they even know my weird language and how to do what I mean and not what I say. The problem is that they despite these positives, they soon grow up and start becoming adolescents.

Just last year my 5th graders were all happy-go-lucky kids. They seemed excited about everything and always came to class with a million stories about guitar hero, sports, and anything that was on their mind. This year they are pretty much the same, but sometimes they're just a tad bit grumpy. And sometimes they are a bit too tired to be bothered by me. And they certainly are becoming more sarcastic. What is the deal? Some of my 6th graders were that way last year, but I just assumed that's how those kids were. I never presumed that those students had been sweet 5th graders the year before. I guess there is something to that whole puberty thing. Maybe I just need to focus on the positives. I mean, they really do play quite well. And they still enjoy strings and want to come to class. But it does make me a little more suspicious of my super nice 5th graders.

For those of us sufferening from political humor withdrawal....

I thought this was the funniest thing. It is great for both music nerds and political humor nerds....

Holy Spirit

I am reading a book on the Holy Spirit that has changed my thinking on how the Holy Spirit works. For some reason I always thought of the Holy Spirit mostly as a guide and someone who gave me strength in my daily life. This may be partly true, but this book has a focus on obeying the Holy Spirit. I knew that I was supposed to obey the Father and the Son, but I didn't think about obeying the Holy Spirit. Little by little we get better at obeying the Holy Spirit. I am becoming more aware of how patient I need to be as the Spirit works to change my life. It is apparently a very slow process.
It maybe seems slow to me because this idea of obeying really challenges me. This is true for a number of reasons. First of all I don't really like obeying. In particular it is hard to learn to obey other people, but that is an essential step in learning to obey the Holy Spirit. If we aren't able to surrender our will and our opinions in order to obey a person we won't be able to do it in response to the Holy Spirit. Also I find it hard not to rely only on my own will. Old habits die hard. Anyway it at least seems like the beginning of something new in my own faith even though it is a very old idea.

This and that

Softball is sadly over. We had a great time. We even ended up in first place! We had one loss, but apparently that was good enough. Now I have to find a new activity to rid my mind of thoughts about school. I shouldn't complain too much about school. The students have been a lot of fun. It has been really nice getting to have some of my students for the second year in a row. 5th and 6th graders also can make me laugh more than just about anyone. Some of my students makes my laugh so hard that it is difficult to respond to his off-task behavior.

We recently celebrated our 1st year anniversary of living in the same house. I even got the "let's move somewhere, Cali" itch, but I think it has mostly passed. I still do love looking at other houses. Last Sunday we went to an open house that was down the street. I thought it was fun, but it kind of depressed Cali. The house had a huge master bedroom with a walk in closet and a master bath. This prompted us to go home and rearrange our bedroom and make it look bigger. It kind of worked. We created a bit more space.

This week has been busy. Cali and I have had trouble getting to see each other. I have had parent teacher conferences and she has had some after school classes. We have used much of our free time to fill our brains with too much information about this year's campaign. There have been a few days that we got stuck in front of MSNBC for hours. It's amazing how they can keep presenting the same information too us in so many different entertaining ways.

Gotta go, special live coverage of the final president debate is now at hand!

ha ha

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