Ok, I admit it....I have become the most slack at blogging than anyone on my list! My life has changed in so many ways over the past few months. I finished up my fall semester and somehow managed a spot on the Deans list and Chancellor's list on top of doing my senior recital. That explains the gray hair (I'm really not kidding...I have gray hair). Anyway, I said a lot of goodbyes in December. To the music faculty, to my singer friends, the choir members at Boone UMC, etc. By the time I moved to Gastonia, I was totally out of goodbyes! One of the hardest things I did was sing my last concert there at App. We have a Holiday Concert every year and the last number is the Hallelujah Chorus....when that was over I came to the sad realization that it was my last time on stage singing in a choir as a student....and a choir of that caliber...filled with my closest friends. I was really sad, but sucked it up in time for a great reception and an even better late night dinner at Macado's with some awesome people :)
I've started student teaching. This past week was my first official week...I'm pretty much observing right now. I'll start this coming week with vocal warm-ups for the 6th grade chorus. With music we ease into it slowly so we're not so overwhelmed. It truly is different from teaching another subject. We can't teach a lesson, hand out a work sheet, and sit at our desk working on things while our students work. We're in front of the class for the entire instructional time....keeping things moving and the singers engaged...it really is a song and dance...and it makes for a really tired teacher at the end of the day. My cooperating teacher (the person I'm teaching with) is the lady that inspired me to go into music. It's the greatest opportunity to be with her and watch what she does every day...I truly am learning from the very best.
I'm starting to think about Masters programs. At this point, I really am tired of school. College for me wasn't 1-3 classes a day. Sometimes I would have 7 or 8 classes in a day. I think my worst semester I had a total of 12 or 13 classes. There are only 3 vocal music education students graduating on time....I'm glad that I'm one of them. It's amazing...the people that you go in with...and how many of us either end up quitting or falling behind. Anyway, I have thought about a masters in Choral Conducting, but also about one in Music Education. The Mus. Ed one is looking more appealing because it provides more of a pay raise for public school teachers. Anyway, I'm going to concentrate on finding a teaching job first...then perhaps a Masters program over the summers. Who knows, if I find a place that will give me an Assistantship, I'll be off to school full time again!
I've been cleaning my apartment today. Everything looks great except for my spare room....It's my music room/ office. I put my piano, and my desk with a book shelf in there. In the midst of all of this are stacks of I dont know how many hundred pieces of choral music sorted according to voice type. I'm currently in the process of hole punching them and putting them into notebooks so I can access them more quickly and keep up with them a little better. So right now the floor is covered in music and all of those little annoying holes that falls out of the hole puncher.
I sang my first Sunday in the choir at Myers Memorial UMC here in Gastonia. My cooperating teacher is the director. It was nice...beautiful church, and the same Methodist service that I've become used to from being at Boone UMC. I loved it. I got cornered by a few of the choir members...talking...A LOT. I honestly couldn't tell you what this one lady said to me. She randomly walked up and started telling me her life story...but she was jumping around so much that I couldn't follow. I just smile and nod..whoo!
I hope to be better at this blogging thing now that I'm settled...but we'll see :)
