One down, 35 to go

Well, I’ve now finished my first week in my new school. I like it, but it is requiring an adjustment to a much faster pace. Last year I only had each particular class of kids once a week, but now I have each class every day. It is forcing me to be more creative… quicker! None of this is a bad thing, it is just a mental adjustment I’m having to go through. I just have to get myself organized on a daily track rather than a weekly one. It’s happening… it just is a challenge!

I am enjoying getting to know the kids at this school. They really seem to be a pretty good bunch… particularly the ones I have in my top band. I mentioned in my last post that the proportion of flutes to clarinets is a little out of balance. Well, yesterday one of the flute players took the initiative and came to me and asked if it would be OK is she tried to learn clarinet and switch. I said that would be fine by me and it would really help. Well, she came in this morning to inform me that her parents went out and bought her a clarinet last night and a method book. Already this AM she was playing away doing quite well.

As for the rest of our life, we still are waiting for a buyer on our Bradenton house so that we can get serious about finding a house over on this side of the bridge. We’ve seen some that we’ve liked at the open houses we’ve gone to the last couple of weekends, but we can’t really make an offer til we get a signed sale contract on our Bradenton house. Keep praying… I know the right buyer is out there.

Happy New Year?

I know it’s not Jan.1, but several teachers at school were saying “Happy New Year” all day today as it was the first day of classes for this school year. Once again I’m at a new school, trying to learn the names of a whole new bunch of teachers and another group of kids. I had the opportunity to meet all the kids in my classes today… about 150 of them all together. It will be nice this year to have them every day rather than only having each class once a week like I did last year. It sure makes it a lot easier to remember names and to put them with faces.

I have 42 in my top band right now, which is about double what I started with in my first band job (more than 25 years ago… YIKES!). It seems pretty well balanced with the exception of the high woodwinds (12 flutes vs. 3 clarinets… I’d really like those numbers to be reversed). Oh well, you work with what you’ve got. I do have about 40 in 2 sections of beginning band, so I can have some input in helping plug some of those holes for the upcoming years. My chorus has 52 in it… almost too many to be managable. But, again, you make the best of it. At least we shouldn’t have any trouble being heard!

I’m looking forward to this year and excited about the possibilities… More later.