send in the clowns....

I have been spending a lot of time home in bed with some random sickness, and i have noticed that it has been a long time since i have had a spout of side splitting laughter! You know, the kind of laughter that is uncontrollable and takes what seems like hours to control! The kind that makes you thankful if you have visited the restroom recently or regrettful if you hadnt... It has been so long since i have laughed this way that i cannot even remember. sure, i have had a chuckle here and there, but it has been too long since i have had tears streaming down my face, soar ribs, ugly face type laughter.  it might be time to bring in back up... send in the clowns!

when did a dotted quarter note become so hard?

I have been teaching band now for about 27 weeks (give or take a week).  It has been one of the most challenging things I have ever done!  It is hard to get the information from my head to the student's head! Last week we were working with staccato notes.  the concept of short is unfamiliar!  i clapped, sang, had them clap, and nothing seemed to make sense to them... finally i had to make the section a quiz grade for them to actually practice.  Today was the dotted quarter note.  For those of you who are not musically taught it is worth one and a half beats.  So i taught the definition.  i sang the song (Vivaldi's Anvil Chorus). i than had them clap while i struck sticks together.  Finally i brought out the bass drum.  with all my might i struck the head of the drum as they played.  we worked over and over and over again until finally it was somewhat in rythm.  With all the popular music in the world today, i would think that the concept of the dotted quarter would be simple.  every song that has any kind of beat ususes the dotted quarter!  it is a symbol of rythm... which makes me think... is the dotted quarter the problem or is it true that certain kinds of people just have no rhythm?  does heritage actually affect the amount of rythym you have?  does your grand daddy's soul effect the way you tap your feet?  as i look through my elementary class and i imagine their parents the correct answer may be yes!  their heritage may prevent them from ever conquoring the ... dotted quarter! 

the friend code

every group of girls should have a friend code.  this is a code that all girls live by to ensure that they are really the best of friends.  most good girls who grew up in the 80's and 90's lived their friendships by this code... basic concepts like "dont date your friends exs" or "hey there is a bat in the cave" or "dont call her boyfriend unless a dire emergency." these are things that we naturally wanted to do or not to do to ensure that our friends stayed our friends.  while working with teenagers i have seen that the code has died in this generation.  girls will date their bff's ex boyfriends and text guys who are not available until all hours of the night.  what has changed in the last 20 years that has caused the girl code to die? today's young girls will be friends with girls who they think do stupid stuff and then hope to not become like them!  I have decided to change this! to write a book, a manual that will instruct this generation about the girl code!

forgive and forget?

As i have become older i am learning that humans struggle to forgive and even more than that they struggle to forget.  Recently i have irritated a young friend of mine by stepping in when i shouldnt have.  I had good intentions, and i thought i was doing the right thing... but in the long run it came across decetful and rude.  So, once i realized i was wrong... i went to step two... forgiveness.  I have asked for forgiveness of the Lord and my young friend.  I know my God has forgiven me, but i do not believe my friend really has done so yet.  She hardly will speak to me... i am not sure that once she does forgive she will ever forget.  As a science teacher i am in awe of the capacity of the human brain.  The fact that it works all day long making sure our heart beats and our lungs expand it amazing!  The things that we can recall from years back are awesome at the least! Yet sometimes this leads us to things we cannot forget.  I pray daily that my friend will forget and allow us to reconcile our friendship again.