My Mission

It really stinks to be home sick - especially when it's such a beautiful day. But, being stuck on the couch all day does give one ample time to reflect on the week.

On Tuesday I attended my last session of the First Year Teacher Academy here in our district. All of the induction year teachers in our district have been meeting periodically through out the school year and going through a wonderful book called The Heart of Teaching by Ginger Tucker. Tuesday's session was actually led by Ginger Tucker herself. It was fantastic. By the end of the day, the majority of women in the room (myself included) were teary-eyed and filled with purpose as we each stood and read our freshly drafted vision and mission statements, and told why we decided to become a teacher. It's a powerful and awesome thing to realize the amount of influence we, as teachers, have on the lives of the children we see. I wish every teacher (new and old) could experience what we did on Tuesday. We would all be better teachers and better people for it.

Here is my vision and my mission as an elementary music educator.

My vision is to foster a love of music and a love of learning in the children that I teach.

My mission is to provide a safe, positive learning environment where my students can have a joyful music making experience as individuals and as a community, and to equip my students with the tools and experiences needed to continue to love, listen, and participate in music throughout their school careers and into their adult lives.

Spring Has Sprung! (well, almost)

"It's a wonderful world in which we live. If you ever doubt that, purchase a pack of seeds. Give them soil, moisture, and sunlight, and then stand back as nature delivers an inspiring performance." - Rebecca Bull Reed and Ellen Ruoff Riley, Southern Living March 2009

Amen and amen! Right after Christmas we planted about 25 tulip bulbs in a couple of large planters on our balcony (oh how I long for a backyard!). We now have 25 sprouts that are about 5 inches high. They are growing so fast, I would almost swear you could watch them get taller just by staring at them for a few minutes! What a little miracle! Brandon laughs at me, but I'm so excited about them (you should have seen me when the first little nubs started coming out of the ground!). It's just an amazing thing.

It's feeling more and more like spring around here. Seems like I'm not the only one enjoying these high 80's temperatures we've had this week. In addition to my sprouting tulips, my pansies in a pot are looking better and better. My students are reaping the benefits too. I haven't seen this many teachers giving extra recesses in months - we even took our music class outside to be in the sunshine this afternoon! Of course, I've lived out here long enough to know that this beautiful weather is probably not here to stay yet (in the two springs I've spent in west Texas, I've already had one white Easter - though sadly, no white Christmas). Sure is nice while it's here though. And just think - only two more weeks until Spring Break! Hooray!

Tulips!

Teaching High

I love being a teacher! I cannot think of anything more fulfilling or rewarding than teaching elementary aged children. It's amazing to watch them grow and mature so quickly - plus, it's seriously the best booster-shot of self-esteem anyone could ask for!

Today was a great day. I just came back from spending Wednesday through Saturday at TMEA (the Texas Music Ed conference) in San Antonio. Not only did I get a ton of great ideas and a good recharge to finish out the year, but I came back with some awesome classroom materials for myself and my students. God bless my new slide whistle! It has the coolest sound ever invented (even my 6th graders think so!) and kids LOVE to imitate the way it sounds. This is fantastic, since I try every day (some days are more successful than others) to get my kids to explore their vocal ranges and learn what sounds are high and low. They just think they're playing a game - and I'm actually getting them to do exactly what I want! We also discovered the joys of making our own thunderstorms - courtesy of my new thunder-tube. Super simple invention, but it fascinates everyone that hears it. You should look it up - it rocks!

I had to wait until my last class of the day before I could use my favorite thing I brought back. The school where I teach in the afternoons has TEN decent quality mallet instruments - I don't know how, but WOW! Unfortunately, they have been used so rarely in the past that we only have enough mallets for three kids to play at a time. You can imagine my dilema as a roomfull of impatient kids tries to wait for their turn to hit something and make noise! However, thanks to my amazing principal and a brilliant TMEA vendor, our school is the proud owner of TEN brand new mallets for only $50! Today was the first day we've used them, and it was wonderful! By the second round of playing, EVERY kid had a chance to play! That was unfathomable until today!

To put the icing on my cake of a day, after school I had a sheet of paper in my teacher mailbox with the AR reading scores of the nine 3rd grade struggling readers I've been tutoring since November (by far my favorite group of students!). A couple of students keep me posted on their progress, but looking at that chart today, I was able to see all of their scores every month since we started. I've been seeing an improvement in my students, but looking at their test scores on paper blew me away! These 3rd grade students all started off with no higher than a 2.1 reading level (the level of a beginning 2nd grader). Several kids placed in the mid-to-low 1's! Today, none of my students are below a 2.6 and THREE of them are 3.0 and higher! HALLELUJAH! One adorable little boy has gone from a 1.2 to a 3.0 - and his mom told his classroom teacher that the number one thing he requested for Christmas was books to read! WOW! That one child makes it all worth it!

What a great way to start the week!