Wedding Etiquette Forum

Hi Alanna!

How did your madrigal thingy go on Sunday?

My concert was last night and it went really well!  I'm so glad that it's over, though.

How much more concert stress do you have?
BFP(1) DD1 born 4.17.10 @ 33w5d due to pPROM
BFP(4) DD2 born 2.14.13 @ 35w5d due to pPROM

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Re: Hi Alanna!

  • OH hi!  Sorry I just now noticed this...!!

    The Mads thing went really well!  It was their second night and they ad-libbed some of the script, which annoys me, because they don't deliver the lines as well.  But they sang beautifully.

    We now have a concert every night this week at various community event, and we have musical auditons every day after school.  I'm not sure what I was smoking when I made that schedule.  The kids, and I , are exhausted. 

    Glad your concert went well!  You teach middle and high?
  • Not to mention that it has started snowing (I'm still not used to the white stuff...) and one student fishtailed into a ditch, and two kids left their lights on in their cars, so I was literally in my dress clothes, tromping in the snow and mud, trying to figure out how to use my jumper cables to help them out.  After melting one set of cables the first night, I at least had it figured out when the second night it happened again.

    gotta love teaching.  What did you decide about your pg kid?  That is so sad.  I haven't encountered that issue with a student yet.  I saw your post but was about to leave for  another concert or I would have replied.
  • What show are you auditioning?  I miss shows in theory.  I do love the final result, but the crazy long days were killer.

    I do, 6-12.  I have a Beginning choir of 6th and 7th, Advanced is 8th, and then 1 HS choir.  The program is small, but it's grown a ton.  My HS group is actually pretty well balanced and solid this year...last year it was a ragtag group.  Kinda like the kids in Glee, but far less talented, lol.

    I hope you survive through this week!  I'm taking all 60 of my kids into Little Rock on Thursday to sing at a hospital and the state capitol.  And to eat lunch.  Once that's over, I'm so done. 

    When is your last day of school?
    BFP(1) DD1 born 4.17.10 @ 33w5d due to pPROM
    BFP(4) DD2 born 2.14.13 @ 35w5d due to pPROM

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  • Oh that sounds awesome!  Isn't it rewarding to see your program grow and develop so quickly?  The Little Rock trip sounds great - I'll bet the students are pumped. Trips like that seem to really solidify a group, especially when you're working to build the program.

    This year we are doing My Fair Lady.  Last year was West Side Story and it nearly killed me, no exaggeration.  That is a tough show in all aspects - vocals, choreography, pit players, and character development is just...draining. But so rewarding at the end.  The students still talk about it.  

    My last day is December 17th, but we are performing at a Chicago Symphony Orchestra thing on the 19th, so it's not really over until then.  I figured I'd take them for lunch too, like you're doing.

    Some time I'd love to hear how you keep from going crazy.  I love my job, but sometimes I have nothing left to give, you know?  A 31 year old shouldn't feel like this yet! 

  • Sorry, DH came over and we were chatting a bit.

    Are you my Chicago twin?  I'm 31, too!

    My job now is awesome.  Nothing extra aside from concerts. 

    I did the HS show craziness for 2 years, and it sucked my life away.  Luckily I met DH during that time and was able to maintain a relationship!  I would like to say that I took a lot of naps, lol.  And that I stopped doing as much community theater on the side (I'm a reed player).

    MFL is awesome!  And definitely smaller than WSS in many ways.  I've playing the reed book and perc book before, and it really is insane.  That fugal part in Cool is nuts!  MFL sounds like a nice follow up and a good change in style.

    What CSO thing??  That sounds awesome!

    Sorry about being out in the snow!  That sucks, but I miss snow.  We barely get any down here.

    I think I'll write my kid a note to just tell her that I'm there for anything that she needs.  I'm so not used to this - I bet the kids you teach are similar to the ones that I used to have.  Sadly, I see a lot of poverty and obesity and all that negative stuff in the tiny town that I work in.  It's terrible, but on the other hand it's nice being the light in their day - to give them something to really look forward to.
    BFP(1) DD1 born 4.17.10 @ 33w5d due to pPROM
    BFP(4) DD2 born 2.14.13 @ 35w5d due to pPROM

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  • Yeah...maybe we ARE twins...  I did band until I finally figured out I was better at choir.  

     I think we switched places - I started teaching at a jr. high where I dealt with similar problems to what you are facing.  We also had no budget, no administrator support, nothing.  I went back for my masters in conducting, and then got a job up here, and it's pretty sweet in terms of having great kids and pretty good facilities, but I'm always at school.  Always.  I cannot imagine what I will do when I'm married and possibly have children!  I think I'd rather teach at a smaller school where there's fewer requirements on me.  So you really like the smaller school environment?

    And the CSO thing is a holiday performance - I'm just bringing the Madrigals again, it's not a huge deal but the students love it.  I might drag them out to sing at one of the nearby parks if it's not miserably cold like today.

  • OMG same here!  Or, well, until my HS band teacher was so uninspiring and only cared if I could play my band music (which I could sight read) - I played mallets.  My chorus teacher was really awesome and I just fell in love with it.

    I really am enjoying the small school.  I think I've said this before, but I did 6 years in MS and then 2 in HS before moving here.  I was in a huge district, and in MS my smallest group had 140 kids, largest was 260. 

    They rehearsed split in half, but it was still too much.  I couldn't do any theory/written stuff because it would take me at least a half hour to put it all in alphabetical order!

    Now I have enough time to make sure that all my kids are reading along with me.  I can tell them to put their finger on measure 12, part 2 and in a few seconds I can see if they're all with me and correct who isn't.  I could never do that before.  We do vocab, theory, and sight reading every day and I love that I can make them musicians!  I hate the dumb vocalist stereotype.

    I don't get how people can do the job with a family, either.  As much as I loved the job, I was kinda psyched to move here and get a change of pace. 

    Where did you get your masters?  I would love to do that - I did a masters in music ed back on Long Island, but that was only because NY says you have 5 years to get a masters and it was cheap and easy.  My conducting chops have gone way down over the years and I'd love to freshen them up. 
    BFP(1) DD1 born 4.17.10 @ 33w5d due to pPROM
    BFP(4) DD2 born 2.14.13 @ 35w5d due to pPROM

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  • Ohhhh getting a conducting masters was the best thing I ever did.  There's so much I can 'say' musically with gesture, without having to stop and verbalize it (which keeps them focused WAY more).  I feel more confident in the classroom.. all the performance practice classes really helped, although I will never use my now-dwindling knowledge of appropriate baroque bowing techniques, etc. I quit teaching to go back, and was a grad assistant for two years - so worth it.  The experiences I had are immeasurable!!

    I grew up in MS, and got my masters at USM.  Musically, a very good school.  Not sure what else it has going for it.

    Yeah my band teacher was nice, but I didn't really learn anything (crappy school in general), and didn't develop a drive for music until I worked with the music director at the church where I grew up.

    I am totally with you on the theory thing.  Every day I work in vocal pedagogy, sight-reading, theory, etc., and that part is SO rewarding.  It's so cool to give my students a new piece of music, give a starting pitch and then just start singing by solfege. 

    So many people think that choir kids just sit around singing Disney hits or Kumbaya!  Frustrating!
  • By the way, that's a shiit ton of kids.  Yeah, that's impossible to get anything of value done.  No. way.
  • I know!  I had a parent say "all of that work since August, and you only sang 20 min of music"...um, if all I did was teach SONGS, they would know a billion by now. 

    Haha, and we even traded areas - I miss the north!

    Alright, it's bedtime for me and probably soon for you too!

    Happy hump day tomorrow!
    BFP(1) DD1 born 4.17.10 @ 33w5d due to pPROM
    BFP(4) DD2 born 2.14.13 @ 35w5d due to pPROM

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  • Yeah I had a parent say that too.  Now I make my beginner kids do a sight-reading example at the first concert to demonstrate all the stuff we work on.  I print an example of like 8 measures in the program and then at the concert after their first piece I hand them all a slip of paper with  the example on it.  I tell the parents all about what we do, and then give the kids 20 seconds to look at it, after I give them "Do".  They sing it, and that shuts the parents up about why we do less music.

    Yeah, I'm exhausted.  Happy hump day to you.  Talk to you later.
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_hi-alanna?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:176c6e08-4c6e-4957-bbf7-bac3c11e2505Post:56a35fc1-70fa-477b-a6f4-abdced32534b">Re: Hi Alanna!</a>:
    [QUOTE]By the way, that's a shiit ton of kids.  Yeah, that's impossible to get anything of value done.  No. way.
    Posted by AlannaF[/QUOTE]

    The best part (you're going to love this) is that our contract had a cap of # of kids we could teach per day.  It was 180.  So, I'd see 130 in the morning for chorus and then could only teach 2 other general music classes of 25 kids.  I essentially taught 3 periods a day.

    I tried to convince the principal to split it up into smaller groups and I was told that the music department drives the schedule.  Um, what?  When those 130 have chorus every OTHER day, they need to go somewhere on the opposite day.  Splitting them into groups of 30-40 means a more equal and consistent schedule and won't put a strain on getting teachers for study hall on the opposite day. 

    But of course they didn't listen. 

    Oh well, teaching 3 periods out of a 9 period day was pretty awesome, I'm not gonna lie.

    Goodnight!
    BFP(1) DD1 born 4.17.10 @ 33w5d due to pPROM
    BFP(4) DD2 born 2.14.13 @ 35w5d due to pPROM

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