What a weird week...

When I wrote last, I stated that I had no heat. It was funny because after I had finished that entry I was looking up the weather and it said it was 54 degrees outside. I was a bit skeptical so I went outside, in my pajamas. It was 54 degrees outside. Holy cow. The sun wasn't even up yet. It turned out to be about 57 degrees out for the day. Of course that evening it dropped down into the 30's. It was so odd to have a day that warm just randomly. So that none of you are too jealous, it has stayed in the thirties, maybe low forties, since then. The sun has been coming up earlier too. I think it was up by 9 AM, weather channel says it was up at 8:49 AM.
Going back, I finally got heat on Tuesday. It was the earliest I could get heater oil delivered. The first time I bought heater oil it was $4.78 a gallon, this time it was $3.65 a gallon. I can't believe how expensive it still is. Needless to say, I only got 55 gallons. I, of course, can't predict the weather so I don't know how long that will last. 100 gallons lasted me 3 months and we had some really cold days. Not nearly as cold as other parts of Alaska or the rest of the country, but cold for here.
Work has been about the same. I'm down to 11 students in high school band and 6 in high school choir. I think I'm getting a new student in choir. Elementary is still going relatively well. I need to take a day off to work on writing curriculum. I don't really like writing curriculum. I feel like I'm reinventing the wheel. For some reason my administration doesn't see how it's a problem to not have curriculum. Of course they didn't give me a lot of guidelines for what they want to see out of the program either. My elementary principal called me into his office to tell me he really hopes I come back next year. He feels that I'm a good teacher and that I'm doing a good job. I told I'm sitting on the fence. I also stated that if things didn't change here, there was no way I'd stay. I explained that the district needs to commit to having a music program. That consists of funding it and supporting it. I don't have a budget, a repair budget, curriculum, a lot of working instruments. I did apply for a grant yesterday though. If we get it, it will be for up to $10,000 for instruments. That would get me between 3 and 12 instruments, depending on what instruments we purchased. Speaking of instruments, I started 6th grade band during their general music class. It's a lot to take on but they really want to play. I also have offered to let 5th and 6th graders come in afterschool for band instruments. I've had a good showing. I'm really impressed. It's been a week and we're really comfortable on three notes.
7th and 8th grade band are going about the same. I got two more 8th graders. I now have 9 in my 8th grade band. That group is doing well. 7th grade is still about the same, but I no longer have all the 7th graders on Fridays. I only have half of them, and its the better group.
In other news, I didn't have enough people show up for a pep band this weekend. Oh well. I'm also finally getting paid for pep band. Woohoo. I also have sent out music to a couple of band directors for pep band for regionals. I'm excited because there will be at least two other schools combining with us, there is a possibility of three schools. I think it's fantastic. We're going to be one rocking pep band. I'm really excited.
One last thing, I was sitting at home last night, minding my own business when there was a knock on the door. Now who in the world would be knocking on my door at 9PM. I opened the door to about 8 students. Obviously there isn't a lot to do in this town, I wasn't the first teacher they stopped to bug. When I finally got the door shut, they went around and knocked on my windows, I just ignored them. The eventually went away. Nothing like living in a small town on an island.

I don't wanna go to school.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. It's another holiday that all the government buildings are closed here but we don't have the day off of school. I don't actually have a day off until March 13th. I don't have a saturday off for 4 weeks. Woo hoo, 4 more weeks of home basketball games, then two weekends off, and it's regionals. Nothing like being the pep band director.
Speaking of pep band, it's been going better. The first weekend was a little rough but this last weekend went really well. I've neglected to hand out the Star Spangled Banner (really I just forgot and it's on my list of things to do this week) so I've sang it the last two weekends. My best performance was probably last Friday. I got so antsy waiting for the veterans to march down the court, that when I started it, it was kinda high. Not too high that I couldn't sing it, but it was higher than I had intended to sing it. It left a lot of people in awe. Several people came up and talked to me after the game about it. I didn't know that being able to sing the National Anthem here would almost make you a celebrity. It has also begun to bring all the single guys out of the woodwork. I wish they'd go back. Just between Friday and Saturday, I've been hit on and asked out more than twice. I've been stopped on the street for people to talk to me. Maybe I'll just stay in my house and hide there forever.
Wait....hiding in my house won't work. Not just because I have to work, but also because half of my house isn't currently heated. I got home Saturday from the basketball game to find that I was running out of heating oil, which meant the heater in my living room wasn't happy. At least the heat in my bedroom works, because that's electric. Calling the gas station is on my list of things to do today. Hopefully I can get a ride out there to pay for it so that they'll come today and put heater oil in the tank. All things considered, a hundred gallons has lasted me since the middle of October and we did have quite a cold spell.
This weekend, the weather has been great. It's been sunny and about 45 degrees. So yesterday I went for a walk, finally three hours later I got home. It was a great walk. Then I was home about an hour and I walked for another 45 minutes or so. All and all, I probably walked about 4 hours yesterday. Not too bad.
Well I think I'm going to get ready to go to work because sitting in a chilly house really doesn't appeal to me. I think it's 50 degrees in my house.

Tuba

Before
After

Well I had a pretty bad dent in the school tuba so I took it home over Christmas to have it repaired. Dad and I took it up to Badger State Repair in Elkhorn, WI. They looked at it and said, we can have it for you tomorrow. What!! Wow that's fast. They really good though. That was Monday. Tuesday morning they called and told me that I could pick up the tuba anytime. Holy smokes.