The first week

Well I made it through, not that there were any doubts that I would. The first week is over and I'm ready for the second, mostly. I teach in one week 14 classes of general music, h.s. band, h.s. choir, 7th grade band, and 8th grade band. It works out to 7 classes a day. My prep time is generally spent going between schools to check mail boxes, filling out purchase orders (it feels like I always need something right now it's neck straps), or trying to get a hold of people on the phone. So much for trying to get ahead. It all works though.
My first class of the day is high school band. I have about twenty students. The break down works out to be 1 trumpet, 4 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 3 alto saxes, 1 tenor sax, 1 bari sax, 6 percussionists, and several kids I haven't seen enough to figure out what they play. I also have several students who have never been in band but decided to do it this year. Fun. It's been interesting trying to pick out music when most of your ensemble is clarinets, saxes, and drums.
Next I usually see three classes of general music. It's interesting to say the least. I hear a lot of we never did that last year. Last year......(insert just about anything). Well hello wake up call. It is very evident to the students that this year will be very different. We spent some time last week going over rules, which we wrote as a class. It was a great exercise. I think in my general music class the third and 4th (and maybe 5th grade) will play recorders. I have tons of them. I want to get the 6th grade reading music because I'd like to give them the chance to play some band instruments after christmas. It's a lot of work to write your own curriculum but so far it's working, mostly.
High school choir is interesting but pretty fun. I have 8 students and only one of those is a guy. He doesn't match pitch really well but he is doing better. I ordered some samples of music since most of the music we own is pretty dated or it's sacred music. When that gets in we'll read through some of it and try to find music to work on. It's been interesting.
After lunch, I see seventh grade band. In 7th grade they are required to take band. Mandatory band is interesting to me but the kids seem to be ok with is, sort of. I'd like to get this changed and the high school principal would as well. The 7th grade band consists of 4 flutes (all guys for the record), 7 clarinets, 2 saxes, 4 trumpets, and 2 percussion. That isn't too bad. The behavior however leaves something to be desired but that just takes some work. They were miserable for the last music teacher but they'll find out soon enough that they better shape up. I handed out instruments on Friday but wouldn't let them take them home until after we went through a few things with them. So they'll get to take them home this week.
My last class of the day is 8th grade band. I have 6 students. The instrumentation is as follows: 2 flutes, 1 clarinet, 1 sax, 1 trombone, 1 baritone. It works for me. They are a good class.

The last thing to tell you about on this post (since I need to finish getting ready for work) is about saturday. Saturday I got a knock on my door about 1:30ish. It was two of my fellow teachers. They wanted to know if I was interesting in going for a walk. Sure. I went to go grab a pair of socks and when I returned to my living room it was announced that we were going to go to Yellow hill. Now Yellow hill is exactly what it sounds like, a yellow hill. The rocks are yellow. It's a bizarre sight in comparison to the rest of the scenery but very cool none the less. Well we walked out there, it's probably about a mile and a half from town, and then hiked up it. There is a great view from the top. I wish I had brought my camera. Next time I will so you can all see pictures. After awhile we hiked back down and walked back to town. Of course it started to rain when we were walking back. We decided to meet at 6:30 for dinner and a movie, (which was about an hour after we had gotten back to town). One person made the main dish, another a salad, and I brought dessert and the movie. We had a great time hanging out. It was a lot of fun. We'll probably do it again.

Well it's almost 7 and I need to eat breakfast, pack a lunch, and get things together to go to school.