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.