04-18-08

If you can't tell from reading it, when I wrote the last post, I was extremely exhausted. That, and I had a headache. I'm feeling a bit better now, especially with the prospects of finishing the last Spring Program tonight and no school on Monday! (yeah for another Puerto Rican holiday!)

This morning, when Sophia (2nd grade) stepped out of her car, she said, "Teacher, this is the second best day of my life!" Of course, I had to know why, so I asked her. She told me, "The spelling bee [she won 1st -3rd grade division] was the first and today is the second." Today was when they announced the winner of the year-long team competition among the three teams (red blue and yellow). Red team won, and Sophia is red team.

This afternoon, I was sending two piano students back to class after their lesson, and as the left, I said, "Goodbye, gentlemen." As Irvin headed out the door, he replied, "Goodbye, gentle lady." Made me laugh.

You think English with a Spanish accent is interesting, try Spanish with a Chinese accent. Wow. I heard it for the first time last night speaking to one of the school parents bringing her child for the program. Some of you who know me know I love languages and accents, so it was definitely interesting for me. We have several (5-6) kids in the school who are fluent in English, Spanish, AND Chinese! Amazing, especially little Kolea who is in first grade-she speaks each equally well (at least I know she does English and Spanish-I don't speak Chinese, but I'm assuming she speaks it pretty well). I sure wish it came that easily for me.

Pray for my middle school students if you think about it. Middle school music classes have been a struggle lately. I teach them during the last period of the day, plus it's elective which they think translates to playtime. Also, it doesn't help that it's the end of the school year. Classroom control has been difficult, but that's not my main concern. The attitudes and behaviors I'm seeing are scary (not that I'm afraid of the kids, it's scary what those attitudes and behaviors lead to) The problem is not that they don't obey in class-it goes deeper to a heart issue. Many know they're doing wrong, but try to blame it on others. Others know, but say it's too hard to behave correctly. A great deal of them just don't care, and these are the ones my heart breaks for. I can just imagine some of the things waiting for them if they don't let the Lord get ahold of their hearts soon. I don't know what more I can do for them, but I do know that I can pray that God will get their attention before it's too late. I love these kids, and I know there's still hope for them. Just pray that the Lord will give me wisdom in dealing with them, and that He will help me know how to reach their heart, not just their behavior.

Now, off to final prep for the last program. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

04-17-08

Tonight we have the second of our three spring programs. I will be sooo glad when they are finished tomorrow night. I think they're going well, but I won't be sad to be finished. We're doing "The Life of Fanny Crosby" from a book of Soundforth programs. My car is finally back and functioning, many dollars later. It's got one more trip to the mechanic to be officially fixed/finished, and I'm going to be taking care of that on Tuesday.