Monday, June 16, 2008

Recital night one.

I finished my reports yesterday - right after I had had a massage.......Nothing like being totally relaxed when you have to think about what a kid needs to improve. Good thing they were mainly good kids....I was quite liberal in my marking of them.

When I say I have finished my reports I should add this one clause. . . . I have year 11 recitals to sit through and mark. Then I have to add in those marks and a comment or two about their performance technique.

I have just come in from the first night of our Year 11 and 12 recital nights. We have SOOOOO many students in Year 11 doing Music performance that we need two nights. Each kid was required to present 3 songs for their performance - solo! So tonight we had 19 perform! At 10 minutes a pop that's 3 hours and 10 minutes worth of music right there. A few technical hitches and a slightly longer recital than others and you could have a blow out. We did quite well really - we started at 6.30pm, a 10 - 15 minute interval (I needed to stop and have a cuppa as my hand was getting sore and the melodic phrases were all rolling into one.....) and we finished at 10.12pm. One delightful looked at the time and said "We're only 45 minutes over! That's not too bad."

I have one more night to go - Wednesday night. Again there will be 19 kiddies strutting their stuff, well only 18 as one child has a medical (had an operation). My birthday happens to fall on Wednesday (bad timing or what - didn't push hard enough to change the day) and I told my students that if they did not wish me a happy birthday when they got up to perform I would fail them. Drastic I know but I have a point to make. My birthday - my rules. If you don't agree I don't care.

Judging by the kids reaction I am a little concerned about what they might really do - although they might do nothing really and I am just overreacting.

So now the slumber herbal tea has kicked in. Been on a little bit of non- sleeping pattern lately and after watching 60 minutes last night I want to sleep straight through the night.

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