changing plans for the day

Week two of the holidays and I had an appointment with the dentist - to have another look at that tooth that broke around my birthday...it still hurts when I eat or the right side of my mouth. I changed my appointment as I have the beginnings of a cold......nothing like being a sneeze-head and struggling with the whole breathing thing (although not so severe now) and having work done in your mouth.....

Considering I have a little time to myself, I haven't dressed yet - such bliss.....and I have just about finished writing up 2 exams. I have one more to go! Then I have the CDs to go.

Did I tell you that I am on Facebook? I have become addicted to the farming application here......I have this thing about seeding fields and yielding the harvest - even if it is only virtual.

My thoughts today are with my sister who is having chemo for breast cancer. Just sending out my love to her! If you can send her love that will be awesome!

80s retro

The last two posts have been a bit of a rant - some of you may have wondered where my head was when I complained about the skirt/pant thing. Yes, a bit of a non-issue but I just hate that look.

Yesterday was a more obvious dabbling with the idea of blogging as a stream of consciousness. I am thinking that instead of going through and editing my ideas I might just play with the idea of letting it all go in one session.......not sure if it will be good or not but....meh!

Today I have discovered how 80's like fashion is becoming. I lived through the vibrant colours then, and they were relatively cool then but there is no hiding when you where the ultra lime green, brilliant orange or hot pink.....

I have heard and read about the desire for shoulder pads - which I hope will not be jet wing wide..... and I am also hoping the bubble skirt is not on for a revival..... Again, I may be creating more out of this than it is worth but I really have a hard time looking at the 'victims' who haven't quite worked out what suits them or not. In teenagers it is not really an issue - but in older women .....

Now I am out to purchase a hot pink something......I need to improve my victim status......

musing to the percussionist

I am sitting in the office of the music department at the moment listening to one of my year 12 students practice for his performance exam. This is the issue when you don't play a portable instrument, you have to find people to help you get practice time. He is a percussionist and he has a drum kit at home. For his exam he will play drum kit, marimba, xylophone, snare drum and timpani. He hasn't done any timpani practice today as he left his music for that piece at home......

I will be in again tomorrow with the kids not doing solo (ie group) and the same boy is coming in to practice. He has assured me that he will have his timpani music. You should see this piece he is playing, it is very entertaining.

I was only intending to be here for a couple of hours - to take the kids through the two versions of one of the pieces they have to write about in their written exam. We seemed to have run out of time during the term to get everything done due to many rehearsals for the big concert. I arranged for the kids to meet me for about 3 hours today to run through this final part of the course. All but one turned up.......not a bad effort really. We wrote about the two versions on all elements and discussed how to answer various questions. The kids seemed to do get a lot out of it.

Tomorrow when the group kids are here I will be revising everything in their course - aural/written, aspects of performance, analysis, improvisation.

It's funny - I have had solo and group together all year and have found the going tough. The basic principles of the course are the same. 50% for a practical performance at the end of the year, 25% for school assessed coursework (solo - all prac, group -mostly written) and then 25% for the end of year exam. It's when you get down to what they are being assessed that everything becomes a nightmare. There are similarities but no direct correlations between the two courses.

Here is a basic idea for the written aspect:

Theory /Aural

Scales - both have to write them but completely different types and in different keys!
Intervals - again both have to know them but how they are assessed is different. Group is aural in this aspect.
Melodic Dictation - both write but Group are given all but 2bars. Solo have to sort the whole thing out themselves - no key signature given. Again different scale types used in both courses.
Rhythmic Dictation - not assessed in Solo (only in the Melodic dictation)
Chords - Solo has to know them from the scale types they learnt, Group have to know how to build on any note.
Chord progressions - group have a list to choose from but are not given any information about the opening chord. solo have the opening chord given but that is it!

Analysis
Group have to write about very, very short excerpts from popular Australian music. Something that could have been released this year. They are played it a few times and write about 7 different elements.

Solo have two different versions of one piece played to them and write about 5 elements and how they compare and contrast in the two versions.

Solo then go on and write two long answers to two prepared pieces. They have about 15 minutes on each........

Group have to then write about Aspects of Performance - including acoustics; and either Part Writing or Improvisation. We did improvisation. Again about 15 minutes on each.

The whole exam is 1 1/2 hours long.......

As you can see, there are similarities but no direct correlations......Frustrating as a teacher and I think more so for the kids in the class as you teach to one lot, while the other do something else. The attention span of most of these kids is about 10 minutes maximum.......you then have to swap activities. I will be quite happy when they have finished as I wont have to do the intellectual tap dance of which course has what......

gripe

I have a couple of things that have annoyed me over the past few days.......

What's with pants and dresses being combined? I know that this was a fashion statement a couple of years ago - why? I have no idea BUT I thought we had all grown up by now......If there is a legitimate reason to where pants and dresses - I haven't heard or seen it! Yesterday I saw a woman wearing wide leg pants with a v-neck, no sleeve dress......Huh? What made it worse was the fact that she worked in a clothing store! The dress was not a long shirt, nor was it a short dress. It was in fact a long, long dress. Below the knee length. What is the go?

I am NOT a fashionista (just writing that makes me laugh as I am sitting here in my tack pants and polar-fleece) but this is a fashion that I am struggling with. Who thought this up? Why were they allowed to get away with this? I just do not get it!!!!

Why do people need to take up the whole road when they are driving? Many times in the past few days there have been people with mobile phones in hand (so illegal!), arguing with their passengers, or helping their kids (who are in the backseat) get something. As a consequence there has been a diversion to the other side of the road - sometimes in a near accident.........

Concentrate people!

Ok - I am fine now. Just had a massage and I feel much, much better.....

set up

Saturday night I believe I was invited out to dinner as part of a set up. Interestingly I said 'yes' to an invitation to dinner for a person's birthday.....I don't know this person. I thought there might be few people there. Few is the word we need to focus on. 8 altogether.

Actually the conversation went like this
Friend: Are you doing anything on the 19th?
Me: Not at this stage (was 4 weeks ago!)
Friend: We're going out to dinner are you interested in coming?
Me: Sounds good. Where are we going?
Friend: Not sure at this stage. I'll let you know as soon as I know.
Me: No worries. What time?
Friend: Probably early. It's So and So's birthday.
Me: Who's he?
Friend: You remember? He came to a bbq at our house.
Me: Not really.......(thinking it is now too late to pull out of dinner....bugger!)

I sat next to the birthday boy - I was interested in catching up with the people that I did know but didn't really get much of a chance.......

This man is nice enough except for one thing that will drive me to distraction. He is, in my opinion, sickly sweet. Maybe I am picky but that is something that I would rather be.

I could be reading way to much into it.....maybe it was just his birthday and I was invited a long to even up the numbers. That's it.......

First Sunday of the holidays,

I always love the first Sunday in the holidays......there is so much promise of what is to come.

Today I put clothes away - something that I haven't had time to do for about 2 weeks......so there were lots and lots of clothes. I also had a bit of time to remake the bed with fresh, new linen.......

The clothes line is completely full - and that is a huge lot of washing in a one person household......

I have sat comfortably on the couch for the past few hours watching the end of series 3 and the beginning of series 4 of West Wing which is something that I have loved doing.

I have planned a few gluten-free and dairy-free food for the bookclub meeting at my house on Wednesday night. I am thinking dips and rice crackers, nutmeg biscuits, little apple tarts and banana cake....... I also will make some Thai chicken balls, maybe some vegetarian rolls, and try my hand at samosas..... Now all I have to buy the ingredients and get cooking. (Do you think it sounds good?)

Tomorrow I will probably read the extra sections of the weekends newspapers, do some correction, and then go shopping after seeing my singing student. I will also have some time to read through and correct year 12 work. Not a bad day really but the most important thing is the sleep in!

sleep is good

Day one of my holidays.....what have I done? Nothing - except 2 1/2 hours of phone calls. Lovely.

I had my final one-on-one pilates class last night. I found it very strenuous. My mind and my body were not one. I was laughing a great deal, as was my instructor, as I could not really coordinate the activities that I was being asked to do. The best - feet in table top, arms completing over head pull downs whilst doing a minor sit up. WTF? I realised that giggling doesn't help.

Having had a big morning tea and a yummy Indian lunch I had no need for dinner but I did have a few dry biscuits. I lay back on the couch to relax and I think I must have had a sleep for two hours there.......I was on one channel which had the evening news on at 7.15pm.......I woke up to the same channel and it was still the news but a different presenter......9.37pm.

I went to bed and slept until 8.10 this morning. The only thing that woke me through the night was the heavy lump that is my cat trying to get comfortable on my feet. She got kicked off and I returned to sleep.

My plans for the next few days is to relax, correct the final work I have from my year 12s, write their practice exams and then, as much as possible, turn off.

I do have a few other things - finish making sheets, make a few skirts, sort out the books in my house and purchase a few bits and bobs. Not much really. I am thinking about a holiday to NZ in the summer - a friend has just moved there and I think I might visit her in January.

Do you own striped pyjamas?

Last night, as I wrote yesterday, we had the final night of recitals. I got home at a reasonable hour and wound down with a spot of port and West Wing......

Finally I went to bed at around 11pm and found myself looking at the ceiling. My mind kept going back to one thing.......I had left the heating on in the music centre at work. I was very concerned that I would get back to work this morning and find that the centre had burnt down.......this was the last thing that I wanted - there is a lot of expensive equipment there.

I then had a conversation with myself about the fact that the heating hadn't even worked so there was almost no chance of the place burning down as there was NO heat being generated. My mind then decided to contemplate the issue that the electricity was going and there was a high possibility that the motor might die and again, there might be a fire.

At 11.56 I made this decision. Get up, drive to work, turn off the heating, drive home and go to sleep.

11.58 I was out the door and in my car. I drove - within the speed limit - and made it to work in 20 minutes. This is amazing as it takes me 35 minutes minimum during peak hour. I pulled up outside one of the building sites (we have two - I was outside the hall) and it was then I remembered that I was in my pyjamas, slippers and a short-waisted zipper jacket.

After a moment of thought I jumped out the car, locking it as I shuffled round past the building site and to the boiler room where the heating controls are. I unlocked the room, turned off the controls and then shuffled as fast as I could back to my car. 1 minute 30 seconds total.

In hindsight I realise that it was a stupid thing to do.....but then I am (and was) very tired.

I drove home and all the way home I contemplated the thought that although I didn't meet anyone at the school itself, there might be video evidence.....which could end up anywhere.......

The whole trip took me 40 minutes and I was asleep in bed by 12.45. Amazing really.

This morning I awoke with the thought that door was on the alarm system and that I was sprung on the cameras......I tentatively walked through the school building until I came to the Principal. She made no mention of being alerted by the alarm system.....so far so good.

After keeping my mouth shut (told one person who laughed very loudly....) I did tell the principal. She laughed very loudly too. By the end of recess the buildings and grounds man approached me and asked me how much was I willing to pay to have the footage 'disappear'. Hmmmmm.....I thought that I was sprung so I decided to see where the footage was taken from......

I reapproached the buildings and ground man. I had, in passing mentioned it to another staff member who had witnessed the principal laughing, he then told another and so the story moved...... If we didn't have the hall work taking place I would have been sprung.....there could be footage from the end of the staff area - but I think that this is highly unlikely.....

I don't think there are going to be anymore striped pyjama runs in the near future. Tonight is get to sleep quickly night! I won't stay awake for a long period tonight!

I'M ON HOLIDAYS! The interns are finished!!!!!! Massive concert done! It's all good.

one day to the hols.....

Last night of the recitals tonight. Woo Hoo! Actually the night wasn't as long as I thought it was going to be.....two sickies with medical certificates..........so we finished at 9.30 or so which meant I was home just after 10! Yay!

Between tonight and tomorrow night I am going to write two intern reports (am I going to be glad to see the end of them - one more than the other), correct a few SACs (school assessed coursework, for year 12s) and then pack my stuff and go home. I have a year 12 class and a year 8 class to do in amongst all of this.

I have had a great glass of port (might have another!), watching episode 16 series 3 of West Wing and relaxing on the couch. Such bliss - what a great pity I wasn't able to undertake this luxury at 8pm!

Stream of Consciousness

Night two of the year 12 recitals......5 singers (2 classical voice and 3 contemporary voice) and 1 percussionist. The percussionist claimed he was not going to sing.....I counted 5 "ole's"...He lied!

I found that I come home to relax by watching West Wing. I loved it when it was on tv and now I love it even more when I can catch up on episodes one at a time..... I am up to Series 3. I keep laughing that all the "things" that happen. Whenever there is an issue either character involved in the issue will comment on "the thing". eg "We have a thing" or "Do you know about the thing?"

Not sure if I will get through the last 20 minutes of this episode - finally I am getting tired and this stream of consciousness is drying up.

There are two days left in the term. One of those days will involve me being at the school until 10.30pm or so. The other day will be talking to my interns about their placement with me.

I will be so glad to see Friday 2.30pm!

quick now

So night one of the senior music recitals is over. There were some good ones and some that I have thought - oh dear.......they weren't bad BUT compared to where they were last semester, I am a little concerned.

I came home in between teaching and recitals and my house was clean. Can I tell you again how lovely it is to have a cleaner who comes in and dusts, cleans, mops etc. Bliss.

During the day I was reading my year 11 students writing for Music Styles. This was my favourite sentence (if you are American, Look away NOW!)
"The thickness is truly representative of America and it's people." - I should probably explain that she was trying to describe TEXTURE in a piece of music that was used in the credits of "The Day after Tomorrow". I asked her to read the sentence out of context and she quickly changed it.........

I'm now off to bed - I was burning the night's repertoire onto CD for the kids - each one has their own CD to take home tomorrow......

Dog

In amongst all of my craziness I have found myself watching "Dog: The Bounty Hunter". You know, I love this show! It is full of the most amazing things I never realised I wanted to know about chasing fugitives.......

I think my most favourite episode - but then it has happened in a number of episodes - is where Beth, Dog's wife, was sharing the idea that haste was imperative as they had a big case to sort out. All the while she was applying her heavy makeup as she stated "a girl has to look her best".

Monday nights just wouldn't be the same without a 'takedown'. Each character is like a cartoon character. There is something quite surreal about this show......

Am I the only one who finds this tv compelling but for all the wrong reasons?

it is hectic

I haven't posted for a while - you probably didn't especially notice but saw that I might not have come up on the reader you use for a while.

It's not that I haven't got anything to say.....I just don't really have the time to say it. I am, at the present moment, spending ridiculous amounts of time just doing lots of stuff. By saying that please don't panic any of you - I have caught up with friends and family but I haven't got onto the internet that often. I have been enjoying the personal contact with face-to-face interactions.

Work is ridiculously busy - but then when the head of department takes a week off, reasons unknown to me, you might find yourself with a different class placed in front of you which you spend a week teaching and discovering that they are so hungry for information that they write down EVERYTHING that comes out of your mouth. Now I know that I am one of the most inspirational speakers around (crickets chirping in the background) but I found this quite off putting.

Added to this new class conundrum the two interns that I have. May have mentioned these delightfuls before but I have one week to go with them. I am quite relieved. The good one (A) is still motoring along. I don't think that she is a favourite amongst the kids but they are working hard for her and she has developed some good relationships with them. Behaviour is not an issue - and if it is, she deals with it without any mad panic attacks or diva style behaviour.

The other one (B) has changed a great deal over the last 9 weeks. She is still hard work emotionally. B has not really developed great relationships with the kids and I believe many will be glad to see the back of her. Classroom Management has been a major issue for her. We started with no real concept of what she wanted or how to get it.

Now the pendulum has swung the other way. She over reacts to things and then demands justice for the smallest of misdemeanors. This week kids were handed detentions like you would throw confetti over the newly weds. It was amazing to witness. I went to one of her detentions as I had kids in the same room finishing work. It amazed me - there were two kids who turned up who didn't have a detention but they had nothing else to do as all their friends were there. Then the cheeky cherubs misbehaved and were threatened with an afterschool..........

I have had other teachers pulling me aside all week to discuss the issues with B. Most of the conversations start with "are you responsible for the intern B?" I raise an eyebrow and suddenly find myself being enveloped with another intriguing tale of the adventures of intern B.

It's funny - everyone on staff knows who intern B is but then are amazed that there is another one, A. When I point out that I have two, the response is "Really?"

Year 12s finish soon and as a consequence of the looming finish line kids have hit the accelerator with an amazing panic. I teach junior classes at the moment all the while madly going through what I am expecting to do with this or that student.........this coming week I have three nights of recitals to attend. Each of the solo kids has to present a program up to 25 minutes. Mulitply that by 18 and you have a decent amount of time to be found. The group boys have to do 35 minutes. Next week is the last week of term and I am scratching my head wondering why I have done this.........but then their end of year exams start on the first weekend of term 4. It has to be done then!

On a completely different track - our large staffrooms are arranged like small enclaves. Each is a social entity to itself that can be severly affected by personnel changes. My small grouping was a group of 5 women and one man. This man is one of THE MOST ANNOYING men I have ever met. He is a noisy eater, an emotional roller coaster and an amazing braggart.

A few months ago one of the ladies retired. She was replaced by a quietly spoken man who I get along really well with. His desk is amazingly tidy but lacks an obvious coherence. (but then mine is a minefield of danger and peril with no order anywhere in sight!) He is a patient man who deals with everyone equally. He sets an example that I have no desire to follow but feel slightly guilty that I don't......it soon passes.

One of the other ladies is only in the school 2 days a week. She has no real impact on the social niceties of the grouping of desks other than getting in my way by having her chair too far out. We speak on very general terms but her whiny tone of voice annoys me.......in fact any whiny tone amongst the staff annoys. What is wrong with stating what you need to say and doing so without the "it's not fair" tone that just gets under your skin? I digress......

In the last fortnight the other two ladies (art teachers) have gone on leave and have been replaced with two males. One is quite efeminite and has an intruiguing way of dealing with the annoying man.......I still laugh. He is a moderately big personality but then tries to hide this away. As a result he comes across with this pulsating energy that he is trying madly to hide but sometimes fails. One of the other art teachers is in his face constantly. (She is another of the whiners and I cringe at the nearness of her.....)

The other is a strange person. He is nice enough - social niceties are there "morning/bye" but that is about as much as you can get out of him. I am sure he is a fine artist - in fact I have seen some of his doodlings. They're interesting and quite pleasing to the eye. He is very reserved but seems to be spending a lot of time observing the world and, I believe, to be working out ways of using the information he finds in his artwork.

Now the next part of what I am about to say is completely unnecessary but it's more of my observations of this bloke. He travels from one side of Melbourne to the other to teach at our school. I mean he is travelling a good 45 minutes from the inner northern suburbs to a real suburban school. It must be a culutral shock.

Once he has arrived he squirts some sort of clear liquid (no, it's not water in a fancy bottle) under his tongue. I've seen him do this two times now. It is quite disconcerting. I believe it to be a herbal concotion of some sort. He is a strong vegetarian (again, nothing unusual here) and has made lots of comments about my lunch............

I have called him strange. I mean this from the angle that I can't quite guage him. He is not a typical teacher BUT then he views himself as an artist who occasionally teaches. This is a different view for most teachers at my school. They are, on the whole, dedicated, career teachers. I can't quite fathom how he finds working at the school we are at, and this is the point from where I begin my definition of his strangeness. I think it is more an indication of my inability to categorise him than anything to do with him.......

I am hanging out to my holidays and catching up with me. This term has been emotionally challenging, both on a personal and professional level. I have been working incredibly hard for the term - we had our huge concert, which was too long, 3 weeks ago. I do the massed singing at the end, which is quite a head spin, but taxes me through the rehearsal process. 700 kids and teachers who seem to be there to watch the 'show'. It's frustrating.

I also have the year 8 band who are cute but all over the place musically, and I have the choir. They are developing in ability and size. I decided to have new uniforms this year. We made them. It took so long to make them. We made 78 of them. Only 73 were used. They looked effective but each one took about 2 hours to make. I cut half of them out. I sewed a dozen of them. They took a long time.

So now I have presented half of the reasons that I haven't been on line for a while. Hopefully it won't be as long next time.