Every summer I've been in New York, I've suffered at least one glass casualty... this summer the tally climbs by 11... So my kitchen cabinet fell off the wall. Yep. Just fell down. Also, I was in front of it. Good thing it was the one with... all the glasses... After a brief few minutes of shock, checking for injuries (minor knuckle grazes thankfully the extent), and bewildered staring, I was able to clean up all the remains (and the busted cabinet) with surprising rationality. Then my super came and remedied the issue by drilling in screws of appropriate length in appropriate studs--two measures that the last super had failed to account for. He continues to drill (and nail gun!) as I blog. Love my super. And the fact that I have a super whose pre-paid job it is to fix things like this... Yet another reason to leave "home ownership" off the lifelong to-do list.
An eventful finale to an eventful few weeks--my concerts are done!! They went well although the upper grades suddenly decided they wanted to try stage fright... With some post-dress rehearsal discussions and my feverish attempts to look like a goof while conducting, they got past it and delivered a solid concert. The littl'uns--ease breeze. They don't know the meaning of stage fright. Love it.
Overnight at Meghan's, followed by a refreshing church service and summery walk through Central Park, finished grades, CRASH!, glass/etc. cleanup, caprese-and-blogging-as-mental-distraction... Maybe dinner as well. And cookie baking! For my teachers. And me. And possibly my super because he's awesome.
Full disclosure: my happy feel-good journal has not received its deserved attention in the last week. Concert exhaustion wipe away a lot of memory capacity at the end of a day. So know that I experienced much happiness, it just wasn't all recorded. A few that made the cut:
*Someone has moved a real piano into an apartment on the 2nd floor and has been playing, at least on one occasion, beautiful repertoire. All the more reason to continue taking the stairs!!
*Celebrated the end of the first dress rehearsal day by dedicating 4+ hours to the Lost finale and related reading/viewing. Worth. It.
*One of the 1st grade song involves sign language on the refrain; when they finished the piece in dress rehearsal one of the 2nd grade classes watching gave sign language applause. Neat.
*We had to run 100 more program copies for the lower grades concert--And we started with 50!!
*One year after graduating (this weekend!), and I walk the halls of my New York City public school after the final concert of the year sporting post-concert flats, a shirt tucked into a skirt, and a lanyard keychain ("I <3 Music", of course) around my neck. From student to full teacher in 365 days. Wow.
(Exact quote)
*"I am able to recover from and appropriately clean up after a cabinet full of glass decides to detach itself from the wall. No signs of concisssion yet. Except I just wrote 'concussion' like that..."
(Really, I'm ok.)
Love, Hugs, and Cheap, Replaceable Glassware,
KP =)
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Rain Day!
Yep, they cancel school for wetness here... Oh, how I wish that was true. No, due to a teacher meeting/prep issue that I don't entirely understand, my Tuesday classes this week are moved to Friday, giving me a peculiar "second weekend" to recover from a grueling... one day of teaching. Actually, I'm digging it--I have a lot to catch up on for school and life and today is the perfect day to get things accomplished (she boldly asserts at 9am). It's rainy, so I won't be tempted to play outside, and it's Tuesday, so I'm not Friday-exhausted. And I don't have shows to watch this early in the week. This no-TV thing is not quite working as well as I'd imagined for productivity... I keep finding new and fabulous shows to watch on Hulu or Netflix...
Things that need to happen today:
*Programs (this one's almost done, I just have to enter in the Spanish translations that one of my teachers so graciously provided. So that's another one--*Write a thank you note.)
*Drawing little stage diagrams on teachers' dress rehearsal/concert cheat sheets with class blocking and entrances and exits and such
*Cleeeeeeeaning... Maybe this should be first so my brain will feel cleaner too
*Tackle a chunk of assessment entry (as in, I've already collected the data, I just need to enter it into a spreadsheet, which takes much longer than one would care to think). Teaching would be a lot easier without this learning accountability thing...
*Exercise. Less appealing with the weather, but Idol performance night at the gym sounds adequately motivating...
Happy Feel-Good Moments (Something else I need to stay on top of... The current trend involves approximating memories after realizing I haven't written anything for several days)
*For a while I didn't have an iPod (the story involves a forgetful music teacher, shady construction workers, and the school reimbursing me for a stolen iPod), but I still needed to enjoy the weather and run outside... I actually now prefer running without music. Quite enjoyable.
*My music theatre club loves Pippin, which is great because I love Pippin.
Jennifer (out of breath from a full "Magic to Do" run-through): "That was FUN!"
*I have had two students in the last two weeks share original songs (more like lyrics but it's a start) with me. Way cool.
*Between helping to decorate/cook for a young adults event at church and feeling more and more like a "veteran" at coffee hour and brunch, I'm really starting to feel substantial connections to my church community.
*When you feel like no grade is going to be prepared for the concert, all you need is one class of rockstars to turn your thinking around.
*The highway trombonist returns... this time practicing riffs much more complex than the octaves he was drilling last I jogged in on rehearsal. Great improvement, sir!
*At my request, the professor who leads Wartburg's May term NYC trip (who sadly is leaving Wartburg next year!!) came to meet with my principal about including PS 43 as a partner school for field experience... It was surreal to have Dr. Fiene and Dr. Delucchi (my principal) in the same room sharing laughs and setting up logistics that will very likely lead to Wartburg students being in my school this time next year... Awesome.
*With the arrival of my high school friend Tim to the "neighborhood" (15 minutes on the train), I realized I have quite a few close friends in the area... interesting as many New Yorkers label anything above Central Park as the "boonies" of Manhattan. Seriously, I don't really know anyone who lives BELOW 110th...
Love, Hugs, and Productivity!
Kate =)
Things that need to happen today:
*Programs (this one's almost done, I just have to enter in the Spanish translations that one of my teachers so graciously provided. So that's another one--*Write a thank you note.)
*Drawing little stage diagrams on teachers' dress rehearsal/concert cheat sheets with class blocking and entrances and exits and such
*Cleeeeeeeaning... Maybe this should be first so my brain will feel cleaner too
*Tackle a chunk of assessment entry (as in, I've already collected the data, I just need to enter it into a spreadsheet, which takes much longer than one would care to think). Teaching would be a lot easier without this learning accountability thing...
*Exercise. Less appealing with the weather, but Idol performance night at the gym sounds adequately motivating...
Happy Feel-Good Moments (Something else I need to stay on top of... The current trend involves approximating memories after realizing I haven't written anything for several days)
*For a while I didn't have an iPod (the story involves a forgetful music teacher, shady construction workers, and the school reimbursing me for a stolen iPod), but I still needed to enjoy the weather and run outside... I actually now prefer running without music. Quite enjoyable.
*My music theatre club loves Pippin, which is great because I love Pippin.
Jennifer (out of breath from a full "Magic to Do" run-through): "That was FUN!"
*I have had two students in the last two weeks share original songs (more like lyrics but it's a start) with me. Way cool.
*Between helping to decorate/cook for a young adults event at church and feeling more and more like a "veteran" at coffee hour and brunch, I'm really starting to feel substantial connections to my church community.
*When you feel like no grade is going to be prepared for the concert, all you need is one class of rockstars to turn your thinking around.
*The highway trombonist returns... this time practicing riffs much more complex than the octaves he was drilling last I jogged in on rehearsal. Great improvement, sir!
*At my request, the professor who leads Wartburg's May term NYC trip (who sadly is leaving Wartburg next year!!) came to meet with my principal about including PS 43 as a partner school for field experience... It was surreal to have Dr. Fiene and Dr. Delucchi (my principal) in the same room sharing laughs and setting up logistics that will very likely lead to Wartburg students being in my school this time next year... Awesome.
*With the arrival of my high school friend Tim to the "neighborhood" (15 minutes on the train), I realized I have quite a few close friends in the area... interesting as many New Yorkers label anything above Central Park as the "boonies" of Manhattan. Seriously, I don't really know anyone who lives BELOW 110th...
Love, Hugs, and Productivity!
Kate =)
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