My favorite moments of being a teacher are when I see the light bulb light up in a student's head. Seeing them hit the "ah hah" moments are really the greatest. This year I had two 8th graders ask if they could join orchestra. I'm a strong believer that even though I only have one orchestra class in which most of the students have been playing since 4th grade, no student with the desire to play should be turned away. So of course, I said they could join. It's been difficult because one of them hadn't been allowed to stay after school (due to lack of transportation home). Finally I convinced his parents to let him stay. In a mere two hours after school, we went over note reading, rhythms, and learning to play the double bass. Until today he had been playing the bass part but on cello. Against any better judgement I had today, I decided that I would have him try playing his part (that he's been attempting to work on) on the bass instead of cello. I have to say, I'm so glad I went against my better judgement! The kid can play the heck out of the double bass! And now my bass-less orchestra has a bottom!! WOOT! But really, after vomiting note reading 101 in about 15 minutes the kid spent the rest of the time correcting another kid who stayed after every time I asked what a note was. By the end of the class he could tell me a note name in about 3 seconds. SUCH AN IMPROVEMENT FROM CLASS TODAY!! The most important thing that I took away from today is that by the time we left, he was so excited to be able to play the music and actually understand why everything is the way it is.

It really is days like this that make me completely forget about all the not so great parts of being a teacher (like tomorrow when we won't have 8th grade orchestra because of Junior Achievement day in the morning and then won't see our 6th graders because of a Black History assembly (in which we're packing the ENTIRE school into the gym) in the afternoon).

In a nutshell, I love being a teacher and live for days like today.