LGPE is this coming Thursday...AHHH!! I'm frantically trying to get my kids ready. On Friday I started off 8th grade by doing some touch-ups on a couple pieces. Somehow all the stars aligned and after playing through a couple sections of a piece a few kids exclaimed "Man! We sound really good today!" For the rest of the class the kids just played off of that energy and kept playing well and trying their hardest! I was super impressed with them. At the end of the class one of my viola players came up to me and said "I feel like I did really well today, and I feel like I can actually play the music and I was trying so hard!" I told her I was super proud of her! If they can play at least that well this Thursday, I will be a happy camper. No matter WHAT ratings we get! 

Additionally, this same viola player approached me at the beginning of the class with some news. She auditioned about 2 weeks ago for the performing arts magnet program at the local high school. She made the decision 2 days before the last audition that she wanted to do it. So in 2 days I tried to help her prep for her first audition (UGH! MIDDLE SCHOOLERS! It's not like I've been reminding kids that the audition was coming up for weeks!). Anyhow, she took the audition and came back to me the following Monday telling me she didn't feel like she did well. This past Friday she came up to me and showed me her acceptance letter!! Super happy for her! Sadly I only have 3 students who wanted to continue playing in high school; however, all three of them auditioned for magnet programs and all three got accepted! 

7th grade has been super shaky lately. Been having some serious issues getting them to listen and respect me. I decided on Thursday that I was only allowing three of them to go to LGPE with the 8th graders and the rest of them would do worksheets until after LGPE because they can't keep their mouths closed for more than two seconds....or for two seconds for that matter. They do need some serious remedial help with learning notes, so the worksheets would only benefit them. After class on Thursday I kept a kid with me to talk to him about the issues he and I were having. I explained how difficult he was making it for me to teach. So we talked for a few minutes and he finally asked "if we can have a good day tomorrow, can we please go to LGPE?" And I simply said, "we have to have more than a good day tomorrow. We are really behind on learning the music and the only way I can teach them the music and have them be successful is if he can get the whole class on my side and allow me to do so. I asked him to tell me what it would take for the class to be able to learn the music and he gave me some very good rules. Additionally I asked what he thought we should be able to do by the end of class on Friday. He suggested being able to play through one entire piece. So when we got to class on Friday I had the kid stand up in front of the class and explain everything we talked about. Afterwards  I told them that Friday would be a "one strike and you're out" type of day. I was so incredibly impressed with how well they worked. We were able to get through most of one piece, but I definitely feel a lot better. But still, the only way they'll be able to go is if we can have 4 more days just like Friday. 

6th grade has been especially awesome. We're getting to the point where I have to regularly tune the instruments (I've been doing spot checks and tuning the big instruments before class because the kids have a hard time NOT wasting class time). So on Wednesday I decided that I was going to time them to see how long it took to tune. I projected the timer onto the wall so they could see. We were able to do it in 3:50! After we tuned a couple girls stated "that did take long at all!" To which I responded "that's what I've been trying to tell you!!" So Thursday we timed it again....took 5 minutes because they kept playing around while we were tuning. Friday we tried again. THREE MINUTES!! By the time I got to the computer to stop it it said 3:03. I said "congratulations! 3 minutes and 3 seconds! That was an awesome improvement!" About half the class exclaimed that I finished tuning the last person at three minutes and it then took me 3 seconds to walk to the computer. My students are hilarious.

All in all, I have to say Friday was probably the first day out of the whole year thus far that I've actually had 3 wonderful classes happen on the same day. It's usually only one or two! Here's to hoping for a great week!!