Day 2

     Ok. Everything I said yesterday about loving my job? Forget it!
I'm joking, but it was rough going today. The weather in Chicago is sweltering. If a hurricane came ashore from Lake Michigan, I would not be surprised. It is 85* with heat indexes between 95 and 105*. Picture that times 10 in my classroom. No, this school still does not have air conditioning in all the rooms. Yes, the joke's on me today. Unbearable for the staff. Brutal for the students. All the kids were crazy and I don't blame them. How can anyone concentrate or behave? But, I did the best I could.
     I met the dreaded 7th grade class ( at least that's what the other teachers forewarned me of). I was thinking, "How bad can they really be?" Then I thought my 7th grade music class with Mr. Knoedler. We tortured him! The boys would literally shoot rubberbands and hit him square in the nose. It was crazy! Good thing for him, our class was held right next to the principal's office. When I think back though, I am 99.9% sure he should not have been a teacher. He ended up 'leaving' due to accusations of inappropriate behavior. Either we were masters of deception or something really happened. In any case, we did not treat him with any respect!
     Anyways, back to 7th grade...they were terrible. Well, let me re-phrase that. The boys...no...let me try again...the 'clan' of 4 boys were terrible. I had to put them in time out! How funny. To give them some credit and myself a smidgen of hope, they did end up being much better as the class went on. Ok, let me re-phrase that again...they started behaving much better after I handed out the syllabus with the grading policy and discipline code. Ha! Bet they didn't think in a million years there would be a syllabus for music! But there is and I am SO thankful I took the time to write one up. I believe it will save me in the weeks to come. The 3rd, 4th, and 6th grades were a piece of cake comparatively speaking.
     The great news is at Parents Night tonight, I acquired 12 students for private lessons! 12 already! My goal was 10, but I am very excited that the word is spreading. My students are from all grades so it will be very interesting to see how they progress. My favorite line from a parent tonight after speaking about lesson times was, "Well, you're the professional. Whatever you think."  I had to catch myself from making a joke of that because I am finally starting to see myself as just that. It is a wonderful feeling. Many of the parents simply said thank you for being there. They were so thankful that music would still be a part of their child's education. That makes me feel special and continually thank God for giving me such an amazing gift.
     I didn't think I'd be up for writing much since I was bathing in my own sweat all day, but finally being home, having a glass of wine, and writing really makes my night complete. I've always thought about writing a memoir of sorts and it just makes sense that my motivation to write this experience and my own experiences down already comes from my students. Tres cool:)