In honor of my first class meetings with my students for the
second year of the Guyana Lutheran Music Academy I wrote you a little ditty.
(Sung to the tune of Twelve Days of Christmas)
On the first days of classes
GLMA gave to me;
12 burnt matches (Yay
cooking!)
11 first year drummers
10 first years’ brass
class
9 papers flying
8 trumpet students
7 songs a singing
6 new practice pads
5 second year
drummers
4 class selfies
3 music teachers
2 French horn players
(!!!!)
And 1 extremely
excited music teacher!
Wasn’t that fun? It was something I thought up yesterday. I
say the first days of classes because our students come on Monday/Wednesday or
Tuesday/Thursday for their classes. I didn’t want to exclude today’s classes I
had. Yesterday I was super excited after my first class. This is my first year
brass class. I went in not exactly knowing what to expect. I had five
officially registered, three that I knew were coming that did not have
registration forms yet, and multiple forms still floating around. It turned out
to be a huge class. I set up 10 chairs and each one of them was filled! I
actually have 11 first year students for brass, but one is in a private lesson
format (more on that in a little bit). Last year’s brass class started with
about six people and by the end of the year I only had one. Hopefully I can
keep all of my brass students this semester! During class we talked about
rules, the handbook, and all the other syllabus day type things that you always
go over the first day of classes. I then talked about and played each of the
four instrument options that they could choose from to learn for the semester.
Their options are trumpet, French horn, trombone, and baritone. As it stands
right now in this class I have six trumpets, two French horns(!!!!), and two
baritone players. I never thought I would see the day that I would be teaching French
horn in Guyana! This is part of the reason why I was so excited after this
class. I may have texted both Dan and Eric telling them that exciting tidbit. J
Mondays and Wednesdays are my shortest days. After brass I
go upstairs for second year percussion. I had five total percussion students
show up yesterday with another four who are registered and one who took a form
but never turned it back in. It was fun to see these guys again. I reminded
them that I am not Sir Dan in any way shape or form, but that I do talk to him
often. This is the only class that I will be teaching that has had a different
teacher, so I wanted to let them know that I might explain things different or
call something by a different name. If they get confused I told them to ask,
because I wasn’t always around during their class last year I don’t know
exactly how Dan explained things (he is also a life time percussionist and I am
not.) They seemed excited to be at it again, but were very rusty. We will spend
some time reviewing before we get into anything new.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busy days. I start teaching at
2:10 in the afternoon. I start with my last first year brass student. I met her
last year through my student Ryan and I got to know her pretty well by spending
time with the Seventh Day Adventists on many occasions. This student it fully
blind. I have worked with a blind trumpet student once in my life, and that was
my freshmen year of college in my very first education placement in Waterloo
with Katie Idler (whoa, it is weird to call her that now!). I did not get to
work a lot with that student, but I saw how that particular band director was
able to get around the hardships with that student. Lucky for me, my student
has been taking piano with Claire as well, so she should have an idea of notes and
things like that already. It will be a challenge for her to memorize music for
two classes, but if anyone can do it I know she can. I am already working on how to differentiate
my instruction to work best for her and her needs. I’m sure I will have more to
come of this later this semester.
After my private lesson I go to the first year percussion
class downstairs. Only one of my classes is actually being held upstairs this
year, so last year’s brass room is still for the most part my classroom. Claire
teaches one class down there when my second year percussion students are
upstairs so I can’t say it is all mine this year. This class had a full
registration before we left Guyana last year. I do have a small waiting list of
about three people as of right now. Technically our max for this class was ten,
but I have no clue who the last person to turn in their form was and I wasn’t
going to turn away one student who has been waiting so patiently for percussion
to start. It will be interesting having this group in the brass room. This is
my largest class and will most likely be the loudest. It also adds in a little
difficulty with volume because all of the Lutheran Church in Guyana staff are
still in their offices during this class time. I’m still working out how to not
disturb them too much and have a successful percussion class. I have some
ideas, but I won’t know if they work until I have tried them.
For this class I have
been busy putting together practice pads for them to use as well as a small
unit on protecting your hearing. I’m about 99% sure that last year I commented
in my blog at least once about how loud it can be in Guyana. People have their
music volume in their car all the way up, and at town events it is normal to
see three story tall speaker systems blaring with people standing directly in
front of them having a casual conversation. I am going to be urging my
percussion students to have ear plugs in class because of where we are having
our class and how loud it may be. Once I finish designing this unit I hope to
use it with all of my classes, but especially this group.
This year’s beginning percussion class is unique in a couple
ways. First, I have a few second year guitar students who also decided to take
first year percussion so they will already know some of the rhythmical type
things we will talk about this semester. Second, I have a couple first year
students who originally signed up for percussion but then said they wanted to
take another class while they waited. These students have already had a
semester of music theory that all of the true first year students will not have
yet. Third, I have girls in the class! Last year we saw all male classes when
it came to percussion. We also noticed that some of the stereotypes associated
with percussionists in the United States transcend cultures. It will be
interesting to see if that holds true this year or not. I’m really excited for
this class!
My last class for the day (as of right now. I am still
waiting to hear if I will have COFONA students this year or not) is my second
year brass class. If you read any of my blogs from last year you will remember
a post about Daniel. At the end of the year he was my only non-COFONA brass
student left. At our final concert he played a solo in front of 300+ people
after only playing trumpet for nine months. I have high hopes for what he and I
will accomplish this semester. I think because we meet for two days a week and
his work ethic that he will easily make it through an entire year’s worth of curriculum
in our one semester together. He has been very eager to get back into it, and
he has been practicing over the summer meaning we won’t have to review quite as
much as I was expecting because he has retained quite a bit! I have pulled all
of the trumpet solo books I can find in our library for him in hopes to find
some pieces that will be fun but challenging for him. I can’t wait! He spent time over the summer working on his skills. He even figured out "Jesus Loves Me" and dictated it before he played it for VBS this summer! He has improved a lot over the summer. Ahhh happy dance!
It has been interesting transitioning back to Guyana. Claire
and Twyla have moved things to places that make sense to the two of them, I
just can never find them now. I think I am always going to look in the same
place for pasta and such and never see it there. About the time I finally get
used to where they put things I will be on a plane back to Minnesota I think.
Claire and I have had a few nights where we have stayed up talking and reminiscing
about memories we have shared. We have also spent time talking about our
futures and what we are looking for in our next jobs (yay for job hunting
together and not being the only one, right Dan??) Twyla and I have spent a
little time getting to know each other as well. Tomorrow we are going to
karaoke! I look forward to going again. Claire says it is nice to have three
people again because if one person wants to be a hermit for a night, they can
without feeling bad about leaving the other out to dry. I would agree with
this. I look forward to getting to know Twyla better.
I have really enjoyed getting back into the swing of things
and being warm again. I feel at home here, and I look forward to starting the
semester! I hope you are all doing well and staying warm!
Some pictures for you all. Yes, I have a selfie stick with me in Guyana...
Second Year Percussion
First Year Brass are excited to start learning!
First Year Percussion (we were missing four people)
