I'm Finally Teaching Again!

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)