IMEA - Day 2

I just finished attending my last session of the conference. Soon will be packing up the bus and heading home. Today I met some amazing music educators who are willing to share all the resources they can. I was able to collect some information for music therapy graduate programs and certification. We will see what comes from all of that. Good times. Back home we go.

IMEA - Day 1

Early this morning I left Mishawka with the CMENC chapter at Bethel to head to Indianapolis for the IMEA conference. Since I teach choir and have little experience in that area I've focused on vocal seminars all day. My brain hurts. Vocalist have a totally different way of thinking than instrumentalist. I've felt very out of place but am learning some great things.

There are always tons of exhibitors at the convention and I've had the opportunity to make some new connections. I've talked to a few schools about music therapy certification and some curriculum specialist about adapted music. They have pointed me towards some possible resources.

My highlight of the day was watching some of our Oasis students sing in the Discovery Middle School Vocal Jazz Ensemble. The girls were AWESOME! They did four part pieces and some complex rhythmic things. I was so proud of them. I've been bragging about them all day and I'm not even their teacher. I love our students!!! Great job ladies!

Back in the swing...

Yesterday was a very long day. I went over 12 hours without stopping. UGH!
Today was a little better. I only went for a little under 12 hours with a short 30 minute break to run home and change clothes.

I'm was going to go to the IMEA conference this weekend but have decided it would be best to stay home and clean my apartment. Perhaps even get a bit organized. The good news is almost all of my paper work is caught up. I think I may call it a night as far as school work goes and head home. Grabbing a book or some paint some pretty good right now.

Praying In Color

This week at Lifeline and Oasis, DC talked about prayer. He talked about how we all have this idea of how prayer is suppose to look or sound like. We've set a standard for ourselves and think that if we don't met that standard we haven't prayed correctly. The reality is that all God wants is for us to talk to him.

He also showed a picture that was given to him by a young child. He made the point that our prayers can look like a child's drawing that has color outside the lines and scribbles the look like nothing all over the page. It reminded me of a book I read last year called Praying in Color by Sybil MacBeth.

The book is the results of a math teacher who loves to doodle and was frustrated with the state of her prayer life. She decided combine prayer and doodling. She discovered a completely different way to pray and shared her experience and thoughts in this book.

I enjoyed the book but was a little skeptical about the whole thing. I decided to give it a shot and discovered growth in my prayer life I never thought could happen. If you are looking for something to stretch your idea of prayer, read the book.

New Schedule

I've had some people ask about what my class load is like this semester, and in a sad attempt to get people to actually read my blog I told them I would post the answer here if they really wanted to know.

7 General Music (5th or 6th grade) - Most of these are large classes, the biggest having 31. Another class is a nice size but a third of them are special needs and the others are devils!
2 Choirs (7th and 8th grade) - One has 30 students and the other is small but has very few girls
1 Adapted Music (5th - 8th) This class has 19 special needs students, which is very large number! The paraprofessionals don't help much even if you ask. It is my favorite class but takes the most energy and concentration.

I think it should be a little easier to manage than last semester. Time will tell.

Thanks for reading friends!!!!