D-Day 2008

Well, we're off and running. Here's the short run-down:

Choir: 42 kids. They seem nice. A few squirly boys. Whatever. Half the room freaked out when I told them about their final exam: singing a solo song in front of the class.

Band: 72 kids. In any other situation I would have been ecstatic. Here's the problem: the 72 kids break down into high school and middle school kids - highly experienced players, somewhat experience players, barely experienced players, and rank beginners. 21 kids want to be in the percussion section. We don't have enough instruments to give the rest. About a third of the kids don't know why they're there... they didn;t sign up for band. There's about 12 kids that I want to send via trebuchet into the next county. This class is a nightmare. I don't know why I feel so calm about it right now. Maybe I just stopped caring. Why 72 kids?.... because it was a good place for the counselors to dump people since so many electives were shut down in order to create more Honors and AP courses.

AP Theory: 21 kids. Nice. Mellow. Too bad I ran out of cough drops at the beginning of class. I think they were expecting me to keel over and croak after about a half-hour.

Orchestra: 24 kids. The Good Lord saw fit to grace me with 2 new cellists this year (and here I though we wouldn't have a cello section). They're both 7th graders, but you know what? ... two young 'uns is better than nothin. Every one seems nice. It's a young group, and we won't be doing the advanced repertoire of years past... but they have a good vibe about them, and I think I'm going to enjoy the year.

I have another 50+ students I haven't seen yet because they're in my 0 period classes that don't start until tomorrow. I'm expecting them to be fine.

The short of it: if not for band, I'd be feeling really good right now. Well, actually... I do feel pretty good. I'm past the point in my life where I let things keep me up at night. But band is definitely going to be a problem. Maybe I should just go buy a box of kazoos.