Our class was at full strength today! All 13 of my students were definitely present and accounted for. Unlike at our bell performance yesterday. An hour before the service, a mom called to say her daughter had a fever and wouldn't be coming to church. Okay. At church, all the usual people I try to get to fill in were not in church this Sunday. And another girl overslept and didn't make it to church. So we were two people down five minutes before church started. What to do? We ended up leaving a few of the bells out (the filler harmony notes) and some girls tried to pick up an extra bell. But there was no time to highlight the parts. And then they were unfamiliar with the parts, so they played too late or too early or didn't play at all... and one of the players played the wrong bell notes (flats instead of naturals) so the beginning of the song was very dissonant and distorted until she realized her mistake and quick switched to the right bells... thankfully she was able to find where we were in the song. Sigh. If everyone would've been there, it would've sounded beautiful! I guess to an audience it sounded okay, but there was no clear melody and people didn't know what song we were playing. And of course I forgot to email the names of the songs we were playing to the AV coordinator so she could put it up on the screens for the church service. Sigh. All in all, it could've gone better. But, it's over and done with. No way to change it. Moving on.
There was a negative 20 degree wind chill this morning. Brrr! But by the afternoon it had warmed up enough that the ice on the sidewalk was melting from the heat of the sun. All that change in weather really got to my students... they were super chatty and had trouble focusing. But they promised they'd be on their best behavior for tomorrow's guests.
The school board is coming in to observe all the teachers sometime after 10:00. I don't know where I am in the line-up, but I'm guessing I'll be somewhere in the middle. My dear friend Laura just got back last week from student teaching ESL in Abu Dhabi (her second round of student teaching starts next week in Le Center, MN). The plan was for her to speak to the 8th graders about the culture/her time in the United Arab Emirates. But last night at her welcome back party we got to talking (trying to figure out a time for her to arrive) and decided it would be fun for her to stay the whole day. So she is! She's coming sometime tomorrow morning and will hang around helping us with Daily 5 activities and our science lab. My class is really excited. And so am I, for that matter.
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