I. Hate. Standardized. Tests.

TAKS starts this week.  Fortunately, we lose just 1 day of testing this week, but we lose 6 more before the end of the year.  7 days total of lost instruction.  Which famous education researcher missed the day where the professor covered importance of actually having the opportunity to learn?

Ok.  I'll get off my soap box.  For now.

The other band director is awesome, and quite the Shirley Q. Liquor fan.  At least 12 times a day I hear her ask students "How you durrin?" and it makes me laugh every time.  She found some Shirley Q. Liquor albums in her office, so we will be spending some time soon listening to those soon.

Things are getting better at my school.  I'm trying to be really consistent and true to my word with my students, which I'm pretty sure makes some of them hate me, but as long as they hate me while practicing and bringing their reeds to class everyday, I don't care.  It's more important to me that they learn how to be responsible than whether or not they like me.

In one of my classes I still have some classroom management issues.  If anyone has any brilliance to offer for this situation, I'm all kinds of willing to try almost anything.  This is the class I posted about earlier that I arranged their room with the exact chairs and stands they need.  It's better than before, but we need to start moving fast through the book and I can't afford to lose 20 minutes every day in getting them back on task.  Especially when I'm going to lose 7 days already this year...

Don't worry.  I'm not letting myself back on the soap box.

I have just 1 more thing to say.  Even with feeling like I'm running uphill a lot of the time, I still LOVE my job!  I get the opportunity to work at a school that is fortunate enough to still have music programs and I get to spend all day teaching the thing I've spent most of my life studying.  I'm pretty lucky.