What we've learned this week:

It has been a short, yet beneficial week for all.  My post will be about what we've learned (or I hope we've learned) during school these three days. 

1.  Learning is so much easier when everyone is there!  It appears that students must be starting to recover from the flu - I've had pretty good attendance this week.  Good attendance means we don't have to back up to make sure everyone has the information we covered in their absence.  It also means students aren't stressed about what they have missed.  That being said:
2.  Students always seem to recover in time to be gone on a field trip!  Today was a field trip for half of the 7th grade class.  It was the first time I have had full attendance in one of my classes for weeks.  Of course half of those students were actually not in class; they were on the trip...Hmmm...
3.  Students can tolerate (enjoy?!?) music from the "olden days."  Music 7 spent the week learning about music from the 1940's.  Today when they wrote essays about the period I had the 1940's playlist going in the background - it was super cool to see them enjoy the music as they created. Can't wait until we discuss the 1950's next week.
4.  I love it when students put themselves out there and try new things.  We had an additional 9 people for JH Jazz this morning.  AWESOME!
5.  Students will believe anything really early in the morning.  To "reward" the jazz students for being "on time" (early) for rehearsal this morning I told them I had received permission from the school to allow them to sleep in the next two mornings.  It took awhile (too long) for the majority of them to get that. 
6.  With responsibility comes rewards.  It is amazing to observe what a make-up lesson can do for your grade.  We had many students make up lessons this week.
7.  It is difficult to successfully pull off a lock down drill when half of the students are coughing uncontrollably when we are trying to be "quiet."
8.  I am completely "OK" with students taking their instruments to practice. (note: It's kind of expected/required...see "practice logs" in the handbook!)
9.  We have a concert rapidly approaching and we have major work to do on our selections. (see #8 for a special message on how to help us deal with #9.
10.  After this week, I am looking forward to Monday!  The secret word this week is "learning."  You know what to do with it.  HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND (but find time to practice!)