If it's not one thing...

There is a saying that goes "If it's not one thing, it's another."  Sometimes it almost feels like we live that on a daily basis!  Just when I thought that most people were getting healthy enough to be at school we had new issues to work around.  It was 8th grade lesson week.  On Wednesday all the 8th graders were gone for a scientific field exploration.  The back-up that caused for students trying to cram lessons in before the mid-quarter reports were due was amazing.  Luckily this first lesson was more a lesson to evaluate where students were at and for me to give them their initial playing assignments for the next lesson, so I was able to accommodate some rather bizarre instrument combinations during lessons Thursday and Friday!

Thursday is  the only day each week where all of the 7th grade band members are in rehearsal.  On Tuesday we have students that go to orchestra and choir, and on Fridays we split the period, so Thursdays are "our day" to really make progress.  This Thursday we had a fire drill scheduled 15 minutes into rehearsal!  Now a fire drill in a "regular classroom" is bad enough, but in a band room with 65 students, chairs, stands, cases and instruments it is another thing entirely.  The good news is that it gave me time to inform the students where we go during drills and the expectation of how they are to get there.  The best part - they totally exceeded my expectations!  AWESOME JOB, BAND!!!  The worst part - that left us with about 10 minutes of our "full rehearsal."  Next week is a three-day week with a scheduled late start on Tuesday, so that will shorten our only rehearsal of the week - I hope everyone practices individually!  Yikes.

We had our first junior high jazz rehearsal on Wednesday and it went really well.  Thanks to all the parents who got their children there on time - impressive!  I look forward to this Wednesday when we will hopefully be joined by the students who were sick last week.  We also welcome other students - just let me know you are planning on being there so I have music for you. 

Wow this has become a long post - time for the "secret word."  If  you are visiting the blog for the first time, read last week's post to learn about the secret word.  The word this week is drill.   Good luck.  Have a great weekend - squeeze in a little time for individual practice!