needing some kind of balance at school (miercoles, 18 agosto)

I actually had to kick a kid out of class today. Then I asked who would like to be next, and suddenly things got quiet. I didn´t have any more problems with that class today. I confiscated all of their cell phones and ipods I caught them using, took away all of their notes they were passing, and drawings that had nothing to do with class. One kid started crying, but right now I don´t really care because there needs to be order in the class, and rules need to be enforced. Hopefully tomorrow they´ll behave better. They behave worse than most of the kids at the residential treatment facility where I used to work. In fact, right now I actually really miss those kids.

In a way it´s kind of funny because yesterday my classes were really well-behaved, and most of them participated pretty well. Yesterday was a great day. After school I had choir rehearsal. I love choir rehearsals here. I really feel more at ease and more at home with the choir group and other music directors than I do as an English teacher. Teaching English can be hard at times. Teaching music comes more naturally to me, and is way more fun. The time goes by much faster and I never really find myself looking at the clock. The choir kids are a fun group of kids. The ones who don´t really seem to care much during English class try really hard and care a lot about music. Yesterday I taught them `Battle Hymn of the Republic`in four-part harmony. They sound really good, but it took a bit of work to get them to sing it in a spirited, strong sort of way. After I started joking around and telling them I was going to fall asleep, they got the message and got into it more. By the end of rehearsal they were able to sing it a capella and didn´t need me to give them their starting pitches where the verse (in unison) splits off into the four-part harmony chorus. The altos (or in Spanish, contraltos) need to sing more confidently. This is the only drawback of the choir. The director has been having me sing the alto part with them while directing so they can hear their parts. I think on Thursday I will stop singing with them so they can prepare for the concerts they´ll be singing in next week in Santiago for the music conference. I also like directing the choir because I get to speak in both English and Spanish. Since it isn´t ´English´class, but rather an English choir, I am allowed to use Spanish to explain things related to the music, the meanings of the lyrics, and so forth.

After choir rehearsal the director asked me to stay around to help with the jazz band. He got me set up with a tenor sax I´ll get to use for the rest of the time I´m here. It´s not a good quality instrument, but that´s okay. It´s really great to play sax again. Our jazz band here at CI is small. It consists of the director playing piano, four students who play drums, guitar, bass, and trumpet, another teacher who plays alto sax, and now myself on tenor. All of the students in the band play super well. We went over Moonlight Serenade, In the Mood, and the Pink Panther. I haven´t played the sax in almost two years, but it didn´t feel like it. In the music I was able to find my soul and really get into the music, and it felt amazing. I even got to improvise a little bit. After rehearsal I took the micro home.

And now I´m wondering how is it that one day is fantastic and the next just isn´t much fun. I wish I could have a good balance at school, but then again I guess the crappy days like today just make me appreciate the good ones that much more.

written by  Sara Florecita on August 18, 2010 from Iquique, Chile
from the travel blog: año de dos inviernos (Chile 2010)
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