update

I've been pretty busy trying to get everything ready for the next round of Teach for America. I need two "recommenders" to fill out online recommendation forms for me, one person to act as a reference, and a copy of my official transcript. I need to complete several readings so that I'm prepared to discuss them, and I need to prepare a five-minute lesson that I will teach on the day of the final interview. I don't have all the details about the lesson yet, but I'm eager to find out the exact requirements. For those of you that have been asking about when and where I interview, I'll find out on the 17th.

I think the flute choir piece is going pretty well. Most of the kids seem very excited about it, and each time the seventh grade band meets the girls immediately run up and ask if we can work on it . . . so, if nothing else, I'm happy to give them something musical to look forward to. There are a few strong players in the eighth grade that will help carry the piece, so even though we haven't made it all the way through yet, I feel good about it.

The cooperating teacher at the high school had encouraged me to come up with creative ways to teach music theory, which I actually found surprisingly difficult at first. Once I'd spoken with a few other student teachers and gotten my brain into the creative gear, I came up with a few "fun" ideas and wrote up a version of music theory jeopardy. I think it's cool, and hopefully they will, too. :) There are several different categories - sightsinging, rhythmic dictation, intervals by ear, written intervals, and inversions. They will play in teams and can pick a topic and a point value 100-500. The only thing I'm slightly unsure about is what to do since we don't have buzzers of any kind. If a team gets it wrong, does it just go to whoever raises their hand first? That's tricky because kids raise their hands all of the time before you even finish asking/answering a question. Hmmmm.

Also, coming from Wisconsin, I find it very strange that people here wear winter boots when it's not really winter and there's definitely not snow. I've seen students of mine wearing winter boots, like



with dresses and jeans, when it's not even cold out. I find it kind of ridiculous, since in Wisconsin, huge boots are practical and sometimes necessary. . . in New Mexico, they are not and they seem really out of place. According to Google, the average January temperature in Albuquerque is a full 20 degrees warmer than the average in Appleton, WI.




Seriously, Albuquerque? Boots?