A few lovely things from the past week or so. I've felt really quite sad and gloomy at times this past week but there have been many bright times despite this.
1. Tuesday, whilst waiting by the school office with my remaining choir members who parents were tardy, all of a sudden, I heard my name called from the gate. It was a past pupil of mine who is now 17 and in year 12. He is one my most favourite pupils of all time so I ran down to the gate for a catch up. I love the fact that he was there with his cool girlfriend, aged 17 and chose to call out my name when he saw me some 12 metres away by the office.We had a quick catch up and I said to him, "I will never forget you." to which he replied, "And I will never forget you Miss.". I was SO happy to see him and the fact he said that, was so lovely.
2. I received a message from the mother of a child. I think I wrote about how he had become transfixed by the Bagpipes last December and said he wanted to learn them. I told his mum at the time and she had been interested. Fast forward to July this year and she was late one day and I was standing with him. When she arrived, I asked her if she had thought about signing him up for music lessons. She said yes, but had been disorganised and forgotten about it. When we asked him what he was interested in, he said, "Bagpipes" which wasn't an option so I suggested the oboe as a good starting point. They signed up and he'd been playing the oboe since the half term holiday. She messaged me on Wednesday to say that he absolutely LOVES the oboe and practises every day and wants to show her his notes and she is really proud of his dedication. That message meant so much to me because that thing happened because of my lessons. Giving him access to hearing and seeing something led to that! It was a great feeling.
3. The messages keep coming over the past 3 weeks where parents ask if it is too late for their child to join choir. It's really exciting that they want to join and that their parents want them to!
4. Happy Year 4's. It was totally worth the hideous amount of time it took to locate and move 25 'exotic' instruments, including Harmoniums, mbiras, Angklungs, violins, mandolins, timpani, metallophones, xylophones, guitars, harps, hand bells and all sorts for my 1 off lesson allowing them experience of accompanying songs with different drone instruments. Everyone was hugely positive and excited by it. It is usually time consuming setting up that lesson in my own music room but as you can imagine, finding and doing that in a different building was a nightmare...but worth it!
5. Meeting my lovely blog friend Ang! Still smiling!
6. A very productive Gamelan rehearsal. I've been struggling in gamelan for the past 2 week as I'd missed so many sessions and didn't know my part and no one who plays my part was there last week so this time, I spent an hour or so watching videos of our teacher in Bali playing the piece and I transcribed my part. What a difference at the rehearsal- I knew it and when I got stuck, I could look down at my notebook! It was especially crucial as the person who knows the part was away again. Another fun part was that we played Baris, piece I know very well and I had great fun playing the Reyong which I haven't touched for years! Also, I went secretly dressed as Patrick McGoohan from the Prisoner and it was funny!
7. Had a lovely relaxing Saturday with CBC. We went to an Eco-fair and had a mooch around the shops. I found a lovely 3/4 length Autograph M&S cashmere cardigan in the charity shop for £5 which was very exciting!
8. Had a hysterical time with a child tonight after choir. His mum was late picking up and he was talking about being a Russian spy and suddenly noticed some teachers in a meeting in the classrooms by the office. I had the 'bright idea' of us being spies and launched into 'Mission Impossible' whilst we cavorted over to the window- a hilarious spell of us acting like total loons (and excellent acting skills!) as we acted like comical spies working our way along all the windows. We were laughing so much by the time we finished.
9. Happy time with my Year 5-6 choir tonight. Fun rehearsal and they are doing really well with my Ring out the Bells song from a few years ago.
10. Yay, after my aforementioned Year 4 lesson on Friday where I allowed the children to play the violin, there are 3 new signups for the violin in school! All very capable children!
11. We had the most hilarious- time in the staff room at lunchtime last week where someone chucked a piece of balled up foil at another colleague. We then ended up having an en masse game of Pigeon hole ball where everyone tried to get the ball of foil into someone's pigeonhole. The deal then was that you had to secretly buy a tiny present for the person whose pigeonhole the ball went into. It was so much fun. We had such a wonderful time, we laughed so much and there was such a sense of comradery
12. Got some great books for the School library in the charity shops on the past few Saturdays very reasonably. I've read a few to vet them and they were really good!
13. Nice morning hugs with CBC this morning. He texted to me to say Thank you for warm, morning hugs which was lovely as I was thinking the same.
14. Had another fun time with the City of London Symphonic Winds on Sunday afternoon. I was really grateful to join them again!
15. My Year 3 recorders are starting to make progress and today, lots of the children tried to help others put their fingers in the right place the way I usually do when I was unable to get to them (tight table formations!) Other two classes weren't too bad on Monday either.
16. Lovely Selective-mute boy who began speaking to me and singing in class at the end of last year (after me teaching him for 1.5 years without either of those things...doesn't really speak to any other adults) , today, told me what he was drawing in our music lesson and when I delightedly repeated what he said, he gave me the most beautiful smile. It makes me happy that he trusts me enough to speak to me!
17. Kind colleague who I was talking to about how anxious I felt yesterday was really sweet to me. I like her a lot. She's definitely my kind of person and like me, doesn't have class (but is only part time) and is also really fed up by not having a proper working space with the building situation. Empathy is important.
18. Every child in Year 2 can play London's Burning on their glockenspiels! One bright shining thing was that a little autistic boy who doesn't really join in much in music and can't communicate by speech (unless prompted), learnt to play it totally by himself correctly without any help! I was so delighted and glad for him. His face shone when I told him how impressed I was.
19. In year 5, we were learning how to improvise and create interesting drum rhythms and the children seemed to have lots of fun doing that and actually, some of the children who have struggled with the work this term, did a really good job. Nice to see them shine!
20. I bought a tray of mince reduced for Quick sale in the CO-OP in July and I got it out of the freezer on Monday as I wanted to clear the freezer. When I was feeling miserable on Tuesday, it was the best thing to know I could come home and make Spaghetti bolognaise which I never eat as CBC doesn't eat meat (usually....occasionally). Very much enjoyed it.
21. Pickled Onion Monster Munch. Enough said.
I have a good life in so many ways but that doesn't stop me from getting sad and worried about things. Finding all the happy things always helps!