Day 2.

I slept better last night. It is a strange thing, sleep is. There are days when I have nothing I need to accomplish, yet I am up by 6 am. And there are days when I need to be at work by 5:45, and I sleep until 7...today was not one of those days, but I do have them. Sunday night I woke up several times; some because my phone was going off with messages of good luck, bear hugs, etc., others due to doubting that my alarm, on my phone (motorola droid), would go off. Last night I only woke up once, at 4 am. Now that I know my alarm will go off, and at a volume loud enough to wake me, I should be able to sleep just fine.

Myself, along with many others, feel society relies to much on technology (likely entry in the future). I know that at that crucial moment, technology can only do one of two things: work, or not work. I have experienced both ends of this, from my car/motorcycle/boat not starting, to my computer crashing/failing to connect/battery dead.

Continuing with day 2. Everything went well, similar to day one but more students are voluntarily interacting with me. I played a little baritone, trombone, and clarinet today. I am noticing one pretty funny thing, some of the girls think I am cute, and are extremely awkward about it. For instance, while on lunch duty, a girl said "come here", so I went over to the table she was at, and she asked me who I was and if I worked there. I told her my name, and that I am a student teacher. Her reply was, "I didn't know they had student teachers in middle schools", which is very possible that she didn't. However as an 8th grade student, one might assume she had already encountered a student teacher, and based on her friends reactions, she likely knew. And as lunch continued, I noticed that the group at that table would awkwardly look over, or make a small ruckus to attract attention. Another interaction I had was similar; three male students who I talked a bit with the previous day caught my attention as I was walking by. We chatted a bit as we did the day previously, and then one of them told me that a few of the girls down the table thought I was hot. As he said that I saw some of the girl giggle and turn away. My reply to him was that, I don't need to know that, I don't think they'd really want you to say that. Again, I am not overly surprised that this is happening, I just find it funny. However, I was told that one teacher was pulled off of lunch duty because a girl had a crush on him, which somehow he found out/was told about. I have heard that the girl felt uncomfortable and was removed from his class and her psychologist asked the school to remove him from lunch duty.

My low brass playing is keeping up with the 6th and 7th grade, but I plan on sticking to clarinet and saxophone for the 8th grade and transposing parts as needed. It helps that I had low brass class last semester, I am not sure how my trumpet and horn chops are, but I know the fingerings. I think I'll try horn tomorrow with the 6th grade. We have a meeting Thursday with the other middle school music teachers and the fine arts director for the district. We chatted at lunch with John Thornton, the orchestra director at Stevenson about various topics, including the purpose of the meeting. Also, I was told I should be prepared to answer some questions that will likely be asked, mainly, "what have you learned?" I've learned a lot, but the stand out points are that a fast pace helps to prevent classroom disruptions and encourages students to pay attention. Also, I have witnessed how a director can be direct with students about expectations, and direct when students don't meet those expectations. I have been somewhat surprised at some of the statements made, however none are overly personal.

Note: I don't think my poor sleep is due to stress or anxiety because of the student teaching, but more so my overall desire to be punctual. I hate being late. I typically arrive at rehearsals at least 20 minutes early, often more depending on the groups warm up routine. In certain situations, I am frustrated with other peoples lack of punctuality, not often. For instance, if I am to pick someone up for dinner/bar/movie/skiing/(insert recreational activity here), I don't mind if they aren't ready when I get there, it gives me time to think/observe how other people get ready/value time. Also, if you are picking me up, I don't mind if you are late, but if I have something to do after, I won't bump it back due to your tardiness. If it is job/school/set start time, I will get somewhat upset if we aren't on time, but I usually contain that feeling or make a passive statement, "joke", about not being on time.