Sunday, November 11, 2012

My cute little life right now equals happy

So I thought that I would give a quick update of what's happening right now! I'm teaching full time at a k-8 charter school in Cambridge, MA. It's a great small school with such a cute community. I'm the music teacher so I see each of the classes once a week. It has been incredibly fun so far! The kids are really cute and well behaved. I think it helps that it's not a public school because the kids receive a lot of attention since there is only one class per grade level.

One challenge of teaching at a k-8 school is that each age group learns so differently and have such different interests. Each class have such unique personalities! I'm building 9 different curriculums for each class that are really based on their skill set and how quickly they learn. k-3rd grade is really fun; we do a lot of short activities and games centered around learning rhythm, solfege, movement, and theory. 4th-8th grades have more of choral pieces, creative writing, more advanced theory, improvisation, world music, and performing. All the kids keep me busy and happy. My classroom is right next to the cafeteria so I get to see all the kids everyday and I LOVE that so many of them stop to say hi to me in the mornings or during lunch.





I get to play the piano for Mass every thursday morning. All the kids walk over to the Catholic church next door for mass and they spend an hour there listening to Father O'Malley, singing, and taking communion. Not all of the kids and teachers at the school are Catholic but a good portion of them are. Playing the piano for the choir is really fun! The choir is getting better and better.

I'm teaching private piano lessons as well and have about 30 students!! The age range for those lessons are from 5-14. I teach the lessons at the school every day (after school gets out). I'm learning so much from teaching privately and absolutely love it. The parents and kids are great and I feel like we are finally in a good pattern of practicing. We have a piano recital coming up on Dec. 15th that they are all preparing and getting excited for. It has been challenging helping my students learn how to practice productively and affectively. That has been the hardest thing. Getting them to sit at the piano 30 minutes a day was just the first step, now they have to learn how to use that time well and actually force themselves to work hard at it every day! So, I'm learning a lot! I'm also learning a lot of patience..... (guess I didn't learn enough of it from teaching in China the first or second time). Third times a charm right?

So I really love my job! I moved to Watertown in September which is just outside of Boston (like 10 minute drive) so that I could be closer to work. I live in a cute house with 3 other LDS girls who are all working and going to school. We love our neighborhood and everything has been great so far. I honestly couldn't have written out a more ideal situation or job for me right now. It has just been such a blessing!

Going home for Thanksgiving next week! Huge family reunion, friends wedding, and some dates.....  I need to find me a man and he ain't in Boston. Did I just say that?

CJP 

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