Why I Believe in Music Education...

...or at least part of the reason.

This is not meant to "bash" our education system or anything of that sort.  However, I believe that every child should learn to do at least one thing they can take "beyond" the A.  For some students that is creating beautiful art, for others it's throwing the perfect fast ball, for others it's interpreting the music written on the page, for still others it's writing a perfect paper or solving math problems.  All subjects are important.  When students have found a place they belong and something they love to do, we will be much closer to solving the bullying, gang and drug related problems of our world.  Just my humble opinion.

That'll Teach Me...

This afternoon, some of my piano students and I got together and had a party to celebrate Mozart's birthday.  We watched a movie about Mozart's life and music and had pizza for dinner and birthday cake.  (I'm very impressed by the woman behind the bakery counter at Festival who didn't so much as blink when I said I wanted "Happy Birthday Mozart!" written on a cake.)  I planned what I could eat all day so I could have 2 pieces of pizza, a breadstick, and a slice of cake.  I did great...right up until I finished my 2nd slice of pizza.  It was so good I talked myself into one more slice of cheese pizza, promising myself that I would walk it off on the treadmill before I went to bed.  The total I needed to walk off came to 305 calories.  So I came home and started walking.  I walked 84 minutes and was still 10 calories short!  UGH!  That'll teach me...

Amazing

I work with this amazing lady named Jeanne.  She accompanies my school church choir and plays for our concerts.  Last Lent, she was diagnosed with cancer.  She allowed Father to perform the Sacrament of Healing (Anointing of the Sick) for her during a school Mass despite her concern about how it might affect the kids' faith if she died of her cancer.  She took about six weeks off after surgery but continued to play for us through her chemo.  On her first day back, the student body all wore yellow shirts (the color associated with cancer research) in her honor.  Shortly after that, she gave a reflection on her faith experience with cancer.  She brought a stuffed frog and told the students that it reminded her that she must Fully Rely On God.  She was given a clean bill of health in June.  Then, just before Thanksgiving, she pulled me aside after our school's Thanksgiving Mass to tell me that her cancer was back and this time it was deemed terminal.  The doctors are giving her months.  Today at Mass, she and Father broke the news to the student body and Father gave her the Anointing of the Sick again.  She pulled out her frog and told the kids that she had an amazing summer that she wouldn't have had without their prayers, but "you can't pray someone alive forever, you know."  She told them she was a bit apprehensive because she didn't know exactly how it would go, but she trusted that it would be wonderful and that she was truly looking forward to heaven.  I was, fortunately, not the only one crying.  She is one amazing lady and I can only pray that when it is my time to die, I can show as much courage and teach as many kids about faith as she is doing now.  Please pray for us all.

Fruits of the Spirit: Always in Season

At the beginning of the school-year, it was announced that the school's Faith Focus was going to be the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.  We are focusing on one each month as a school (in prayer during announcements, at school Masses, and in the classrooms).  Teachers were asked to post the Fruits of the Spirit somewhere in their classrooms.  I'd already finished my bulletin boards by then, so I had some trouble figuring out where I was going to put them, but I found a tree that fit just great above my prayer table.  It came with green leaves and leaves in fall colors.  I started it out with green leaves and slowly changed them over to fall.  Then as fall started to feel more like winter, I took the leaves off.  At that point, I was thinking it looked kind of dumb...a tree that looked dead with a whole bunch of different fruit.  That's when I came up with the "tag line" that I put on the trunk:

I decided to put up a few snowflakes every time it snows until spring when I'll switch them out for the green leaves again.  December's Fruit is Patience, which is why there are currently 3 pears on the tree.  I put one of each on the tree to begin with and then as each month rolls around, I put 3 of that Fruit on the tree to show what we are focusing on.  At that point, they get a quote from scripture pertaining to that Fruit of the Spirit.

I'm very happy with it now...for a long time I felt like it looked like an afterthought in the room, but now it looks a little more like it belongs.

Excitement

Excitement at school today...we lost power for about an hour at the very end of the day.  There are no windows in my classroom, just an emergency light in the hall (which is no where near as bright as I thought it would be) and 2 small emergency flashlights plugged in around the room that charge whenever the power is on and turn on when the power is off.  I had 18 kindergartners in my classroom at the time and it got VERY dark.  We were lucky they were all sitting and we were rehearsing.  No one was up and getting a tissue or in the bathroom.  I was standing at the piano, kind of hoping it would come right back on, when there was a very small voice, "What happened?"  They were great...just stayed in their seats (no crying, no panic) until I could get the doors open and grab one of my flashlights out of an outlet.  By the time I was getting them into line, a few at a time, their teacher arrived and took them back to their classroom (where they had windows).  I <3 my kids!

Added 11/30/10: I can't just leave it at that, after the other 'excitement' not too far from here yesterday afternoon/evening.  Praise God that was all we dealt with in our school yesterday.  Please pray for all students and teachers at Marinette High School and especially for that young "suspect/victim."  God help our children!

Prayer

My prayer life has always been a bit more of a conversation on the run.  I like to think that I pray my way through life, thanking God for blessings (large and small) and asking for help when it's needed.  I do think that type of prayer is effective and important, but lately I've found that I need more.  Days when I start out with 10-15 minutes of quiet, structured, "sit down and be still" prayer and a reading or two from my Bible go better...I'm more content and at peace with life.  My attitude during weeks when I get consistent morning and evening structured prayer and reading time is so drastically different than weeks when I don't have take the time.  I want to write later about some prayers, books, and other tools that I've found helpful and inspiring, but for now, I just want to share two of my favorite morning prayers.

I remember reading about a daily offertory prayer when I was young, but I never got it written down and didn't think of it again until recently when I came across this slightly modified version that I really like.

God, my friend,

I offer you this day.

Let all my prayer, work, joy, suffering today

join with the lives offered to you

by the whole People of God

and especially with our great Eucharist,

Jesus,

your Son and our Brother.

Let your Spirit be with me today,

especially in...

And I ask your loving concern today,

especially for my friend...

Remind me, through the day, that I am not alone

Amen.

from Daily Prayers for Busy People by Fr. William J. O'Malley

As a teacher, I think it is important to pray for my students daily.  Every morning, when I walk into my classroom, I light the battery operated candles on my prayer table and offer prayers for my students.  This is a prayer I say for me...

Lord, let the joy of my days be a snare for the young;

let me lure them from lackluster lives to Life;

let my love and patience entice them to you!

Amen!

Source forgotten...oops!