Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Snow Days

I'm trying not to stress, as I have absolutely no control over the weather.

But, truth be told, I'm really concerned about going back to school tomorrow.

Last year, we changed our program format at school and no longer do a traditional holiday program. Instead, we offer different music demonstration opportunities throughout the year that better fit our district's curriculum and standards. Parents don't always understand the work it takes to pull off a program...we spend an entire quarter of the school year learning less than 5 minutes worth of music. There is precious little time to teach musical concepts, much less assess any learning.

So, to still offer a holiday musical experience, we started doing a "Singalong" last year. It's short and sweet, doesn't take a lot of prep work out of classroom time, and parents still get to see their children dressed up and singing Christmas and winter songs.

Thing is, parents hated it last year. I got a lot of flack from parents because they didn't see their children on stage. So...to further pacify our community, I've planned and planned and spent sleepless nights trying to figure out how to get kids in front of the audience without the Singalong becoming a full-blown program that lasts over 2 hours. And...the brilliant this is that I really did come up with a solution!

Problem is...it's a rather elaborate plan that works on paper and we haven't seen if it works in reality. Further problem...snow days yesterday and today.

I'm getting peppered with emails from teachers who want to change program order, etc., and we're going into this "less stress" performance tomorrow without a rehearsal.

So, if you read this before tomorrow...please pray for the following things:

1. A positive attitude on my part, as I really can't control anything else anyway.
2. Accepting, gracious responses from my colleagues and our audience.
3. That the kids don't pick up on any of my stress and that we just have fun.

Thanks!

1 comment:

Nancy said...

sorry...read this too late. i hope it all went well.