Everybody PANIC!

So, I'm about to go to bed tonight, and I flip over to the news station so that it will be on that channel when I crawl out of bed in the morning, only to happen upon the unbelievable.

Wichita has actually called off school tomorrow, and since we're following their lead, so has my gig.

Jeez... I can't believe it. A couple of inches of ice and everybody says STAY IN YOUR HOMES!! DON'T GO OUT!! AAARRGHHH!

First of all, I was shocked that they canceled when there's a basketball game tonight (for wit, I didn't see the MSFlyingCircus on the list, but no shocker there. Sorry Deb and Sally!), but I'm really hacked because now I've lost one of my last few rehearsals before the concert on Sunday night. Having already lost Friday for "tutorials," now losing Tuesday which has been statistically shown to be the best rehearsal day of the week, we are down to Wednesday and Thursday, which I'm sure can be interrupted for something irrelevant and time-consuming.

This does not bode well...

I'd like to have a word with you, buddy...

This is the one drawback to my gig. Somehow, the school has decided it's totally okay for parents to call teachers at home and file grievances. Ugh.

So, after this guy (well, not this guy, I don't even know what this guys looks like, he might look nothing like this guy, but this is what this guy looks like in my mind for the moment) calls me at 10:30AM, he calls my boss and insinuates that I've been ducking his calls. I wonder what it is he thinks I'm doing at 10:30 in the morning.

At a school.

While his child is there.

Surely not teaching. What a strange use of my time that would be. I most likely should've dropped everything I was doing (the aformentioned teaching) and taken his complaint call.

So, I find his complaint, registered through my boss, in my email inbox this afternoon after I'd finished teaching (and complimenting, incidentally) his child, and instructions to call him back and calm him down. So I tried. I called his work, his cell, and his home. I left messages.

I wonder if he'll call back?

OVER!

As I type this, I'm getting ready to head out the door to my last class of the semester. Thank God! I knocked out the 10 or 11 page paper Saturday, and now I'm headed to the de-briefing.



If anyone wants to read my opus, let me know. It's fascinating stuff. Really. Promise.

Finally!

I got all my Christmas shopping done!

Everyone's getting this:

New Axe!

I ordered it last week from Shires. Should be here in about 12 weeks.

It's gonna be bad-ass. Can you believe it doesn't come with a case? What's up with that?

To begin with...

I've had it with MySpace. I'm tired of all the BS posts, updates, and eye-candy, and I'm tired of all the terrible terrible foolishness associated with it. I've got some real thoughts (and some higher-tier nonsense), and so I'm moving. Ta-da! (and such...)

Actually, I got the idea today to start a blog from an inservice I went to at schulwerk. Christian Long gave the inservice today, all about teaching in the Conceptual Age, and it was shocking to me how many of the other teachers were completely new to some technology out there that's kind of old. He was right, in that what we as educators find fascinating is old hat and unimpressive to our students. It wasn't the best inservice I've ever attended, but certainly not the worst. It made me wonder: How long do we wait (or should we be expected to wait) for several parent-luddites to catch up to what is now? Hmmm.

In truth, technology and advanced communications options can have an effect upon my instrumental music classroom, but not nearly so much as quality teaching can. That's what I'm striving for. And we're getting there, little by little. It does force a decision, though. Will my band sound better with a new computer-music lab, or if I obtain some double-reeds and switch several of my several saxophones over to something that will balance the sound of my ensemble?

There's more to it than that, of course. Taking Dr. O's history/philosophy class has got me thinking about that much. Lots to talk about though.