Friday, March 26, 2010

Sing it by ear

I swear I'm not allowed to have a normal day.  It was only supposed to be elementary music.  It was the last day before Spring Break.   The lesson plans were even easy.  For elementary music show parts of "Fantasia" to the older kids and play name that tune using a pre-made CD with the younger kids.  The first three classes were perfect.  I showed them the video, I even talked a little about how Disney was trying to show different ways to visualize music.  I made it all the way to first recess when CRACK!  The computer screen I was using went blank, the overhead projector started whirring down, and the CD player stopped working.  All the lights were on, the computer was getting power, but none of the electronics were working.  Listening in the hallway confirmed that this problem was not localized in my room.

Five minutes before the first grade class.  Five minutes to make a new plan.  Five minutes.  I look at the cheat sheet of tracks I had made myself for the game and decided it was all up to me and my singing for the next half hour.  I ushered the kids into their seats and waisted as much time as I could getting them into to teams, having them pick a team name and explaining the rules.  Then I proceded to hum, sing, and whistle parts of the songs for them to guess the titles.  It wasn't pretty, but it helped me make it to lunch!

At lunch I found out that some classrooms had computers, but no lights.  Other classes had lights but no computers like me.  The phones didn't work, the microwaves didn't work, the vending machine didn't work, though periodically it made a loud VVVVV noise in an attempt to try and disperse its contents.  The official word from the district electrician was that the school was running on half power, but the problem was not something within the school building.  The electric company could not find a problem on their computers but would be sending someone to investigate, eventually.

Thankfully I had some younger classes coming in the afternnon and thankfully I had subbed recently for a music teacher that used a lot of song games in his classroom. I taught the older kids musical murder (it's like the winking dectective murder game only you sing when you die) and the younger kids I taught them a song game that the kids use vocal dynamics to find a hidden object.  The power returned somewhere in my second to last class (still without the projector display) but by then I was on a role with my first grade teaching.  I'm seriously excited next week is Spring Break.  I don't think the school district could handle me going to any more schools and messing things up right now.

2 comments:

  1. Ack! Good thing you had your amazing improv skills to pull from! That sounds like a totally insane day. Glad you made it out alive! :D

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  2. It was! I just did some of the games I remembered from the last time I subbed. Seriously glad I had to teach the games and they were really little so I had to go over things a lot.

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