Fall 2012: A Semester In Review

The Fall semester is usually a pretty crazy one for high school teachers, what with the football season, Homecoming, tons of testing, yearbook photo days, big focus-draining holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, band competition season, theatre competition season, All-State auditions and district events for NAfME groups...yeah.  I wouldn't be surprised if, taking out the days you miss both in holiday form and in something-crazy-is-happening-so-no-one's-paying-attention form, the Fall semester is something like 1/4 shorter than Spring.  Lots of life jammed into roughly 4.5 months!

Awesome Things that Happened in Fall 2012

• I met lots of great new students, some of whom were new baby freshmen and some of whom I adopted from band and theatre.
• The second annual Combined Fall Concert with the middle school, in which I got to do my two favorite things: play and conduct!
• I made use of a rich pool of instrumental talent by having my kids play in concerts.
• I HAD MY FIRST FUNDRAISER!
• It actually made money!
• No big disasters happened!
• I discovered that part of the reason my kids are awesome is because their parents are awesome - parent volunteers made Coffeehouse the success it was.
• I WON THE "I INSPIRE GOLD" AWARD!
• The second annual Inspire was super fun and proved a perfect vehicle for getting to know the students so we could make more informed decisions with the other musicals!
• I had some kids go to "I Love A Piano" at Brenau, which was really fun and educational!
• I got to play Middle Treble Honor Chorus!
• I got to play the middle school's Winter Concert!  Every year, I get so excited hearing the progress, especially within the 8th grade, since those kids are coming to me soon!
• I GOT TO BE IN THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE!
• I took two Master's degree courses and, as of this writing, am making As in both!  (Check back with me in January, when the finals have been graded and grades posted...)
• I had 6 kids make All-State!
• I switched my kids to solfege and nobody died!
• Inside Joke Theatre
• "Recognize!" (taken from Scrubs)
• "Soiled it!" (taken from SpongeBob)
• "It's a joke."
• "It's a metaphor."
• "BOJANGLES"
• Football Eyes
• "Scooping is for ice cream parlors!" (K.B.)
• "Break hearts?  BREAK FACE!" (R.B.)
• "WHAT NOW????" (J.T.)
• Herp Derpington, Sir John Trollingham, and Derpina
• "Trololololololololooooooo!"
• "He's a matador."
• "We-EEEEEEEE!"

Now onward to Spring and LGPE, Footloose, ACP 2013, concert and finals season...bring it!