dmmetler

I’ve been a music teacher for 30+ years, the first 10 in a school which had ALWAYS had a Christmas concert. When I came in and insisted that we needed to do a winter show, it was like I’d shot Santa. It was miserable. I think most of the parents decided I was Jewish because they couldn’t understand why I’d object. My city has a Christmas tree lighting and a Christmas parade…despite the fact that we have a mosque and a Moslem day school. I now do a fall concert before Thanksgiving and explain that “It avoid conflicts during the busy holiday season”-and the parents love it. So do I. So maybe Abbott’s music teacher just chooses NOT to do a winter show? We know there was one since we saw her teaching Janine’s class recorder.

I use a parachute in my preschool music classes and have had to bring it out for the older kids in the after school program because they get so excited when they see it-one sadly told me that you stop getting to play parachute after 3rd grade.

I snorted at the "Do Skibdi toilet next" because that is SUCH a big thing for my students. (My intern commented one day that "That's the fourth kid who Skibidi'd me today!) I also loved the kids NOT wanting to Bob for apples. I mean, these are kids who went through school shut downs due to COVID. They're going to be germ-aware. And the "Why aren't you dinosaurs"....

I taught in a similar school to Abbott in Memphis for 8 years and could have counted the number of not-Black students on the fingers of one hand-we had one Latino family.

One of my teen music students told me I need to watch this. I'm really enjoying it-I love music theater :)

My only problem with bringing in the CC students is that library science isn't a degree offered at 2 year schools. Essentially, they'll be getting an untrained volunteer, when the pilot was with someone who obviously knew she was doing. It'll be great experience for the college students, but it's not going to be the same as having a trained librarian. I did like that the district person went to the CC first. A LOT of students start at the CC for financial reasons, and especially if your plan is to teach, it's a good idea to get through college without or with minimal debt-and he's ended up in the same position Janine has with her Penn education.

In one of the schools I worked at, we had a social studies lab (artifacts, costumes, videos,photo sets etc) and a science lab. Both had, at one point, had a full time teacher who managed them. Both were locked and teachers sometimes would sneak in and borrow stuff, but otherwise, they weren't used due to budget cuts. I can easily see the same happening with libraries in urban schools.

Cursive first is a thing-i want to say that traditional Montessori is cursive first. Motor skills wise, it's easier in many ways than print, and is less prone to reversals. The reason for doing print first is to make learning to read easier so you don't have as many forms of each letter at once. (There are already multiple ones just in printed text that kids will encounter while learning to read).

I love the CGI on Cerberus. And yeah, he's just a good boy who wants to play and be loved.

They're well set up for a UNIT spin-off like Torchwood, with Kate, Shirley, Mel, Donna, and very light doctor content. Which I would watch the heck out of.

Recprders can be made of plastic. Those were recorders (Probably YRS-20). Tonettes are rounder, and flutophones have a more flared bell. I've spent a LOT of time teaching recorder.... https://www.westmusic.com/recorders/ Specialist teachers (music, art, etc)are more common in school systems which have unions. It's not because of changes in teacher training-I've taught the required music Ed class for eled majors. It's because the contract calls for X minutes of paid planning time, and the kids need to be somewhere-so, let's let someone else handle those pesky standards. . As a music specialist, I've been told by students that "this is my break"-bwcauae their classroom teachers have told them "30 minutes until break" or whatever. I loved that they showed that the teacher goes room to room-that's reality for music teachers in schools like Abbott, and usually it limits you to recorder, voice, and whatever you can stick in a tote bag.

The last one I went to was 3 days in an Embassy Suites conference center. :) I remember one PD where the day before a break, the district brought in a guest presenter for all the elementary music teachers in the district. It was awesome! Not only did we get to hang out with other folks who do the same thing we do,but we got out of the party zone of overstimulated kids for the day. (I think my principal replaced me with a teacher's aide and a VCR...)

I obviously went to the wrong conferences.... The school I used to teach at is now a charter, and Melissa's sister is exactly right. Here, when a charter comes in, the employees stay with the district and are moved into vacancies, and if you want to stay in the building you've been in for years and teach the same kids, you have to apply. There were teachers who had taught those kids' parents who got kicked out.

Also, oil based styling products tend to smother them. One benefit of teaching in schools like Abbott-lice were a non-issue. But when I started teaching at the University lab school....I cut my stick straight white girl hair real quick!

In my first year of teaching in a school much like Abbott, I was ready to step between two kids who were squaring off to break it uo when one of my 6th graders PICKED me up and said "Don't do it, Ms M-they like to kill you!!". Another went to get the campus security officer, who agreed with him after the fact-that those two kids, when they got into it, would have taken me down without even noticing who I was. I was regularly asked for my hall pass as a student teacher in a middle school.