I really struggled to keep this blog up and running during this past school year. To be honest, I had a feeling that I would be embarking on a new teaching adventure as early as September of our last school year. It felt weird to talk about teaching and my choir program while knowing that I would probably be leaving it all behind–which I am.

Don’t get me wrong, I did love my school! I did love what I taught and I especially loved my students. The past two years I taught six bells of six through eighth grade choir and this past year I was able to include two bells of auditioned show choir. It was very hard to leave my students at the end of the year, but they are being left in capable hands which makes me feel infinitely better! On top of my full-time job, I was spending my afternoons at the high school with their musical or competitive show choir… oh AND I run the children’s ministry music program at a church (we present three musicals a year, Vacation Bible School, weekend choir classes) AND coach over forty women (a number that grows on a daily basis) on their health and fitness goals online. Needless to say, all of that left me little to no time for this blog. I did, however, pick up vlogging this year. I plan on posting many more videos as I embark on my new career path.

This year will be completely different for me. I will start work a little later than I’m used to and end it earlier than I’m used to (that’s right–shorter work days in my new district!). I will be paid more than I’m used to and expected to do less work than I’m used to (I still am having trouble believing that one). No longer will I be after school until 8pm every night, BUT I am hoping to create an after-school choir and after-school ukulele ensemble! I am also basically starting over, curriculum wise. I’m going from preparing children for middle school concerts all year to teaching everything under the sun for seven grade levels and SEVEN HUNDRED students. Yupp. Seven hundred. That’s a lot of names!

The new school I am teaching at is a pre school to sixth grade Title 1 building, with an 87% African American population, and a 99.5% free and reduced lunch rate. My old middle school was Title 1, with 40% of students being African American, and 65% of students on free and reduced lunch.

This is a welcomed change for me, as I have always had a passion for urban music education. I just ordered this book, which has amazing reviews, off of Amazon. It is called For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’all Too and it was written by Christopher Emdin who is an African American professor at Columbia University. I’ll be sure to give you my personal opinion on it when I’m finished, but I am very excited to read it once I finish Move Your Bus by Ron Clark! Mr. Emdin has a TedTalk on reality pedagogy also, but I’m waiting to watch it until after I read his book!

Ultimately, I am very excited to start this school year. I will be documenting everything from resources, to behavior management, to funny stories, to how in the heck do you learn 700 names by blogging and vlogging. I hope you will continue following me on my teaching journey and if you’re new to my page, welcome! I hope you will stick with me, because I promise I am interesting if I am nothing else!