Today was the first day back to co-op, as well as the first day back to teaching Road to Chorus. The last few weeks I've been thinking, brainstorming, scribbling notes and scribbling them out, searching out songs, and trying to get organized despite the butterflies that seem to live in my stomach and wake up whenever I'm thinking about or doing something for the class. Yesterday mom printed out almost 200 copies of music sheet exercises for me, I got my song list settled, and was ready to go. Except, of course, that 30 min before my first class started I lost my appetite and was grateful not to lose my lunch.
Things went relatively well. PROS -When I walked into the classroom, I was greeting with big smiles and large hugs by two 6-year-old boys. That was a wonderful way to start. Despite some over excitedness and a little bit of ADHD moments from the little ones, they were happy to be there, learn the songs, and hang out with me and the class. THINGS TO IMPROVE - have more short fun activities to keep up with the kids' ever shortening attention span.
The older kids class was a little less nerve-racking because I had gotten a chance to warm up. After warmups, and going over the class schedule and songs, we did some intonation exercises and sang the beginnings of some songs, including the latin Dona Nobis Pacem and the challenging but upbeat Irish song Rocky Road to Dublin, complete with seven verses, thank you very much. I complete challenge. But I know the nervousness, stress, hours of singing, and brainstorming in the middle of the night, will pay off in a big way when the kids walk out on stage and sing to their hearts content.
This will be quite a year. I can't wait:)