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When my mother-in-law looks at my two little guys and sees the pure joy in their faces, the almost giddiness they display for no apparent reason, she says, "Happiness Is!" As I made the decision to start a blog, I asked my son what I should journal about? His short to-the-point answer was "Happiness." When he said that I immediately remembered this phrase from my mother-in-law, hence the title for my blog. Life is so crazy and it is passing me by extremely fast. So, with some inspiration from my little sister, I'm on a quest to record these moments of happiness and joy. Wish me luck!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Back in the Land of the Living?

I'm trying to get back to my life anyway...

I finished my Level II Kodaly class at WSU last Friday, and I'm just now beginning to recover.  I knew from last summer that I better do some pre-homework, which I did.  Kip knew that he would need to run the household for awhile and chauffeur the kids, which he did.  But two weeks of intense study and never ending homework is enough to put us all in a bit of shock.  Aidan was super helpful, but Owen was in a bit of Mommy withdrawal mode much of the time. He is such a happy kid, it didn't take much to distract him from the craziness and make him laugh.
Here is an organized version of some of the books I used for my courses. This is on Tuesday after I finished and I finally had enough energy to organize everything and put it away!  You can see that the amount of books I have collected is quite extensive.  The amazing part is, I don't have a need for my school music textbooks anymore because I have such a great song collection.  And, in my song collection there are games and teaching ideas galore!

It was quite a whirlwind two weeks but I survived it. I knew how difficult it would be, but after last year I was hooked.  For the past 16 years I've taught the exact same music concepts, but using the tools I have learned to use in my methodology classes, and putting the concepts in such a specific order has really changed my life.  My school kids have responded amazingly well.  The best part is that it has brought back a love for teaching that I felt I had lost.

So, here I am, trying to recover from the lack of sleep, excited for summer to really start, but ready to put even more great ideas to use in my classroom!

1 comment:

  1. Congrats!!! I tried not to bother you this year, especially after seeing how tough last year was on you! Looks like you were way more prepared, but I have to laugh at the delirious stage you seemed to have gotten to at the very end.... the famous play on FB instead of doing homework!! Enjoy your summer now!!! See you soon!

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