The wacky world of middle school music

So one week of classes is down and in many ways it was both the longest and shortest week of classes that I’ve yet had this year. From the perspective of sheer course load, the days were very long. Starting at 7:30 and ending on average around 4:30 or so, I’m starting to understand just how superhuman music teachers really need to be. Sometimes it seems like there isn’t even time to eat lunch or breathe through the course of events during the day.

Despite the perpetual busyness factor, I can really see why music teachers enjoy their jobs. All of their hard work is directly displayed in the skills and attitudes of the students in their classes. I didn’t realize it before this week, but middle school students really are a unique and special age of students to teach. They don’t quite fit into the little kid category of the elementary students, but at the same time haven’t quite reached that high school level of independence yet. They talk a mile-a-minute, are super excited about everything and always seem to wear their hearts on their sleeve.

This week I got the privilege of filling in as a chaperone on choir retreat up island with 53 mostly middle school students. Beyond being extremely tired and exhausted, I found it to be a really fun and interesting experience. I don’t think I’d quite realized how different grade 6’s, 7’s and 8’s really are, until I went on the trip. On the one hand you have the fun loving grade 6’s who are a bit smaller than then the rest and always seems to be full of energy, bouncing off the walls at all hours of the day. On a different note, you’ve got the moody and gossipy grade 8’s who seem to be more concerned about their soap opera lives of who “likes” who, then music or anything else. Overall though, this week has a been a great albeit eye opening experience for me, and I look forward to seeing what next week has in store.