It's All About the Control Top.

I've been reading a blog for new teachers. One of the suggestions given was to emphasize the procedures and rules expected in the classroom. I had wanted to do something like that at the beginning of school, but just never sat down and did it. After dealing with the craziness in my classrooms over the last few weeks, I sat myself down and wrote out, in detail, what I expected from anyone coming into my class. Boy did it work! I've had some of the best classes the last few days. The students were required to take the "contract" home and have a parent or guardian sign it and then return it to me. I've even had a couple of parents call me in regards to the contract (it was a good question and not a complaint). Overall, I've learned my lesson and will send these home on the very first day next year!

In other news, I started working on Christmas music. And one of the songs we are doing with the high school is "Silent Night." I've always loved this song. It has special significance to me. My great-grandmother used to sing it, in German, on Christmas Eve. Because of that, I wanted to incorporate a little of my tradition into my Christmas program. One of my students is a foreign exchange student from Germany, so I'm having her teach me and the class to correct pronunciation of the German for the song. It's not that hard and we are learning it by rote. Needless to say, I've had several students complaining over the fact that we are speaking German. One student even came up to me after class yesterday and said that she was uncomfortable singing in German- not because it's difficult for her, but because she believes what her brother says: "We are Americans, we should speak America. And the song is in English, not German." Seriously, that's what she said. I told her we were experiencing a new culture, learning how one of our classmates deals with language barriers everyday, and exploring new ideas of music. Not to mention the song was originally written in German, by a Autstrian monk, music composed by a Austrian guitarist, and what language do they speak in Austria? German. Need I go on? She sang the song today... in German. I love being a teacher!