Ah, Middle School

As my profile says, I am a middle school teacher. A middle school music teacher, to be exact. I have six classes - one orchestra in each grade (six, seven, and eight), and three general music classes. I LOVE teaching orchestra. If I never taught general music again, that would be just grand, in my opinion.
So here's a little about each of these.
Orchestra 6 is beginning level, and have only played their instruments since September. They are sweet and hardworking, but quite chatty. On the upside, they're still in the "I want to make my teacher happy" mode from elementary school, so they're easy to rein in. They're doing very well for how long they've been playing, and work very hard.
Orchestra 7 has played instruments for about a year and a half at this point, and this particular class is struggling right now. We have a lot of special needs - special ed, ESL, socially challenged, etc. - in this class, and it's hurting them. They also don't practice much to make up for being especially challenged, so they're having a rather hard time. One of the cello players is getting kicked out for HORRIBLE behavior, so we'll be down to two cellos next year with that class. Bummer.
Orchestra 8 is the TALKERS class. My biggest challenge with that class is getting them to SHUT UP. My viola section in particular is really difficult. Turds. They're quite talented, and about half of them actually practice at all. They're an interesting group. I have some really serious musicians in that group - kids who will play as amateurs for probably their whole lives, and two or three that love it enough to do it for a living. They're really into it. Then we have three or four that don't care at all...so it balances out:)
General music is more or less awful. The kids don't care at all because it's an elective, plus it's music, and how hard can it really be, right? And they WILL NOT stop talking. So we do a lot of writing sentences, listening to music in silence, and writing essays on the value of listening to your teacher. Grr. We're studying rock music in that class right now, which I don't really like, but they love it, and it's a way to get them interested in music, so I'll deal. We've already done classical and jazz, so we're doing well. Next comes gospel and contemporary Christian music, something I'm particularly excited about. Aretha, anybody?
So while I really can't stand teaching general music, it's been a good experience and I've learned a lot from it. I do know that I can do it now, though. And that's a good thing to know.

So there's a little about my job life:)

Leah