Middle School...Dun, dun, dun, dun.

Middle School orchestra has been on my sub calendar for a couple of weeks. Unlike the days where I find out my job at 8:00 that morning, I had first day of school dreams all during the night before. This would be a con.  I brushed up on my music; "Rebecca, what's that little sign on the first page?" "It's for bowing. It means down."  "What note do they tune to?" "A"   More knowledge is a pro. And then I went to the place full of 12-14 yr.-olds with the verdict still out as to whether or not I would survive.

What students don't know is that they choose how nice their sub is. I'm a fun person that loves to say yes, but by the end of the day that person was nowhere to be seen. "No. I'm not letting anyone leave class to get water." "No cell phones." "No one lying on the floor. Sit in a seat." "No talking." "No breathing." "No blinking." Okay, I didn't say those last two, but no one would have been surprised if I had.

The kids started out entertaining me with their funny jokes, but by the end of the second day I just wanted them to shut their precious little mouths. It would have been better for everyone if they had gotten to play their instruments. Instead we were assigned a rhythm worksheet the first day, which was actually a solid learning activity for the 6th and 7th graders but busy work for the 8th graders, and watched a video the second day. Unfortunately, many had already seen it and preferred talking loudly to their friends.  We also had many people willing to comment often during the movie. The sad karma is that I deserved this day.  I was the student that always talked loudly to her friends. The teachers were interrupting ME. And  I constantly made smart comments during movies. (I may or may not have out-grown this.) And the teachers who didn't understand this as a normal part of life were just mean. So today I was mean.

Another thing I had not considered (I'm a little slow) is that when a teacher shows a movie to a class, that means he watches it up to 6 times in one day.  That is a lot of times. Granted, I believe in the value of repetition in learning, and the funny parts got a little funnier, but bless the teachers' hearts for sitting through that. Good thing there's plenty of policing to do to keep things exciting. Speaking of exciting, we never had time to see the end, and the video wouldn't let me fast forward, so I'm dying to find out how Beethoven's 9th symphony debut turned out.

But here are the great parts. Some girls were talking about a boy who had gotten into trouble. One girl said, "His parents don't care about him." The other said, "No they don't. He still has his phone." I was impressed with this mature observation and the expectation that a parent who cared would take away privileges . A student gave me a valentine cupcake. A girl from church stopped in to say "Hi" when she saw me from the hall. One boy got his cello out and started practicing beautifully when he finished his worksheet. A lot of students did not talk loudly or make smart comments during the movie. And the buffalo wings from the cafeteria were surprisingly delicious.