Cosas interesantes

Hola! Estoy hablando en Espanol mas y mas cada dia. (I am talking in Spanish more and more every day.) I'm the one in the group with the strongest Spanish speaking skills, so I end up communicating with people the most often when we are getting around town. However, some of the other girls do know Spanish and speak a bit.

The concert is tomorrow and there will be several acts performing. Some students came today and asked to be put on the set list, but they were turned away. I will be singing "Still Hurting" from the Last Five Years at the concert tomorrow night, and Kerry will be faking the piano accompaniment. It's the song in my most recent repertoire that goes along most with the style of most of the singing being done at the concert, so I thought it would be the most appropriate. The concert will probably go at least two hours, as there are about 25 acts performing.

I have done a lot of private voice lesson work with students in the last couple of days to prepare them for the concert. The students have responded well to my suggestions and hopefully will carry them through in performance. Today I also taught for half a lesson with M2 students on rhythm. (Kerry asked me to do that about 10 minutes before the lesson- so no lesson plan allowed!) They are learning to create a rhythmic piece (a la Stomp or Blue Man Group) and so I went over basic rhythms with them as well as helping them learn to perform their own rhythms that they wrote. Fun fact for musicians: here, quarter notes are "crotchets", eighth notes are "quavers" and sixteenth notes are "semi-quavers." It confused me at first when Kerry referred to them, but I understand now. :-)

I also learned how to help run lights and sound in the theatre today, as the M1's that Kerry has for registry (home room) had to present to their parents how Middle Years are different than primary. Their performance included a drum circle, a choral poem reading, and a performance of the song they created about their trip to Casares, a village not too far from the school.

I added more pictures to my picture website (see previous entry for address), including one of my room, student and cooperating teachers, and a picture of my classroom.

That's all from me for now. Have a good night!

-Emily