Time flies...

Hello everyone-

We are at the end of another week here, and time is going by so quickly. I just realized we only have four weekends left here, which hardly seems like enough time. There are so many more places I would like to see in Spain, but our time restriction limits us.

I came up with a set list for the choir this week for our mini ¨tour¨that will happen a couple of days before I leave. Our songs are: Sleigh Ride, Carol of the Bells, Feliz Navidad, A La Nanita Nana, Santa Baby, Baby It´s Cold Outside, Silent Night, and the 12 Days of Christmas. Since this is an international school and so many different religions are represented, when creating the set list I was asked to stray away from religious songs, however, Kerry said to make sure to include Silent Night because they do it every year. When we perform, we will be in some shopping malls around here, and collecting money for charity. On all of the songs except Carol of the Bells (which is acapella) and Silent Night (where I will accompany the choir with guitar), they will use backing (karaoke) tracks for accompaniment. While from a musical standpoint this is less than ideal, we do not have a way of transporting a piano while we perform these mini concerts, so this is the next best thing. Also, the choir only rehearses once a week, and so I had to pick some songs that would be easy to learn. We are adding some extra lunch time rehearsals once a week, but it is still not much rehearsal time.

On Wednesday I gave a pre-test to my M4 students (who have just chosen music as their arts concentration) to assess what they know about music theory. The scores ranged from getting 1 right to getting 17 right. (out of 20) Most scores averaged less than 10. After we go through our music theory unit, I will give them the same test to see how much they improved. This is for my impact on student learning project that I have to complete, so hopefully there will be a great deal of improvement. (especially for those who scored ones or twos!)

Last night Kate and I went over to Kerry´s for dinner and stayed the night. (He lives in the opposite direction of us, so it didn´t make sense for him to have to drive us an hour all the way back when we´re all going to school in the morning anyway.) He lives with his wife, Harriet, his two kids, Louis and Jago, and a third on the way! They also run a dog kennel and have a cat. Needless to say, they have a busy household. He lives west of the school, near Algeciras in the countryside. He is by the a narrow part of the Strait of Gibraltar, which is only 12 km from Africa! (about 7 miles) We walked up the hill near his house and watched the sunset over three countries- Gibraltar, Spain, and Morocco. I took some pictures, but I´m at school now, so I don´t have my camera cable. I might post them later this evening. Dinner was also delcious, and Kate and I were happy to have a home cooked meal.

I´m not quite sure what the weekend holds, but I´m hoping to do some exploring, even if it´s just a short journey! That´s all from me for now.

-Emily