Teachers

I know Anthony just posted a blog a few days ago, but I have been wanting to post something and am finally finding the time.  

This summer I have gained a new appreciation for teachers.  When I say teachers I mean just about any kind - but especially the kind that get up in front of a classroom and entertain kids for hours on end.

I have been teaching reading classes this summer.  When I tell people that they frequently assume that I studied education or literature.  Nope, the degree was in international studies with an emphasis in global health.  I will be teaching 2 sessions of 5 weeks each.  I am halfway through my fourth week of my first session.  Each week (in this session) I have 10 classes of 8 different levels (pre-kindergarten through adult).  The program is interesting.  I did about 3 weeks of training on how to work with people of different age groups to effectively teach them and studying the theories and methods I would be teaching as well as reviewing the lesson plans I would be teaching.  After the three weeks, I was assigned classes and that was that.

In so many ways I am spoiled, because my supplies are provided for me, the program is through a private company, which means it is a little expensive and the parents are invested in their children doing well, and I do not have to figure out what I will be teaching.  I re-read and do a little preparation the night before I teach and Voila! that is it.  During class I listen to the children read, or for the older classes, check out their reading speeds and have a short conversation about how things are going.  I also teach different reading or studying skills depending on the level, but in every class there is time for good solid reading practice with the skills I am teaching.  After class I enter the information online I gathered in class about the students' reading  online and maybe make a few phone calls to the parents.

In a lot of ways, I feel like what I do is cheating.  I watched my mom spend hours upon end preparing lesson plans in the first couple years of teaching.  She had many meetings with other teachers and parents and administration throughout each month.  She has to struggle with children who parents don't care about their child's education.  She works in a public school, so unfortunately, that means that she does not always have the supplies she needs either.  If she has a difficult class she gets to figure out what to do differently for the very next day, five days a week for an entire nine months.  I know that when I have a tough class there is a week before I have to deal with those students again, and that I only have to see the students for a total of 5 times.  Besides all that, Kids are tough to teach. They want to be entertained.  I find that the second I am doing something that is not entertaining I start to lose kids attention... and for the most part I have less than 15 kids in my classes... I can't imagine trying to keep focus with twice as many students.

In any case, I arrive home at the end of the day exhausted, and I only teach between three and a half and six hours in a day... with 45 minutes in between classes.  I have no idea how teachers do it 5 days a week, 9 months a year, year after year.

From Anthony

I have my own blog on Myspace.  It most often tends to be a journal of ideas with little emphasis on events in my life.  This blog seems dedicated to telling people what is going on in our lives, so here it is.

This summer with Ohio Light Opera (OLO) has been a real joy so far.  For those of you who don't know how this company works, here is a brief explanation.  The company produces 7 or 8 operettas, light operas, or musicals a summer.  Some of the shows are very familiar (such as Oklahoma! and The Mikado this summer) and some of them are very obscure.  More on that later.  The shows run in repertory, which means we never do the same show 2 days in a row.   The cast members, orchestra and crew all come from different parts of the country and are all pursuing careers in the arts.  We are live in college housing on the campus of the school that operates the company.  Desiree and I live in a very large house with 6 other cast members.  We both get along with all of them very, very well.  It is not unusual for all of us to share a big meal together or to sit in the living room and talk until the wee hours of the morning.  

This is the company's 30th season and my 3rd with them.  My first summer I did almost exclusively chorus roles, which did not please me very much.  Last year I had a few more things to do and this year I am playing fun and interesting roles in 5 shows and assistant-directing one other.  It is great fun.  Today we opened a show entitled The Cabaret Girl.   This performance was a land-mark in numerous ways.  Most importantly, this was the U.S. premiere of the work.  It opened in London in 1927 and has never made it across the ocean.  This show is also the 100th title produced by OLO.  It was composed by the 40th composer whose works have played at OLO.  One of the songs my character sings is not included in the orchestrations of the show, which makes most of us believe that it was not included in the original production.  If that is true, that means that I sang a song today that has never been performed before.  As I sit and placidly type this I want to stand up and shout "Yeah, baby!  That rocks!"  I feel so lucky to be having such a great experience this summer.  Audiences have been very receptive to me so far and I am having a great time.

Of course the great draw-back is that the "summer of Desiree and I living together" has turned into the "summer of me staying in Wooster OH, and Desiree going to trainings in Chicago, flying to a funeral in Utah, and working 4 days a week in Columbus."  Oh well.  We still have 3 days a week together which is WAY better than nothing at all.

The moral of the story:  moving away from our comfy little womb in Utah was a scary thing.  But I feel very blessed to be having a great time pursuing my crazy career in a pleasant place with nice people.

The last month of our life

If you are reading this, chances are you know Anthony and me.  We both graduated from the University of Utah a month ago and hit the road.  We are now in Wooster, OH experiencing the first heatwave of summer.  The last month, in many ways, has been almost more intense than the last month of school.  Or maybe my memory is failing me, I think I will never know.  

A brief synopsis of what has happened since April 30th:

• Pack our bags and give a lot of our stuff away and move out of our favorite place to live and stay with my fabulous sister, Anneke and her husband Billy.
  
• Attend graduation.
  
• Continue to get rid of stuff (A Toyota Corolla is not that big).
  
• See as many people as possible and say farewell.
  
• Re-pack the car with the things we did not get rid of.
  
• Drive across the oh-so-interesting Midwest and stay with friends on the way.  One highlight was meeting new friends that generously opened their home to us and Anthony's audition for Chicago Lyric Opera.  We probably won't have any official word from them until the fall.
  
• Arrive in Wooster, unpack and start work.  Anthony is singing some cool stuff this summer with Ohio Light Opera (OLO) and I am teaching reading skills to people pre-K - Adult.
  
• Training for me just ended yesterday (I had to pack another suitcase to go to Chicago to finish my training) and I begin teaching tomorrow.  
• Anthony is in the middle of the rehearsal process and the shows begin opening next weekend.  One cool thing about that is OLO's 30th Anniversary season and Anthony is starring in the 100th show that the company is adding to its repertoire. 

That is the last month in a nutshell with one exception.

  

Yesterday morning I got a call from my parents letting me know that my grandmother just finished the last month of her life the night before.  She died.  I thought I was ready for it.  She has been sick and in pain and unable to sleep for so long and just took a turn for the worse about a week and a half ago.  I thought I would be able to take it in stride and be happy for her that she is in a better place with her daughter, my beloved Aunt Annette and her mother, Great Grandma Beesley.  I am glad for her, but I am so sad.  I feel like I am living in slow motion.  I've lost grandparents before, so it is not a new experience, but it feels differently this time and I am not sure why.  I think it helps to share the experience with people.  I am going to be fortunate enough to be able to go back to Salt Lake for the funeral and I think it will help to be surrounded with people that all knew and loved Grandma Steenblik.  I don't know what Grandma was able to do with the last month, but I know that she loved a lot of people and continued to be thoughtful and giving. 

As I have been sitting here for the last couple of days pondering life the only real conclusion I can come to is that loving other people - and knowing how to show it has got to be about the most important thing in this world.  Thank you Grandma Steenblik... and all the grandmas out there that love us unconditionally and do the little things that let us know.