ZUMBA

Since I wasn't in the mood to really update about how my first day of classes went yesterday, I'll update about it today.

I have 8:30am/8:00am classes again this semester. And I will have them for the next two semesters as well. Remind me why I picked Music Ed? 

Anyways, TR I have Aural Skills II, then Spanish Cont., then Teaching Techniques.

I'm nervous about Aural Skills because even though the grading scale is now 90-100 is an "A" (as opposed to last semester when 93-100 was an "A"), it's going to get a lot harder. And the only reason I made an A last semester was because I got two extra credit points on my final grade because I didn't miss any class. We'll see how that goes. I'll just have to practice a lot? I'm really bad at Sight Singing and Dictation. Ugh.

Spanish will be okay. My teacher's name is Lourdes Yen. Confused about her ethnicity? Her first name is Spanish because she was born somewhere in Latin America and lived there her whole life. Her last name is Taiwanese because she's Taiwanese. So she has the (pardon my stereotyping) high pitched, nasal-y voice of asian women. And her accent when she tries to speak english is so strange. It's hard to understand her spanish AND her english. But I think it's just something I have to get accustomed to. I actually enjoy spanish though. I wish I could be fluent in it, but after this semester, I have no more room to take more classes since it's a 5 hour course.

Teaching Techniques is going to be a blast. I love being in Music Ed because the same group of people are in the same classes semester to semester. Teaching Tech. is the same group of kids as my Intro to Music Ed class. So we already have our relationships formed and know each other well enough to goof around. Example: We had to go around the circle and say our name, what we play, and what we think our strongest teacher feature is. When it got to me, I said "I'm Taylor, I play bassoon, and I think my strongest point is my flexibility..." and before I could continue on with my sentence, everybody started laughing because that could be taken the wrong way. And I'm pretty sure my face got red. But I'm not worried about it because we're a great group of kids. It's going to be a great class. Oh, and what I meant by flexibility is my ability to teach in different styles and alter the methods I use to teach kids that learn differently. I eventually got that out after the giggles died down.

Now I'll update you about my classes today. (But first, I want to let you know that having the first day of classes on a Tuesday really is throwing me off. AND it doesn't help that last semester, Aural Skills was MWF, and now it's TR. And last semester Theory was TR and now it's MWF.) MWF I have Theory, Spanish, and Music in Cultures back to back to back with no break. Gross. Then, depending on which band I make, I'll either go straight Wind Ensemble, or have a two hour break and go to Symphony Band.  And W will be the worst because I'll have my piano lesson AND bassoon studio.

Theory: I like last semester's professor a lot better. But I guess I'm not really giving this new one a chance. But I'm excited about learning more theory. I really enjoyed that class, and I did really well. The only thing that makes me nervous is that we have a quiz EVERY DAY. Yikes. 

Spanish: See a few paragraphs above this.

Music in Cultures: Oh. My. Gosh. I don't even know where to start. I THINK this class is about music of the native americans/indigenous people all over the world. But I can't be sure because the teacher is on Speed or something. She's somewhat old, talks really fast, and goes off on random tangents about everything. She'll stop mid-sentence and be like "Oh and don't even get me started on blah blah blah" and talks about that forever until something else comes up. It's just really hard to follow her. But I've heard the class is really easy so hopefully I'll be okay.

I'm also going to sign up for some Group Fitness Classes. This week, the classes are free. So I went to the "easy" Zumba class after my band auditions (I was really nervous about the auditions, but it ended up being really relaxed. And I think I did really well considering I didn't get to practice much since I had my teeth extracted). I got there about ten minutes late because the auditions were running late, so I went to the back with Ashley (future roommate), her sister Sarah, and her hallmate Catherine (or is it with a "K"? I can't remember). Amy (my current roommate) and her BFF Alanna were in the front. Basically, I LOVE ZUMBA. I felt really awkward because my coordination has drastically gotten worse since I quit dance seven years ago. But it was a lot of fun. It really got my heart pumping. I'm so out of shape. I'm hoping this will help me get in shape. So I'm going to take a Zumba class Monday nights, and Amy and I are going to take a Beginning Yoga class Wednesday nights. I'm so excited!

So, that's what school looks like for me. I haven't decided what I think of it, yet.