Everyone Hold Your Breath!!!

Only two days until my journey begins anew as a high school choir director! As I was putting together my choir handbook (borrowed liberally from three other schools in the area), I began to reminisce about Secondary Music Methods (yes, 11 or 12 years ago now). We had to put together a one page behavior contract. I'm pretty sure I remember being told that one page was all you need to have - and any more than that is overkill. Fourteen pages later, I'm done with my choir handbook. Apparently, inflation crosses over to behavior contracts, and not just money.

Bowie High School is big. Now, this wouldn't be a big problem, except that it's big and poorly organized. At least, that's the initial impression. Sure, the layout SEEMS to make sense: even halls on the bottom level and odd numbered halls on the top. But in reality? MOST. CONFUSING. SCHOOL. LAYOUT. EVER. Hopefully, I won't have to know all of it to teach my classes. I did find out that some of the teachers didn't know who the last choir director was. So my goal is to be known (in a good way) so that they THINK about the choral program at BHS. I'm sure they think about football, volleyball, and baseball. I'm relatively certain that they think about band and orchestra. They at least know that the drama department exists. But I don't think that the teachers think about choir. We gots to change that!

My lovely wife had an accident this week. Not to worry, Naunie is fine, as is the other girl involved in the accident. However, her front fender is now taking up residence in her back seat while we search for a new (re: used an inexpensive) car for her to drive. I'm working on convincing her that the '88 and '85 Oldmobile's are good deals. Not sure how well that's going to go...

We're in Omaha

Howdy all! I should have written last week, since it was my one week off before school starts, but...well, I didn't. Sue me.

The National Worship Leader Conference was great! It was a wonderful time of refreshing and renewal, and I got lots of great ideas for leading. Riverbend Church is a gorgeous complex, and the worship center was literally jaw-dropping.

Naunie and I made it into Omaha Monday night. Right now, she is playing with Addyson, Aiden (some relation by marriage) is playing a matching game, and Collin (the brother of the some relation by marriage) is DETERMINED that he does not have a milk mustache. However, we disagree, and have fixed the problem.

Okay, that's all I got for now. TTFN!

Jermaine