February 2012
22 posts
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Basic Instrument Repair for the Band Director
Handout from the OMEA 2012 Conference Session by Lindy Wunn
This will help you become acquainted with basic emergency repairs and more importantly, what to do and what not to do. These ideas an methods will help you through a concert or contest but will not be a PERMANENT solution. All repairs you perform should be referred to a professional repair technician. The products we will be informing...
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“Many are the strange chances of the world and help oft shall come from the hands...”
– J.R.R. Tolkien from The Silmarillion
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Exodus 5 tells the story of when Moses and Aaron speak to Pharaoh for the first time. In verses 22-23 we see a frustrated Moses complaining to God because nothing has happened the way it was supposed to. Moses held up his end of the bargain, so why didn’t God?
Since we know how the end of story goes, it’s easy to pass Moses’s protests off as whining. But Moses had no idea how...
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“I mean, computer science majors listen to weird music too, but at least we use...”
– cbodnar on the difference between engineers and computer scientists
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Seezit here is a friend from college who was kind enough to share her notes from a session at the OMEA convention in January, and I’d like to follow suit.
This session is a little hard to share since I don’t have video or audio, but it was the best one I went to, so I’ll try to explain as clearly as I can.
Musical Extensions of Children’s Literature (Grades 4 - 6)-David...
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“Most people think that communication has been clear and complete when what the...”
– David Lim from Spiritual Gifts
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The Soft X →
This is probably my favorite post on Stuff Christians Like by Jon Acuff. I feel like God has spoken this to me many times, and though it’s hard, it’s also comforting. (The title is a link.)
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For the last two months I’ve been having my students write short essay responses to questions based on their lessons. They turn the journals in, and I respond to the questions and hand the journals back to them to edit previous responses and add more. At the end of a unit I give a final grade for the journal. The purpose of this is to build writing skills and encourage critical thinking....
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Finish Year-Week 6
Finish SNAP application
Find another source of income: Got unemployment sorted out. Sending email tomorrow to get on the sub list.
Finish and stick to budget: Budget is made and being enforced.
Record an album: Talked with Christian. Trying to find time to play music together.
Read 52 books and review them: 12 books read and 8 reviewed! I’m on page 34 of 192 in The Other Walk and 377...
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“The people, however, soon found God’s unmediated presence too awful, too...”
– Richard J. Foster from A Celebration of Discipline
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I was chaperoning at the OMEA/All-State conference a few weekends ago. As I was waiting for the elevator at the hotel, a group of high school boys walked up and asked.
Boys: Hey, can you tell me where the girls' floor is?
Sharayah: No.
Boys: Why not?
Sharayah: You really think I'm going to tell you where the girls are sleeping?
Boys: Well, you're a girl, aren't you?
Sharayah: I'm also a grown up. Go to bed.
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“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
– Abraham Maslow
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In Luke 21:1-4 we find a story I’ve been hearing all my life, The Widow’s Offering, and it wasn’t until now that this story really disturbed me. I grew up in Sunday School hearing this story and being told that the right thing to do is, like the widow, give all I have to God.
But now as I read, I find that I have more questions than answers. What happened to the widow after...
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At the Oregon Music Educator's Conference I overheard one music teacher telling this story to another. A student had given a note to this teacher.
Teacher: Student, what does this say?
Student: 'You are my favorite teacher.'
Teacher: That's very nice. How do you spell 'favorite'?
Student: ...eff...fff...fff...F!...fay...ay...ay...A!...F-A...fayvr...fayvr...rrr...R!...F-A-R...fayvrit...fayvritt...ttt...T!...F-A-R-T!
Card: You are my fart teacher.
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“Prophets proclaimed a message of exhortation, edification, and comfort to the...”
– David Lim from Spiritual Gifts
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The Whole Dang Thing is one of the blogs I follow, and one recent post struck me as interesting. It was point 2 (verse 20) that caught my eye, and I wonder if I can relate it to the perceived lack of ‘blessing’ in my life. Ever since I was little I’ve been intrigued by the Levites because they were special.
What if my allotment and inheritance is God? Sometimes I’m...
January 2012
35 posts
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"I can start things because I'm a teacher."
Last year when I was taking a class at a small Bible college I kept a list of quotes from my Pentateuch teacher. This is another quote of his, and though it was meant to be sort of snarky, there’s a lot of truth to it.
One of the best sermon series I have heard was on “Gift Mixes” by Dr. Daniel Brown. Gift mixes is a term he uses to describe spiritual gifts/ministries, the...
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Music Monday—Franz Peter Schubert Edition
As I mentioned in this post, Franz Peter Schubert is my favorite composer. German leider has consistently been a favorite genre of classical music. What I love about Schubert is first the texts that he chooses to set to music. Poets include Goethe and Müller. And then the way he sets them are absolutely beautiful. German composers are...
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Finish Year-Week 4
Finish SNAP application
Find another source of income: Got unemployment sorted out. Still working on getting on the sub list.
Finish and stick to budget: (Same as last week) I have made a projected budget, and really need the other source of income to pay bills. In the meantime, I don’t spend money.
Record an album: Didn’t work on this goal this week.
Read 52 books and review them: 10...
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“Leland Hamsfeld broke his boat
just threw it ‘gainst the curb
he bent...”
– David Striepe from Miniature Ships
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I’ve written about the ideas of blessing and abundance before; they are things that I find challenging to understand because I don’t see them reflected in my life. I was reading in Luke 19 recently. Verses 11-26 tell the story of the ten servants. What caught my eye this time around were verses 24-26. Here we have the idea that God blesses those who handle their resources well....
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My students are working on a speech unit in English. One of the preparatory assignments had to do with language choice, using non-ambiguous adjectives and clear, succinct sentences. This assignment had them re-write several sentences that needed different word choice. The given sentence for one problem was “The person in the next room is weird.” My student re-wrote the sentence to...
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Finish Year-Week 3
Finish SNAP application
Find another source of income: Got unemployment sorted out. Still working on getting on the sub list.
Finish and stick to budget: (Same as last week) I have made a projected budget, and really need the other source of income to pay bills. In the meantime, I don’t spend money.
Record an album: Didn’t work on this goal this week.
Read 52 books and review them: 6...
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“[Dad] really likes books; he loves to talk to them.”
– My dad’s baby book
So that’s where I get it…
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“I wish the weather would figure out that this kind of precipitation is so...”
– One of my clarinet students when it was announced that it was snowing outside
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“Just remember: if there’s chaos today, tomorrow there will be...”
– -My Pentateuch teacher
He reminds me a lot of Clarence from It’s A Wonderful Life
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“Are you available to God anytime? Can he mess up your plans without you...”
– Rick Warren from The Purpose Driven Life
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Finish Year-Week 2
Finish SNAP application: Done! Will pick up card Tuesday.
Find another source of income: Called unemployment several times, and the line was busy each time. Will keep trying. Talked to band director friend about sub list, and we will schedule a meeting with his administrator this week to get me on the list.
Finish and stick to budget: (Same as last week) I have made a projected budget,...
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One of my clarinet students captured perfectly what we do as teachers. He was in a band that a friend of mine student taught with. My friend did a great job student teaching. Part of growing as a teacher is trying new methods to learn what works and what doesn’t. Here’s how my student described it: ”He tried some things that worked really, really well, and some things that...
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“It is very imprudent, it is tragic — but, ah, it is so beautiful! Bit by bit...”
– Upton Sinclair from The Jungle
This quote reminds me of two things. One, that my life is lacking celebration at the moment. And two, that I can’t give in to feeling defeated.
(To clarify, the veselija is a Lithuanian wedding celebration.)
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Submit
Since August I have been working in a local coffeeshop, and it’s been really difficult. I don’t want be unprofessional by saying negative things about this job, but I do want to share what God has been teaching me through it.
My boss is not a kind person. He doesn’t generally make eye contact or speak to me unless it’s absolutely necessary. I’m not sure if...
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New Music Discovery! Here’s a link to a...
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Finish Year-Week 1
Finish SNAP application: Submitted online, pay stubs faxed, and waiting to hear back.
Find another source of income: Tried to file for unemployment online, can’t, so I will make an appointment tomorrow. Sub list appears to be closed, but I’m checking with some teacher friends to try and get an in.
Finish and stick to budget: I have made a projected budget, and really need the...
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