Seeking Out a New Path

The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life. -Robert Louis Stevenson

The view from Perseverance Trail, one of the new trails I explored yesterday.

Well, here we are- at the end of a nice, long break for a few days and ready to sprint to the finish line before Winter Break!

In light of just celebrating Thanksgiving and coming out of a break full of self-reflection (which had its ups and downs), I want to count the things I am thankful for in this post:

1.   

   Thanksgiving meal with Lorrie and friends!
   I made my mom's infamous 24-hour
   fruit salad this year. :)

   I am thankful for Alaska. I still cannot believe that no matter which way I turn, I see beauty. It fills my heart! I can't believe I was called to such an incredible place with so much adventure.
   
   
2. I am thankful for Lorrie and her mentorship, as well as Dick, my university observer. They have been my cheerleaders and supporters these past few months and have helped me grow so much.
   
   
3. I am thankful for a fantastic review with Dick and Lorrie last week! They had very encouraging things to say about my work, and they both believe I have what it takes to be a teacher; I’m still figuring out if that’s what I want to do, but that was so helpful to hear!
   
4. I am thankful for good food and animals. There is nothing like feasting with friends, cuddling with dogs, and eating 7 peanut butter cookies in one day.
   
5. I am thankful for my friends here. I have a wonderful roommate with so much spunk, three amazing friends going through this program with me, and older mentors who respect me and pray for me.
   
6.   
   I am thankful for solitary prayer hikes and being a true Juneau resident. I walked in the pouring rain on two new trails for two hours yesterday, praying out loud the whole time. Did I abruptly stop when I passed the three people I saw? Why yes, I did. Was I still happy when I came home soaking wet in my Xtratufs? Yes, I was.
   
   
7. I am thankful for friends and family from home with whom I still remain very close. I took the time to catch up with old friends and to talk to my parents this break, which made a world of a difference. It was easy to feel lonely, being so far away from my loved ones on a holiday for the first time, but connecting with them helped me a lot.
   
   

8.   

   I also bought this formline design killer whale
   for myself at the market!

   I am thankful for participating in my first Black Friday! I bought a new, more professional-looking pair of boots for teaching at Fred Meyer AND a used iPad Air in mint condition that was half the normal retail price! I’m excited to get my iPad, Lila, in the mail next week and use it in the classroom (and yes, I name inanimate objects). :)
   
   
9. I am thankful for Christmas music that makes me feel at home. I joined 12 other local cellists to play Christmas songs at the Juneau Public Market yesterday. I then walked around and found great deals on Alaskan Christmas presents!
10. I am thankful for God’s guidance over my journey. Every year, every adventure, I learn more and more about myself and how I want to live my life. And while it’s often not easy for me to see, I know that God is working all things for good and has blessed me with so much. So I appreciate all these gifts He’s given me and am thankful for this Alaskan journey in my greater journey of life.

Thank you to my faithful readers- it means so much to me to hear from you about your thoughts on my posts! If you’re in a particularly thankful mood (or maybe you’re not at all- then you should really do this!), leave a comment with a few things you’re thankful for. :)

I am also so thankful for each and every one of my students- even the high school Spanish student who saw me at a restaurant today and took a picture of me to send to her friends, no doubt, when she thought I wasn't looking. ;) Pictured here is the Glacier Valley JAMM Chamber Group I conduct!

The Glaciers

I love who I’ve become.

SNOW!

I took some time yesterday to talk with a dear friend from DePaul and caught her up on what I have been doing in Alaska thus far. And for some reason, I hung up the phone feeling frustrated and discontent. It had nothing to do with anything she said- it had been a very pleasant, nice conversation! But recapping to her all that I have been doing reminded me of how different my life is this year. And instead of focusing on the positives, I let it get to me and dwelled on all the stressors in my life this year. I have thought a lot about my blog posts and what my blog’s purpose should be- is it mainly a promotional platform for the future applicants of this program? Is it a place to vent and process through things? Or is it just a way to keep record of what I am doing to share with my loved ones how I am and what I have been up to? I think in some way, this blog is a little of all those things. Which means that it’s okay for me to be honest when things get hard. I’ve realized that even when I try to pretend like everything is great and I’m feeling good, my family and the people closest to me tell me, “Yeah, that post was depressing! What’s actually going on?!”. They can see right through the words! The reason I am saying all of this is because I want to recognize that the relentless grinding of the bedrock shapes the beautiful glaciers of life (give me a break- I live in Alaska!); because by recognizing it and even embracing it, I feel encouraged that while things are difficult, I can still see and enjoy the many wonderful things that come with that grinding.

I don’t think it was a particularly rough week for me- it was just very busy, and the stress affected me more than it has in the past weeks. I honestly think I’m ready for a break and am really craving to spend time at home with my family! Three more school days until Thanksgiving break and one more month until I’m home! The biggest struggle of this week was preparing my lesson plans (because I taught Spanish twice last week [which went super well!] and conducted my three pieces with the Thunder Mountain orchestra, in addition to teaching JAMM and general music classes at GV), while working on major school projects. It was a lot! I finally finished the rest of the big assignments for my Integrating Technology in the Classroom course last night, which was a huge relief! It still feels like there are mountains of other work to do. As a highly motivated person who greatly enjoys doing tasks such as homework, I never thought I would be part of a program that actually pushed the boundaries of my work ethic. It is both thrilling and exhausting to know that even when I’m weeks ahead in one area of my work, I still have loads of other things to do to stay on top of everything else! I really have accepted that this will be my life this year and that it’s totally worth it- but just like every other person, I get cranky when I don’t get a break. :P So I’m desperately trying to finish all my school work before Thanksgiving so I can fully relax over those few days off. I need to!

Some of this work gets me really excited, though. I actually took the initiative to help Lorrie with the application and advertising materials for the program for next year. I often think about my time spent working in the DePaul School of Music Admissions office and how much I loved guiding prospective students in such a big life decision. I also loved doing the administrative, organizational tasks; helping Lorrie with this project has helped me continue that kind of work! So I spent time last weekend researching schools and compiling a list of contact information of each school’s advisor or music department head so I can ask them to spread the word about the program to their students. The next step of that process was to work on the materials that I could send to the school contacts. That took a little longer! I met with Lorrie last night, and we labored over the scholarship application and its essay prompts, and the document that lays out the general overview of the program. It was fun to put my writing skills to good use, but I got home at 10:30 feeling like I had a lot of school work to do and stayed up until 2am working on a couple projects. But I have really loved helping with the outreach side of things and getting a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of this program! Check out the website Lorrie made and I helped her edit, which includes all the materials we worked on together. We’re super proud of it. :)

Moana and Talita were so cute
in their SmartMusic video!

One of the projects I stayed up working on last night was my SmartMusic Independent Learning Project. It is something I am very proud of, as it explains how I became familiar with how to use the program and then showed other teachers and students how to use it. I even video-recorded two of our adorable fifth graders showing how to use it for my project and put it on my online portfolio. Please check it out on my professional e-portfolio, another project I have been working on as part of my technology course.

Hans, the Tlingit teacher, and two Tlingit elders!

Some cool things happened at school the past couple of weeks: first of all, last Friday, we had our monthly all-school assembly, which featured a performance by our Tlingit teacher and the students in his Tlingit dance and drumming class. It was really neat to see my students dressed up in Tlingit attire and perform Tlingit songs. Two Tlingit elders also spoke, which was so neat! Alaskan culture fascinates me! Sophia and I met with that Tlingit teacher later that day to talk about incorporating some Tlingit songs in our general music classes, which he is super excited about- as are we! We are going to teach our 2nd-5th graders a Tlingit canoe song, partnering with the Tlingit teacher so he can give them the historical/cultural background to it. These lessons will be a great example of place-based learning (a concept I have been learning about in my classes: essentially, tie your lessons to the place and community you are in- it will make the students more engaged and make your lessons more relevant) and will highlight a culture with which a good number of my students identify.

Four of my bass students!

JAMM had a big week because a new trimester session began! So I am still teaching bass, but only on Friday’s during the school day. On Monday’s and Wednesday’s after school, I am now teaching the JAMM chamber group with Lorrie and SmartMusic with the same awesome third grade teacher I worked with last session. I am really excited about working with the chamber group; this group is really more like a mini-orchestra, as there are twenty of them. These are the most advanced kids, so almost all of them are fifth graders, and they are our performing group for fundraising events. I am applying a lot of the knowledge I have learned about rehearsal techniques and conducting from my work at TMHS with this group, which is awesome! I’m growing so much in those areas! Speaking of fundraisers, I met with the quartet, Lorrie, and some other key fundraising helpers yesterday to talk about JAMM’s next fundraising performance, which will be December 6th. The quartet is joining with a very talented local high school pianist for a performance that will feature solo pieces by him, some Beethoven and Mozart quartets by us (AND some free improvisation., which we have been delving into as a group and I absolutely love!), and a performance of Christmas songs by the JAMM chamber group. It’s going to be great! And once again, I am helping out with the social media and advertising for that event. I really like doing that!

Adorable kindergarteners and their paper violins!

There was also the first kinder paper violin performance this week! All 50 of the kindergartners gathered in the gym on Friday to perform for the packed room of parents, and all the 2nd-5th grade JAMM students accompanied the kinders as they sang their cute little songs. They sang the “This is my Violin” song and the “Alaskan Twinkle Song” (you should listen to those if you don’t know them!) and showed their parents how they hold their instruments and bows. I was sitting next to the kinders with my back to the audience because I was conducting all of the cello and bass players for the concert, which were directly next to them. However, there were times when it was just the kindergarteners performing, and I was just sitting there. As the kinders were performing, I noticed a cute little one who was holding his violin completely backwards- I mean, this paper violin’s scroll was on his neck. Oops! So I casually scooted over to him and helped him out. No big deal. But then, chaos struck. Later on in the performance, the kinders were holding their violins and putting their fake bows (which are dowels) on their “strings”. I saw this same boy totally struggling with getting his bow on the violin, so I once again crawled over to quickly help him with his setup. Except when I went to help him put his dowel on the violin, he resisted me and the angle changed, and all of a sudden, instead of the stick ending up on the cardboard violin, it briefly ended up on his face. I accidentally poked him in the face with it! And then the screaming and crying came. Thankfully, it was brief, and I made sure he was okay before I returned with a red face to my conducting spot I maybe should have never left. I don’t think anyone else picked up on what happened, but it ended up being a sadly entertaining story later! Of course I feel awful that I accidentally poked him, but the fact that this all happened during a huge performance was slightly amusing. I saw him at the end of the performance and could tell he was fine. I was also proud of him for getting up there and performing, and Lorrie was grateful that I helped him out, even with that slightly unfortunate turn of events!!

Oh, the gowns at the doctor with the awkward
openings in the back!

A few more updates: I finally went to the shoulder doctor!!! It was a glorious day because of that AND because it snowed a lot and was absolutely beautiful. But here’s the bottom line: after getting an x-ray and having the doctor do some tests on me, he determined that I have bicipital tendonitis. So the tendon that runs directly in between my humerus and the cartilage of my right arm and shoulder is inflamed. His recommendation was taking Aleve often and working with a  physical therapist a few times. And rest it. Except we are about to enter into a very busy couple of months with JAMM fundraisers and Symphony performances, so that may not be an option! He also said I can come in and get a cortisone injection that may help relieve the pain and inflammation in the tendon. But it’s a little more drastic and should be a last resort. I’m relieved to know what it is but am also struggling with what this may mean for me as a musician. And I don’t know if anyone else feels this way about recurring health issues, but I just don’t feel like I have time for it!! I need a healthy body to be a musician, so it’s very frustrating. But I will definitely make time for PT and take care of myself because I want to be a cellist for the rest of my life. That’s something I’ve realized this year, since I haven’t been able to play as much- I love playing cello! And that’s awesome. :) I just need to make sure I can play without further injuring myself.

I also went to the movies for the first time in Juneau on Friday night with two girl friends from church, and we had a great time! The theater is definitely not comparable to the ones in Chicago- there were no comfy recliners in sight, and the concessions stand only took cash! Lame! But it was fun, nonetheless. :) AND- I saw three of my TMHS students and Scott, the director of the MAT secondary program and my professor! That was so funny!!! I also creeped on the couple sitting in front of me and noticed they were watching a video of the kinder paper violin performance from earlier that day!! You could spot those vibrant-blue JAMM shirts from anywhere. :) I almost said something, but I didn’t quite know how to not sound nosy: “Hey, I was watching what you were looking at on your phone, and I just wanted to say that I was there, too…” HA! It was neat, though. :)

Even after writing so much about what is going on, I still feel like I’ve only covered about half of it. But I’ll just say this: This program has been the hardest, most time-consuming, stressful thing I’ve ever done. I’ve also grown so much as a person here. It’s been a rollercoaster that has pushed me to explore who I am in so many ways. And I love it! I’m definitely feeling like I need a break. But this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I am giving it my all every day. I am learning so much about who I am, what it means to be an effective teacher and community leader, and how to invest in children. I am working with incredible kids who I totally adore and incredible adults who inspire me. And so it is: the abundant beauty in the grind of life.

Winter in the Last Frontier

It’s snowing!!!

This is my first time seeing snow-covered mountains!

Ah, yes. A little piece of Chicago is finally with me! It began to snow this past week, and not in the usual rainy, sleety I’m going-to-attack-your-face sort of way. Graceful chunks of snow floated onto my head as I walked the mile from downtown to my house last night, and it was one of those beautiful moments that I paused to capture in my memory and will save for a rainy day (probably literally!). And taking those moments of reflection was my goal for the week; it’s the only way for me to stay healthy and happy in a very busy, stressful time.

Things are in full gear now, and this past week was also a little unique in its craziness. Lorrie was gone for the week leading an El Sistema training seminar in Boston, which left us quartet members to lead rehearsal with our chamber music kids (a group of about 20 fourth and fifth graders) during parent-teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday. We had a great, productive couple of days and got a lot of important work done with the chamber group, which is great because they will be performing for a few significant fundraising events in the next month- including a performance at the Governor’s Mansion! We had no school on Wednesday because of Veterans Day, but I definitely did not take a day off! I spent the entire day at the local coffee shop, Heritage (I LOVE that place!), doing work.

Walking to Heritage and doing work there all day has become my newly-founded tradition for my “days off”. I have discovered that the wifi in my house is not super reliable- it usually goes out about twice a week. In addition to that, when I know I will be sitting at a computer all day, it’s just nice to force myself to get outside and walk for a little bit. Doing work at a popular coffee shop also increases my chances of having social interactions throughout the day! I ran into Lindsay, one of the other quartet members, on Wednesday, and Sophia on Sunday! So, yeah...Maybe they’re the only people I still interact with...but whatever!
It felt good to get things done, but I was pretty sad that I did not get any days off and that I still need about three more of those days in order to get all my homework and lesson plans done. My goal is to get as much work as possible done before Thanksgiving so I can just relax during those days (which is great, because Lorrie invited me to her place for Thanksgiving!).

Thursday was an intense reintroduction to school because I subbed for Lorrie again. But yay, money and teaching experience! I taught a second grade class about solfege and did musical jeopardy with them, which they loved. Seeing them get so excited about correctly answering a musical question made me realize that learning can be fun for kids; it’s my job to plan lessons that make that possible! I actually recorded myself teaching that lesson, which was very helpful to go back and watch. I noticed that I over-explain instructions and need to have faster pacing when talking and transitioning to new activities. I also noticed that I am sounding and looking a lot more credible, which is something I was working on!

Friday was JAMM orchestra day for the general music classes, which is always pretty crazy. Having 50+ kids with their instruments in a room always leads to organized chaos. But at least it was organized! At the end of a long week of teaching on our own, we quartet members were very proud of ourselves and very tired.

The JAMM reception spread- can you say sugar?!

But the work didn’t end there! Three wonderful Symphony members put on a benefit concert for JAMM this weekend. So Saturday and Sunday were spent setting up, attending, speaking at, and tearing down for these performances. But it was incredible to see the behind-the-scenes work that goes into hosting a successful fundraising event. I didn’t even know how much work and thought goes into every detail of an event. I have to tell you, there are a few incredible Glacier Valley parents who really give their all and make these events such a success. Between them, a couple other parent volunteers, the quartet members, and Lorrie, it really ran smoothly. We quartet members got up and introduced ourselves to the audience both times and were able to meet people afterwards at a wonderful reception. And I ate way too many sweets this weekend because of that reception! But the most amazing part of all of it- we raised $2,400! Praise the Lord! People were so generous and gracious. Heidi also made hundreds of homemade violin and musical note instruments that were (and still are!) for sale, so a lot of people purchased those. It was a huge success.

Heidi, Leslie, Sophia, Ali, me, and Lorrie at the JAMM Benefit Concert!
Leslie is a cellist in second grade, and Ali is a bassist in fifth. :)

Needless to say, it was a busy, not-so-restful weekend. BUT- I got to go to church with my surrogate “Christian Alaskan parents”, Teri and Eric, and went out to lunch with them afterwards (before they dropped me off for the concert), AND I attended an awesome folk music potluck party at my house! I just have to say how grateful I am for people like Teri and Eric, Rob and Koren, and Sue. I had prayed that I would befriend older people during my time in Alaska, and that is exactly what’s happened. These people are all a generation ahead of my parents, and they have decades of wisdom and experiences to share with me. At this time in my life where there are so many unknowns and lots of questions that sometimes weigh me down, it’s so helpful to hear from people who have been through that and are way on the other side of it. And they’re all so cool! People in Juneau are really down-to-earth and friendly. And Rob and Koren’s party was full of awesome musicians. I sat and talked with a local piano teacher for a long time (whose husband I teach bass with for JAMM!) while listening to a group of people jam to old timey folk music. It was such a delight. And there was MORE sugary food!

Taking the time to go to church, out to lunch with friends, and attend a party caused me to stay up way too late last night and inspired my decision to extend my blog publishing deadline to this afternoon, but it was so worth it! My thought is, when I look back on this time, sure- I’ll remember that I was very busy, got less sleep, and was pretty stressed. But I’ll mostly remember all the positive memories- the good teaching days, amazing hikes and scenery, fun friendships and game nights, and good conversations with friends and family back home. That’s what matters! This year is the perfect opportunity for me to strengthen my ability to handle stress in a healthy way, and I have felt myself get infinitely stronger every time I decide to do things like going for a walk, calling a friend, or going to sleep early. It feels so good!

So, no matter where you are and what it means for you, stop to look at your snowflakes.

One-third of the way done!

“Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed”.  -Proverbs 11:25

I went to First Friday this week and bought an awesome whale bag from a local artist! SPIKE! :)

I realized something this week- if I graduate on May 1st (which is the tentative plan right now- we will have to see how my summer classes pan out!), I only have 6 months of this program left. I am ⅓ of the way there! It feels like it has been a lot longer than three months because I have learned and done so much! I am happy I have six more months left to continue learning and growing.

A few cute and joyous things from this week:
Kindergartener Hugs. I love that I’ll just be standing somewhere- in the music room, in the cafeteria, in the hall- and all of a sudden, a tiny person will come up behind me and wrap their little arms around me. I also love when these kinders tell me I am “the best teacher ever” when I don’t even lead their class!

Kindergarteners’ Perception of Words. I was talking to a kinder who was waiting in the hall during violin class because he had been squirmy when he was lining up to enter the room, and Lorrie told him he could only come in when he was ready to have self-control and take proper care of his violin. What was so cute is this little one has giant green eyes with super long eyelashes, and he had the saddest look on his face with his big, doughy eyes. But what topped it all off was instead of saying “Ms. Heagy”, when he explained what happened, he called her, “Ms. Piggy”. So he kept looking around with his distraught frown, saying “Ms. Piggy told me I had to wait out here”...

Uplifting emails. A joyous thing came from a Christian blog post I receive through email. Each entry is a new topic that is based on scripture and the author’s, Holley Gerth, personal experiences. Her posts are brief but powerful and are the perfect encouragement to get me through the day in a successful way. She recently wrote a post about how when we focus on receiving affirmation, approval, or applause, we actually block ourselves from being able to cherish those things or any other good thing. But when we focus on giving- taking the gifts and abilities we have and sharing them with others- we actually receive much more of those good things ourselves. This is a simple message, but it inspired me this week. I focus a lot on how well I am doing and how much I am learning and how much better I am becoming at teaching, that I forgot that I am already capable of giving a lot of love and care to these kids now! It helps me re-focus on why I am here, and it also takes some of the pressure off- instead of just focusing on my performance, I am focusing on the greater, deeper purposes for why I teach and why I am here: to be the light of Jesus in the context of the classroom.

Beyond that, I have definitely had a busy couple weeks, which was hard because I also got sick again last week! But I am proud of myself because I was presented with a few extra challenges last week, and I stepped up to the bat and knocked it out of the park.
First of all, I had to unexpectedly take over a lesson when Sophia had to leave and run an urgent errand for JAMM during the class she was going to teach! So Lorrie and I split the lesson in half, which was a decision we made 2 minutes after class started. And it went really well!

We also had our JAMM “informance” that showcased all our JAMM classes for the parents this Wednesday. I played the drums (have I ever played the drums? NO!) with my bass students for their showcase piece, and I also had to take over a presentation on SmartMusic that was supposed to be given by a colleague who got sick. What was funny was, I was still getting over being sick and had temporarily lost my voice (AGAIN- thankfully it is already coming back!), so I sounded awful and didn’t feel great when I stood up in front of hundreds of parents and demonstrated how SmartMusic works, but I wasn’t even nervous!

The third big step this week was I substitute-taught for Lorrie the day after the informance without a voice. I was definitely a little nervous for how that would go, but my lessons went well and the kids were very gracious to me! I think I gained some pity, which helped. :P
I was proud of myself for being willing to tackle so many challenging things this week!

I also wanted to highlight some fantastic techniques I have learned from my mentor teachers, Tyree and Lorrie, the past three months. Both of them are avid supporters of Michael Grinder , an author and educational researcher with expert advice about using non-verbal communication in the classroom. As I have now taught classes without a voice multiple times, I know it is possible to give any and all directions with just a nonverbal cue (whether it’s “Mouths closed”, “Eyes on me”, “Sit criss-cross applesauce”)- it’s all about establishing those patterns and making them consistent. I have also learned that some kids will try to distract me by randomly calling out or coming up to me during class. Even though my natural urge is to address every person and question, it’s often best to not give them eye contact and just point to where they should be or just ignore the question. It works miracles and keeps the class going! Lorrie has also shown me that a great way to discourage misbehavior is to encourage the good behavior directly near the student who is misbehaving. Without giving any eye contact to the child who is disrupting class, I might say, “*Insert name here*, thank you so much for showing such great self-control and respect by staying focused on the learning, even though a friend next to you is trying to bring you down to his or her level.” It’s often another miracle-worker because it motivates the whole class, including the misbehaving child, to be more engaged! There are so many other things I have learned, from scaffolding, to presenting lessons with a “hook” to get students interested, to having a credible voice and body. They all make such a difference.

I also cut off a bunch of my hair to let it
naturally curl and make my morning routine
go faster, and I'm still trying to figure out
how I feel about it!!

This week will be another busy one in a different way: parent-teacher conferences are the first two days of the week, and then we have Wednesday off for Veterans Day. The quartet and I will be having long meetings to plan for the rest of the semester and prepare for upcoming fundraising events, though! As another week begins and Thanksgiving comes upon us (which I still have no plans for, by the way! Hopefully I’ll figure out whose dinner to crash soon :P), I hope we can all take a moment to stop and think of the joyful things in life- the things we have learned, the fears we have conquered, the dreams we have entertained, the relationships we have invested in, the wonderful things in life we have experienced.

And remember- you are capable of being refreshing to someone.

The Beauty of the Journey

There's something about writing a story.

In honor of it being another late night with too much work to do and not feeling well, I've decided to dedicate this blog post to my two digital stories I have created since being here. The first is the one I did for the Juneau Basic Arts Institute back in late July-early August, where I told a story about nature only using objects found in nature. I was able to share a story about a solitary hike I took in Peru as I grappled with the deeper hardships of life.

My second one I finally finished tonight, and it is a story about my journey with teaching with El Sistema-inspired programs in Chicago, Peru, and Alaska. Discovering People's Music School, the first El Sistema program with which I taught, drastically changed my career path, as providing free music education to underserved communities using the El Sistema philosophy has become my passion! So it was really neat to create this story as part of a UAS assignment. :) 

Besides that, it was another busy week that ended up being draining but joyful. I am taking the morning off from school tomorrow because I am starting to come down with something (Germs= Winners; Immune System= EPIC FAIL) and am hoping sleep will ward it off! I had a blast celebrating Halloween with my lovely quartet mates and had a great time sharing about my experiences in Peru with my Thunder Mountain Spanish classes this past week. The sun even came out this weekend, and I was able to take a beautiful walk as I caught up with my beloved twin. :) Making my El Sistema digital story rose my level of thankfulness to an overflowing amount once again, and I just feel so happy to be here! 

Lindsay and I were Miss Peacock
and Miss Scarlett from Clue
for Halloween!

The quartet performed spooky Halloween songs for Glacier Valley's
Harvest Carnival yesterday! Instruments were set up in a circle around the room so students could improvise on them as the quartet played.

The beauty of Alaska never gets old. :)