When every kid becomes a potential threat

Little violins sound a lot better with clogged ears.

This week, I had the privilege of being introduced to the next part of a teacher’s wonderful journey of changing and shaping lives: getting horribly sick from your students. It all happened so quickly, too. There I was, chugging along through Monday and Tuesday, helping out with paper violin nights at Riverbend Elementary and having a blast. And then the moment I got home on Tuesday night, I realized that I really didn’t feel well. Uh oh. All defenses were down. By the time 9pm hit, I felt drowsier and more out-of-it than usual (I mean, I usually feel pretty dead at that point these days!) and drifted off to sleep...only to wake up at the beloved hour of 2am, feeling very hot, achey, and disoriented. The two-day fever of 101 began. Buh buh BUHHHHHH!

So I unfortunately missed the bulk of the week and was able to muster up the strength to return to class on Friday, even though I was feeling only 60% better (at least my fever was gone and I wasn’t as much of a walking Petri dish of bacteria?!). It’s really funny that I have a terrible immune system. I get sick with a fever usually about 4 times a year, with a cold or two sprinkled around those, just to even it out. So you would think that I would be used to being sick and would actually accept that I need to rest and sleep in order to get myself better quickly. But I’m awful at that. It comes from one of my main shining and dooming characteristics: not being able to relax. Being bedridden for even a day sounds like my worst nightmare. I get super lonely and bored, and by the time the sun goes down, I’ve convinced myself that life is terrible, and it will always be this way (my flair for the dramatic really doesn’t change, no matter my physical or mental state). It’s the combination of being alone, feeling helpless, not feeling productive, and not feeling physically well that really puts me in this hopeless state. So even though I still had a booming headache and a very sore throat, I went into school on Friday so I could feel better about not being able to help out the past couple days and to just gain a peace of mind that order had been restored and I would, in fact, be back to normal life soon. I’m not sure how much help I actually was on Friday, though; I was pretty much a zombie! I also learned once I got to school that a lice outbreak had ensued in my absence, and I was warned to not come into contact with kids- especially with their heads. And then I had two kids come and hug me, putting their precious heads on my shoulder, right where my hair lays. Perfect! I was very paranoid after that and refused to touch anyone. There was no way I was getting lice on top of all that!! So I may not have been as interactive and friendly as usual. Ha!

The three days of school I attended this week were good, though. I am still feeling overwhelmed when I sit in on the lesson planning sessions with Lorrie and my quartet mates, but I think a lot of that is just negative self-talk and fear getting the best of me. We had decided this week to take a step back in the first grade violin classes and review the basics because we noticed that the students were struggling with simple things such as posture and the string names. So it was great to be part of that discussion where we took a step back and thought critically about what needed to be readdressed. And we mixed it up by having the class split into pairs and work together to play a short song they had been working on (one played the left hand and the other used the bow!). That was a huge success! In addition to those group planning sessions, I have been able to apply things that I have learned in my online UAS education classes, including learning about the psychology of learning, and that has been a huge help when I approach lesson planning. I’ve learned that kindergarteners to second graders can only hold their attention on direct instruction for 5 to 8 minutes. Guess how many minutes adults can pay attention to direct instruction? 15-18 minutes. That makes sense to me the more I imagine my college classes or church and remember how much squirmier everyone got after 20 minutes, but I probably would have guessed longer without knowing the facts. I also learned that we all have peaks in our ability to learn and process every day based on our levels of energy, and those only last for about 90-110 minutes at a time (these peaks and valleys are called ultradian rhythms). So it’s huge to know when each of our students’ peak times of energy are, while also keeping in mind the amount of time they are able to focus on one thing. It’s helpful for me to know that I can only last about 90 minutes as well! It also gives me a new excuse to use in the future: “Oh, my silly ultradian rhythms. They’re just low right now.” BOOM.

Another motivation for going to school on Friday was because I knew that I would not be able to go to the awesome dinner/game night Sue had invited me to if I didn’t go to school (yes, I make myself go by that school rule: “You can’t do after-school activities unless you go to class!”). And by the end of the teaching day, I definitely felt tired but pumped and ready to enjoy myself (and have social interactions again!). She invited the quartet and Lorrie as well, and any friends or significant others who wanted to join! We had a blast, and the food was delicious. It was so wonderful to just walk into her house and sit down at the table for food like old times. My throat started to really agitate me, though, and after four cups of tea, it still burned to swallow. I was grateful the night ended early and enjoyed getting 11 hours of sleep Friday night!

Shopping at Fred Meyer night with my church friend, Holly!

Saturday was a productive one, which we all know I love! I got a lot of homework done and cleaned (one of my favorite hobbies), did laundry, and watched some Sherlock with Rob (Koren and Rob are my super awesome landlords) as I “read” my textbook (which I later discovered was the wrong reading. We can obviously tell how carefully I was paying attention!). And Saturday night had two big events I had been looking forward to all week, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to be well enough to go to them until Saturday morning: it was Inside Out and FRED MEYER NIGHT. UAS was showing “Inside Out”, a fantastic Pixar movie I still hadn’t seen, accompanied by a $5 dinner and the possibility of prizes. So I decided I was up for the adventure and learned how to take the bus to campus (which just entailed finding the bus stop) and saw the movie. And guess what?? I won a prize, too! I won a portable UAS iPhone charger!!! Woo hoo! And then I hung around campus with some church friends until Fred Meyer opened at midnight for an annual event called College Night for all UAS students. Students lined up outside Fred Meyer’s doors at 11:15 (was I one of them? Heck to the yes!), hoping to be one of the first 100 there so they could receive a complimentary goodie bag (was I one of those blessed goodie bag receivers?! OH YEAH.), ready with their lists and coupons and selfie sticks (oh wait- that was just me…). And once the doors opened, we all excitedly ran through the store, shocked by the fantastic deals and the poor quality of the new “Greek Gyro” Lay’s chips and the corndogs that were being given out. But not only did I have a blast, I got some great deals! And there were some main things I really wanted to get, including a floor lamp (check!), groceries (definitely check!), and a toothbrush (not as exciting, but check!). I also found a beautiful sweater and some nice candles, so that was an added bonus! It was a fantastic, glorious night. Except that because I was out until 2:30am and had been talking over the loud DJ music in the store, I lost my voice.

I lost my voice in Fred Meyer and cannot find it. And now I sound like a husky man (not the attractive kind). When I laugh, it sounds like an odd bird call. And when I sing, nothing comes out. So teaching tomorrow should be interesting for me and entertaining for the students! Especially because Sophia and I might be leading the high school orchestra rehearsal tomorrow morning. But the beautiful thing about blogs, besides being able to write whatever I want and make my life sound as cool as possible, is you can’t hear my husky man voice. Hopefully, you are hearing something more pleasant- perhaps a screeching violin or someone belching the alphabet (what can I say? Elementary school students definitely find that enjoyable!). Or maybe that’s just what I hear because that’s my life right now. :)

So I am eager to get back to school this week and am hoping that by Friday, I will feel completely healed! I also really don’t want to figure out the whole healthcare system anytime soon, so that’s another incentive to keep chugging tea and sleeping. And my main goal of the week: DON’T GET LICE.