Two little things

Every once in a while, I feel the urge to post a little update in this blog. Recently, there's been plenty for me to write about, but there's only two things that keep resurfacing in my mind. These are 1) Michelle's happiness and 2) my job.

Both are very important to us, but since the former is slightly more significant, I'll start with it. Michelle is finally happy. It's not that she's been depressed or anything. The happiness she feels now though, just seems to be such a distinct shift in her emotional state. I haven't seen her this happy since college. And I include our wedding. Not because she didn't enjoy our wedding. Far from it. Heck, she was in a delirious state of ecstasy. No, the difference is why. She was happy on October 6th mainly because it was October 6th. It was her wedding day. The day was all about her and she loved it. And she should have. But back then, our future still was uncertain and she certainly wasn't fulfilled by her job, so she still carried alot of stress around with her. Even through the honeymoon her happiness wasn't like it is now. It was different somehow. There's a calm about her now. I'll look over at her and she'll smile as if saying "Hi. I'm good now. Nothing to worry about." As opposed to before when her smile was a grin and the message read closer to "I'm managing." So is it because of the job? Sure, of course. But I think it's more than that. It's our lives now. There's goals in mind now and we're finally in a place that can help us recognize them. I feel Ellicott City was suffocating us very, very slowly. New York gave us fresh air (figuratively and literally) and a fresh start. Yes, we still miss all of you deeply (Ben, Nat, Jamie, Chris, our families, Jen... well, maybe not Jen) but I think Meech needed the change. We both did. So those are my thoughts on Meech's happiness. Keep in mind, I haven't run any of this by Meech, so she may disagree with all of it. But I feel fairly confident she'd agree. At least mostly.


The other I've been meaning to post about is my job. Mainly because it is SO different than anything I'm used to. Allow me to explain: First, there's the culture. It's a poor neighborhood, almost entirely African-American and the rest mostly Hispanic. (Although there is this one white kid in our school who looks quite out of place). The building we work in is HUGE and actually houses TWO High Schools along with our Middle School. It is not the safest neighborhood, but it's far from a ghetto. Keeping all this in mind, I spent my first two years teaching in Howard County.

Next there's the students themselves. A few years older than I've ever taught. Most have never seen anywhere outside of their neighborhood and almost all of them are not used to strict discipline eight hours every day. Some of the cadets (what we refer to the students as) are as big or bigger than I am. They come from poor educational backgrounds and many with little parental support. (Again, keep in mind... Howard County).

And then there's what the Commandant (Principal) is asking of me. I teach every student General Music and Band. That means all 150 cadets are learning Theory, Music History and by the end of the year each one will know how to play some instrument, whether they want to or not. I also teach Math to one of the 6th grade classes every day (Well, not Fridays, but I get them twice as much on Tuesdays so it evens out). Math is 90 minutes every day, so Tuesdays gets to be 3 hours of Math. This of course, from a Music teacher who has literally no Math educational background whatsoever. Also, every Wednesday afternoon for the last period, each Professor (teacher) takes about 15-20 students for Advisory period. This is when we teach them a different lesson about life every week, the cadets pretend they care, we pretend we don't know the cadets are pretending to care, and each Professor gets to waste 45 minutes doing what our Guidance Counselor was hired to do, when we could all be using that time to prepare for the enormous amount of work WE were hired to do.

Not that I'm bitter.

Now, that's the bad news. The good news is this: I love my job. I'm also discovering I'm quite good at it. Considering my last school had enough money for just about anything, more than one copying machine, internet access in every room, huge community support and students that would never THINK of giving teachers serious attitude, I'm doing just fine. It really surprised me, but only recently when a fellow Professor pointed it out, did I realize I can discipline these students as well as any of the other teachers that carry a more experience with these type of attitudes. And remember, this is ME we're talking about. Last year my biggest concern was giving a nine-year old a disapproving look for not practicing as much as she should have. Last week I made an entire Squadron (class) of 7th graders practice walking into my classroom three times before letting them sit down and I wasn't happy until each one said "Yes, Professor Corpora." Where was this disciplinarian hiding?

I should also point out that the parental support is stronger than I thought. The rumors are that now that the returning 7th graders have gone through this school for a year and the parents are finally seeing what he have to offer (and that the Professors actually know what we're doing), the parents are finally taking a step forward, too. Apparently last year they were not quite as "present", but we're seeing a huge turnaround now. Also, every phone call I've had to make to parents (and there's been quite a few), I've always spoken to caring, concerned parents who really do make sure their son or daughter "gets the message." So thank goodness for them!

It's funny, when I came here, I was downright terrified of facing these students. I figured if there was one reason I'd quit, it was because of them. But now they don't frighten me at all. I'm completely comfortable about getting in their face and letting them have it. What stresses me out is the enormous amount of work I've been given to do, which was what I actually had been looking forward to before I came. I'll admit it's been exciting thinking of how I'm going to teach every cadet an instrument. It's a challenge. But I like challenges. It's something that, to my knowledge, has never been done before. At least none of the schools I know in Maryland has ever tried this. Band, not as an extra-curricular program, but as a required piece to graduate. And not just Music Theory. Actually learning an instrument. And get this. Right now, we have 23 instruments and 155 cadets. Awesome, isn't it? And Commandant Dalton wants a concert in December. HAHAHA. Time to get to work!

Speaking of getting to work, I should do that myself. I need to come up with what I'm teaching next week. See, cause unlike the other subjects, the Music program doesn't have a curriculum already outlined for them. Heck, it doesn't even have a textbook yet. So, off to the drawing board.

Hope I didn't bore you. Leave a message. We love reading them and hearing from our friends and family. Take care,

Adam