Making It Work.

The theme of this post shall be, “Making it Work.”

(See Future Post Entitled, "Winging It.")

I’ll begin with a clear and tangible example.

I’m taking a lot of John Feierabend’s music pedagogy methodologies and materials to design my curriculum this year. Quick disclaimer: I haven’t been able to actually be trained in this, I’ve only been able to attend a handful of workshops, talk to people, and read stuff with my eyeballs.

“Fingerplays” are beatful rhymes/chants that you say while acting out the story with your hands. Sometimes you can use puppets. While using these in the classroom my students have been able to practice listening, remembering, echoing, keeping a steady beat, playing with tone of voice, being artful with our hands, engaging our imaginations and other great things that I probably don’t even realize.

Here’s a fingerplay that we used this week:

For the first character you use a very high voice, and the second character a very low voice.

1: Where are you going Big Pig, Big Pig?

2: Out in the garden to dig, dig, dig!

1: Out in the garden to dig, dig, dig! Shame on you Big Pig, Big Pig!

2: I’m sorry Ma’am but I’m only a pig, and all I can do is dig, dig, dig!

(Look, here’s a video of someone doing it on youtube. I don’t know why.)

So I went into my little box of stuffed animals/puppets…(I’ve been slowly adding to this collection but in order for a stuffed animal/puppet to make it in it has to be really cute, able to move in an artful way, clean looking, and cheap… so my collection is still small. However, I think I’ve finally figured out what to do with my giant and guilt-filled Beanie Baby Collection…)

So I’m looking and looking, bear, lion, hummingbird, bear again, crab…

No pigs.

But… I did have a Rhino and a Butterfly.

Alex promptly said to me, “But… why would a Rhino and a Butterfly be together?”

And I said, “Animals don’t really talk. So I think we can continue to suspend our disbelief and pretend that the talking animals-Rhino and Butterfly- exist in a world where they interact.”

So the chant became this:

1: Where did you go Rhino, Rhino?

2: Out in the garden to stomp real slow.

1: Out in the garden to stomp real slow? Shame on you Rhino, Rhino!

2: Sorry Ma’am but I’m only a rhino, and all I can do is stomp real slow.

And what I learned after the first time I did this with preschoolers was that this chant opened up a whole variety of new things to talk about. First I could perform the chant for them and ask them what happened in the story-testing their listening and comprehension. And to take it even further, there is an emotional element involved that I never even considered! The Rhino is stomping on the flowers which the Butterfly needs to survive! So suddenly all the kiddos were like, “Jigga Whaaa! BAD RHINO NO NO NO!!”

AND THEN, I had one class come in who pointed at the butterfly on my finger and screamed in unison, “THAT’S A MONARCH BUTTERFLY!!!!!” and then spent the next 5 minutes shouting facts about, and experiences they’d had with, monarch butterflies-simultaneously while I sat on my carpet square cracking up and shouting back at their little faces, “THAT IS SO COOL!”

So… The moral of this blog post is:

I’m not going to be perfect at each lesson, I’m likely not going to have exactly the right materials, or maybe it’s a little too easy, or a little too hard for my students… but I will make it work in that moment to make sure that we can take away at least a tiny valuable moment. AND- it’s possible that by “making it work,” for my situation, the result will be even better than if things had been laid out perfectly to begin with.

Ohhh Yeahh.

I’ma go out in the garden to stomp real slow now.

xoxox

Karlie

PS: This was the first week that every single Kindergartener got up and danced alone during our greeting. And for some reason, every single girl thinks that dancing is actually going into the middle of the circle and doing a backbend. Fair enough.

Hawk and Salmon Festivals

One of the things I love about AmeriCorps so far is that any volunteering we do on the weekends, or outside of our main service sites can count towards our total hours we need by the end of our service term.  The past two weekends I have volunteered at two different festivals.

First I volunteered at the town museum while a Hawk Festival was going on in Pateros. For this festival, different groups such as the Audobon society and other fish and wildlife specialists brought hawks and other raptors to town for people to come see in the park. A surprising amount of people are really into birds, so it seemed like they got a lot of people! Tracy, the other AmeriCorps member in Pateros, and I kept the museum open so people could come visit while the festival was going on. But we also took some time to look at the birds!

Whatchu lookin' at?

This past weekend, I continued the trend of nontraditional fall festivals and went to a Salmon Festival at Leavenworth Fish Hatchery. This was a free event for families to come and learn all sorts of things about fish! And eat food, And play games. And kayak. And rock climb. Everything a kid would want to do was there. But also fish related. It was great.

I was at the Gyotaku station for the day, which is Japanese fish printing. Fishermen originally made these prints to record their fish of the day, but now it is more of an art form. And the prints are now made with rubber fish. It was a fun activity, and so many kids wanted to do it that it made the day go by quickly. 

1. Paint fish

2. Put paper over fish

3. Rub fish

4. Ta-Da!

My beautiful creation

There are so many different volunteer opportunities in this area, and I am going to take advantage of as many as possible this year. I always felt like I was too busy during college to take advantage of things like this in Vermont, which was really a terrible excuse, but I am glad I finally am! Might as well take advantage of the short time that I will have here.

And I'll leave you with one final picture. A little piece of cuteness. An Amerikitten.

11 Days: Benchmarks and Tallies

With 12 days of teaching experience under my belt, my official teaching license signed by my middle school principal and former a capella mate, and a dented immune system… this life is starting to seem more real. This shall be a post of Benchmarks and Tallies.

Benchmarks and Tallies

• 15 Days: Is how far into the school year I made it before I got sick. As I sat on my darling little carpet square, next to my darling little Kindergartner, she proceeded to sneeze 25 times throughout the class. The look on her face said, "Dear Teacher, I have no idea what is happening to me right now and I'm sorry that you will undoubtedly be sick at the end of these 45 minutes, but I will now put my hands in my mouth, then onto that drum. Good thing I'm so cute."

• First Entirely Silent Class: Now, before you say, "Oopsa Karlie, you're teaching music so if the students are silent you're probably doing it wrong. Good try but let's go ahead and rescind that license," let me explain what this really means. As my 23 third and fourth grade students entered my classroom I stood in the doorway holding an index card that said, "Hi! Please enter silently." If I heard them speak, I beckoned them back to the door, and they entered again until they got it. I think a key element of this whole class was making sure to keep my attitude playful to make sure that students understood that silence wasn't a punishment, it was just a particular kind of class we were going to have. If a student spoke, I reacted as, "Oh no! You forgot!" I only had to have this reaction four times during class, and never to the same student. 

          As we moved through warm ups I gestured to all of them and pointed to my ears, then I

          sang the exercise, and gestured for them to repeat. It was the first class where I had full 

          singing participation, and we were all generally singing in the same key. To be honest, I 

          did bring in sound when I made a noise for "No" and a noise for "Yes." When I wanted  

          students to make an improvement I would demonstrate what I didn't want, and make a  

          weird "No" sound, then demonstrate what I did want and make some strange yippee-

          hands-in-the-air-dance thing. I was absolutely floored by how well students responded to

          this.

• 25 Middle Schoolers: Showed up to our first optional chorus rehearsal. Now, I told them to come and try it out with no obligation to return next week so it's possible that I'll lose some before the next rehearsal. But what I actually feel was the success here was that 25 students were curious about what chorus would be like.

• 4 Classes: Of middle school students back to back where we worked in groups to create our own lyrics to "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground." This gets tallied because in all four classes every student participated (some very minimally, but still,) every group had a verse by the end of class, and there was an air of excitement about the project and the continuation of it next week. Here is my favorite verse created by a group of 7th graders:

I wish I was a flyin' stump in the sea

I wish I was a flyin' stump in the sea

If I'm a flying stump in the sea, I'd land right on a whale,

and I wish I was a flyin' stump in the sea.

So, it doesn't make sense and it doesn't rhyme. But- it's packed full of imagery AND it's not inappropriate, so it gets tallied as a success for the middle school.

• 3 Classes: Have made it onto the map for our "Can We Make It Around the Entire World Through Music?" challenge. Granted, the Kindergarten and 1st/2nd Grade class are up there because of the music I taught them-so they didn't have a choice in the matter. But the 6th grade also made it up because one student brought me a list of 7 songs from around the world. From his list I chose an electronic music piece from Finland to play for the class. Go sixth grade. Here's the piece for your enjoyment, or not! Either is okay.

This second week of teaching has been filled with even more mistakes than the first, but they've been new mistakes-and I've mostly fixed the other stuff. Oh, and you should also know that I again had a frog in my class, but this time I couldn't get him out and he stayed there through the entire day... and unbelievably, he didn't hop out until I came back at night, at which point I caught him and delivered him into dewey grass. 

I bid you adieu Internet world, I'm going to try to use the 5lbs of carrots Alex and I just picked to make a carrot cake. Most of you can predict that this will not go well for me. But hey... why not?

Teaching Migrant Students

Last Monday and Tuesday were our last two days of AmeriCorps orientation. On Monday afternoon, we had a guest speaker come and talk to us about issues affecting migrant students in North Central Washington. As a little background knowledge, this part of Washington state is APPLE COUNTRY! Literally, looking out my window right now I can see multiple apple orchards. And if I looked out another window, I would see more. Workers and their families will come from all around, especially Mexico, to work at these apple orchards. We learned about seven areas of concern when it comes to migrant students, and discussed ways in which to help these students succeed in school.

What made the most sense to me though, and what had the most impact on me at the end of the day, was a game we played called Barnga (I am still unclear on why it was called this, if anyone has any insights, you can help a girl out in the comments section below).

***Spoiler alert!! The description of this game will probably ruin it for you if you are ever asked to play it in the future. So if you think you might....not that you have a way of knowing...maybe you should not read this. Yeah...anyway...just wanted to get that out there. Spoiler Alert!!!***

To begin the game, we were split up into seven groups, and each given the directions to a card game named Barnga or Tricks. In our groups of 4 or 5, we learned how to play the game. After practicing it for a while and once we got the hang of the game, we were told that we could no longer talk while playing the game. We would play in our groups for a while, and then when the speaker told us the round was over, we would figure out who had won the most rounds of the game, and that person would move up a table. The loser at the table would move down a table. Out of pure luck, I was the winner of the first round, so I moved to a new table. And this is when things got interesting!

As soon as I got to the new table, I realized that they were playing a different game. The format of the game was the same, but it was clear that the rules were different somehow. BUT WE STILL COULDN'T TALK! So I had no way of telling the girls in the group that I didn't know how to play, and that they were not playing by my rules. Anyone realize the point of this game yet? Well, I had at that point. I was now the migrant student that did not understand the language at her new school, and had no way of telling her new classmates that she didn't understand what was going on (besides confused facial expressions and hand gestures). At this point, I did what an ELL student might do in the classroom, and gave up on the game. I didn't know what I was doing, so what was the point? (I also was not feeling very competitive, and got the point of the activity, so it didn't seem worth it to try to enforce my rules.) This continued UNTIL someone from my original table came to my new table! I was saved! There was finally someone that spoke the same language as me. So we took over that table and were able to play the game with our original rules.

A Few Things I Learned About Migrant or ELL Students From This Game:

1. It is easy for them to just give up, so they need that extra attention in a classroom to make sure this doesn't happen.

2. Likely, they are going to feel confused and helpless in the classroom depending on their language ability, so this is another reason to give them extra support and the tools they need to succeed in the classroom.

3. Right when students get used to the classroom and start to succeed, they could very likely just get pulled away and have to move somewhere else with their family, just like we would get pulled away from our card game and have to learn a whole new game at a new table. Although the student may know the language better at a new school, it is a whole new environment and culture to get used to.

4. Students will feel more comfortable when someone that can speak their native language is able to help them whether this be another student or a teacher. Luckily, at the school I am serving at, since most of the migrant students are native Spanish speakers, we have a teacher that can interpret things into Spanish for them. This is helpful for the students as well as the parents. In many cases, the students have learned English, but their parents still struggle at home, especially with newsletters or informative letters that can have a lot of school jargon in them. This is where an interpreter like this becomes very helpful.

After the game, we debriefed as a group, and learned that this game is always played at orientation. The returning members played along with the game, but did not reveal the secret to the new members. People that had played it before, and the AmeriCorps staff members, said this was one of the calmest groups they had seen play this game. In the past, people had been so competitive that they have run of the room crying. This same amount of frustration could be present in an ELL student that is having a difficult time in a new school, not understanding the rules or language.

And that's Barnga! Now that we are done with AmeriCorps orientation, we still have weekly trainings and meetings until November. I am excited to get into more of a routine at my school, since from now on, most of our meetings are on Fridays. Tomorrow will be my first day in an elementary school band class! Oh boy! I better read Karlie's blog so I can learn how to teach music.

Karlie Makes Mistake Soup. Week 1.

            I have been vigorously hunting flies for the past week. Everywhere. The bathroom. At the piano. In bed. In my car. Everywhere. Slaying has climbed its way to the top of my priority list when I find myself with free time; above instant Netflix, (have to wait for Season 2 of “Orange is the New Black” anyway,) above re-alphabetizing my books within stupid categories that only make sense to me, and above seeing what else I can layer into the new found love of my life, hummus sandwiches.

            There are so many flies in my classroom that on the first full day of school I walked in and found a brown toad the size of a softball sitting in the middle of my linoleum floor. I considered allowing him to live in the music room and take care of the buzzing balls, but eighteen variations of a scene where a student spots the toad played through my mind and I realized that I would never, ever teach any music if it was coexisting in my room. Lucky for me the janitor has made my transition into this school smoother than a toadstool top and he came in to usher the toad out the door.

            I think fly hunting has become an emotional release for me. I have taught seven days of preKindergarten through Eighth grade general music and chorus.  I have made over two hundred mistakes in those seven days. As I reread that sentence shame slides over my eyeballs like a brand new lid…but I have to then recount how I’ve noted those mistakes and made a solid effort to immediately correct my errors in the following class.

           

     I love lists. Here’s the first one of this blog. Former teachers and professors, current mentors, and friends please feel free to roll your eyes, face palm, scoff, revoke your letters of recommendation… whatever you need to do after reading this list.

Pitiful Mistakes Karlie Made In Her First Week

• Projected the lyrics to “Somos El Barco” on the board in the 1^st and 2^nd grade chorus and expected them to read it through with me after limited rote teaching. And as I’m sure you all realize, most of those 7 and 8 year olds were not ready to be reading in Spanish. Shocker.

• In an attempt to break up my lesson and get my Kindergartners up and moving around I said, “Okay, everyone move to a new mat!” This resulted in a brawl over a particular mat. Pulled hair, screaming, “YOU ARE A MEANIE,” and slapping. Nice work, Ms. Kauffeld.

• I handed thirteen 3^rd and 4^th graders each a small percussion instrument before giving the instruction, “When I hand this to you please place it on the floor in front of you.” It then took 5 full minutes to give that direction due to the jingle-jangling, booming, smacking, and thumping.

• I sat 1^st and 2^nd graders around a rug with a border of fringy–tassels. They could not keep their tiny hands off those tassels if their lives depended on it. Good bye rug.

• I allowed one Kindergartner to go get a drink. Suddenly we were all suffering from dehydration and simply couldn’t carry on without getting water.

• I placed paper name cards on the chairs of 5^th graders without instructing them not to ruin them. At the end of class I received a pile of paper shreds, undistinguishable origami, and cards with bite marks. Silly me for thinking once we were ten years old we stopped eating paper.

Now, I say all of these things with a bounty of love in my heart for my students. Every bizarre thing that occurred was in direct relation to the poor instruction I gave. Cause and effect.

The most important thing I can say about my first 7 days is that these kids, from age 3 to 14, are teaching me more than I’ve learned in my whole life.

Emily Drives Across the Country with her Parents

Hey there blog folks!!

My story starts a little differently than Karlie's. While she moved about 25 miles away from Burlington to South Hero, I moved about 2,800 miles away from Burlington to Pateros, Washington. We're both working in tiny towns in tiny schools, just many miles from each other. (Well...actually...I am SERVING at this school. More on that in post 2) We'll see how we do. We haven't been separated this much in a while.

ANYWAY!

This post will be a riveting description of my adventures across the country in a red VW Jetta with my parents. We learned early on that leg room was going to be a problem. But somehow, it was not as terrible as I envisioned. The key is stretch breaks, or just offering to drive as much as possible, because that hurts your legs less than being cramped in the back seat with your 6'3" father in the seat in front of you. I think the best way to organize this post is by states (13 in total), so here we go!

Vermont!

We were feeling ambitious this first day and left around 6:15. Here is what the car looked like:

We can attest to the power of the roof bag after this trip (more on that later).

New York!

We quickly got to New York, and realized that most of our day would be spent in this state. You don't really realize how big most of these states are until you're driving through them. New York was rather uneventful. I did see Utica, New York though, which was slightly exciting. Fans of The Office can understand. (P.S. There is also a town in Washington called Electric City! Scranton what? THE ELECTRIC CITY)

Pennsylvania!

We only drove through a little of Pennsylvania, right by Lake Erie. We saw lots of grape plants, and learned that this part of Pennsylvania is famous for its grapes/wine. Yep, that's all I have to say about our journey through Pennsylvania.

Ohio!

Ohio was our destination for day one as we had made a reservation at a hotel near Toledo, Ohio in a town called Maumee. I am embarrassed to say that we never actually learned how to say the name of this town. Mommy? Mow-mee? Meow-mee? It's probably that last one. Ohio...was not that attractive. BUT we did go to a Steak 'N Shake that first night. Shout out to my Varsity Pep Band folks!!

Indiana!

The only exciting thing about Indiana for me was driving through/close to South Bend, where I had my first Pep Band trip and made some incredible friends in the process. I looked at all of the lodging signs on the interstate trying to find the "Waterford" where we stayed, but had no luck. They are waaaaay too classy for road signs. Sidenote: I also researched the Waterford before leaving Vermont as a possible hotel for the first night, BUT they were too expensive. I guess you have to be traveling VIP to get into the Waterford. 

Illinois.

Illinios was kind of the worst, to be honest. I was driving at this time and driving through Chicago was miserable. It took us about 1 1/2 hours to just get through a few miles of Chicago. Oh, and we had to pay a ridiculous amount of tolls. Just for the record, all of the states from New York to Illinois (I think) have tolls on I-90. But then once you hit Wisconsin, you are home free! So thank you western states. Also, I haven't mentioned this yet, but we took mostly I-90 the whole way to Washginton with a few detours in South Dakota and Wyoming. So pull out your maps, folks! And you can see where we drove.  I have gotten sidetracked. Basically it was nice to see the skyline of Chicogo, but it took way too long to drive through the craziness, and it was only a Sunday afternoon. Enough of that ranting, onto the next state!

Wisconsin!

Wisconsin started to get prettier, but also started the corn fields. One thing I learned in Wisconsin is that you should never try to get gas in the Wisconsin Dells. The Wis Dells, as it is called by the elite, is a town/area/dell that reminded me a lot of the town of Niagara Falls. We didn't actually see the dells, but the town was full of water parks, resorts, and touristy shops. We got gas here so we would not get trapped in the middle of a corn field with no gas, and it was CRAY! But we made it out alive. The water slides did look pretty cool though. 

Minnesota!

We made it to Minnesota on the second day of our trip, and spent the night at a hotel in Albert Lea. Minnesota was a lot of corn fields and very pretty, but that's about it. I am sure it would have been more exciting if we had ventured further than I-90. The picture below is on a exit that we pulled off at only to realize that the gas sign on the highway was probably fooling us. Corn does not equal gas.

South Dakota!

The majority of our time being sightseeing tourists on this trip was spent in South Dakota. We first went  to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. Luckily, it was a free tourist destination. Not to rag on the Corn Palace or anything, but I would have not liked to have paid for it. They had just finished their Corn Palace Festival the day before we got there, so we missed that, but they still had it open for business! They change the murals on the outside of the palace each year, and the inside of the "palace" is now used as a stadium and sport's arena for different events. Everything on the outside of the building is made of corn, but the inside is basically a stadium. I guess the whole thing used to be made of corn, but then they realized that was a fire hazard. Fancy that?

After the corn palace, we drove to my dad's cousin's house in Huron, South Dakota. We didn't drive much this day, and spent the afternoon visiting with her. Then we had dinner with some other cousins as well. 

She also had a cat that I quite enjoyed.

A few things we learned from our relatives in South Dakota:

1. If anyone in South Dakota refers to "The Cities," they are talking about the Twin Cities in Minnesota of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

2. People in other parts of South Dakota have negative feelings towards Sioux Falls. I guess they have too much stuff there, and they want them to share the wealth a bit.

3. That other crop in South Dakota besides corn is soy beans.

4. A quarter of land is equal to a square mile. And is much bigger than an acre. 

Our travels into South Dakota continued the next day. We went to the Badlands, Wall Drug, and Mount Rushmore. This day was HOT! And we continued to be thankful for our air conditioning in our small car. Of course we continued to have arguments over which level the air should be on. "MORE AIR" was something my mom and I heard a lot of from my dad. Speaking of, the other thing we heard a lot was "ROOF BAG CHECK." I don't think he stopped being paranoid about that roof bag (ROOFBAG.COM!!) until we got to Pateros. It made it though! 

Short Descriptions of Things on this Day:

Badlands

Not so bad, pretty amazing actually. Were only bad to those that were trying to cross through them before a super awesome road was built.

Wall Drug

Most ridiculous tourist trap ever. Signs started as soon as we entered South Dakota, and did not end until we got there. They advertise free ice water, 5 cent coffee, homemade doughnuts, and oh so much more! We just had to see it to believe it I guess. And get our pics on the giant jackalope. This establishment started off as a place for fatigued travelers to get some ice water for their parched throats, but has turned into something completely off the wall. Get it? Off the WALL???

Oh yeah, they also had a giant dinosaur that moved. Because...why not?

Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills

Saw the faces in the hills so that was pretty cool. I was also impressed with the drastic change of scenery from the prairies of eastern South Dakota to the rolling black hills in the western half of the state.

Wyoming!

We drove into Wyoming after the Black Hills, and then spent the night in Gillette, Wyoming. Not the best spot since it is the middle of coal country, USA, but we were sleepy.

Montana!

We did not stop much in Montana since we were determined to get close enough to our destination on this day so we wouldn't have to drive too much the next day. We did stop for a picnic, which was very nice. But then drove through a pretty bad storm.  Or maybe that was before the storm? I can't keep track.

Idaho!

We just drove drove drove this day, and ended up staying in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. I think this may be my only photo in Idaho since it was dark for most of the time that we were driving. There's the beautiful entering Idaho sign. HA!

WASHINGTON!

And we made it! We got off I-90 in Spokane, and drove towards Pateros. Right when we were about 20 miles from Pateros we thought the Roof Bag might not make it the rest of the way. We heard a loud banging that seemed close enough to be coming from our car. We ended up pulling over, even though we were in the middle of another thunderstorm, and realized the sound was definitely not coming from our vehicle. We later learned that it may have been cannons that orchardists set off to scare birds away. Phew! By the way, North Central Washington is big on their apples. And here are some photos to end this terribly long and rambly blog post. 

The End!

...or The Beginning!

Who's writing this blog?! Emily is!

OH HEY!

My name is Emily (If you are reading this and don't know who I am, that's pretty cool. That probably means that Karlie and I have achieved our lifelong goal of becoming famous on the internet. We have made some pretty awesome Youtube videos, but they haven't quite taken off yet). I graduated from UVM last December after having student taught in a wonderful kindergarten classroom. Soon after graduating, I got a job as a paraeducator at a school in Colchester, Vermont once again working in a Kindergarten classroom. Then this summer I worked at a camp with five and six year olds, so kids that either just finished or would be entering kindergarten in the fall. Needless to say, I enjoy working with kids. And have fallen in love with Kindergarten just a bit. One day I will go back to being a more traditional classroom teacher, but for now I am doing an awesome AMERICORPS program!

I applied to a variety of Americorps programs in which I knew I would somehow be working with kids. The program I am doing is based out of North Central Washington, and is called Intermountain Americorps (IMAC for short). Yeah, North Central Washington is not exactly a neighbor to Burlington, Vermont so I will explain how I got here in the next post. Hint: I did not fly or disapparate. I am serving in a K-12 school in a tiny tiny town called Pateros. What will I be doing you ask? Well I am still kind of figuring that out. But mostly tutoring, mentoring, planning events, recruiting volunteers, and just being a good role model for these awesome kids. My supervisor was working on my schedule last week but three things I know/think I will be doing are: tutoring 2nd grade ELL students (English as a Second Language), helping with reading in a 5th grade classroom, AND helping in an elementary school band class! Karlie is going to have to help me help students learn how to play the flute and saxophone.

I am very excited to be in a new place, and to be a part of a new school! In addition to serving at Pateros School, I also have a lot of Americorps trainings and meetings with a group of about 30 members. We had our first days of training last week, and it was great to be able to meet new people who are in this area. I can't wait for more!

Here's some of the AmeriSWAG we got after the first meeting. One of the things I like about Americorps is that they like to make "Ameriphrases," so basically any word can be added after "Ameri" to make a cool phrase. So...Amerigear, Ameriswag, Amerifriend, the list goes on...My favorite is an "Ameraffair" which is when two Americorps members find themselves in a very friendly relationship and perhaps get married. 

Who's Writing This Blog?! -Karlie

There are two of us writing this blog. I am one of the two people.
My name is Karlie. I'm teaching pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade general music and chorus in a small town in Vermont. I graduated from UVM in May and after a confusing summer of a brief voyage to China, jam-packed weeks of art with high schoolers at the Governor's Institute on the Arts, and a performance of James and the Giant Peach that took my breath away at Leland and Gray's Summer Performing Arts Explorations, I moved to a tiny town 25 minutes away from Burlington with a cute boy. (Words about how cute boy supports Karlie during emotional breakdowns in preparation for school to come in future posts.)

Cute boy paints cardboard eighth notes to hang in classroom.

My blogging will be a documentation of my first year of teaching... a year that I anticipate will be filled with confusion, mistakes, successes, illness, hysteria, jam hands, rhyming songs, animal chants, hand drums, more confusion, and most likely more mistakes.
So... enjoy. Feel free to laugh at my trials and tribulations, because though I will not be standing over your shoulder as you read this blog, I am currently laughing at myself, so really you will be laughing with me, not at me.

Rita Pierson. Inspiring educators and non educators to be good people and reach out and wrap around the youths in our lives. Watch it. Seriously.