Improv Class! Characters

Today my favourite of the teachers we've had so far taught and it was an abnormally small group, only twelve of us, so there was a lot of time to try things and really get into things- which is always a treat.

We played a game called "hot seat" where you come into the space as a character and then everyone else gets to ask you whatever questions they want. A good way of doing this for anyone, but especially as beginners, is to base your character on someone that you know. Because there was no impetus to work on setting a scene or develop a plot or anything like that, it meant that all of your energy as an improviser could go directly to fleshing out who your character was.

It was riveting.

The bar was set frighteningly high by the first few people to go- the characters were heartbreaking and breathtaking, fully fleshed out and interesting. Because we weren't sharing *our* stories but instead our *character's* stories it meant that everyone felt very free to hand out secrets, to be open, revelatory, and honest. It was incredibly intimate; it was an honour to be entrusted with these characters' stories. At the break we were actually hugging each other- it had been such an intense experience.

I chose a friend of mine and was shaking before my turn. "I don't know how she's going to answer these questions!" I thought, certain that I wouldn't be able to give as authentic (it wasn't really a performance... an experience?) as everyone else had. And then there she was. Or someone rather like her in any case. I had about 12 minutes of answering questions and she didn't even pause. Best of all, she was internally consistent and her motivations were clear with later statements making references to earlier statements and everything making sense. One of my classmates later said that he got so angry with her. Not me, her: such strong opinions about everything. She really rubbed him the wrong way.

Man, that was exciting.

Mid-Term break for the Tykes

The tykes have two more days left in school before a two week long mid-term break. Though I am not overly pleased about the hit that my finances will take in those two weeks- I am thrilled, thrilled that the tykes will be having a break. Because today? They were monsters.

Classes went alright- the nursery classes are getting quite good at singing along with the emotion cards and one of the three totally has this whole "high" and "low" thing down. One of the other nursery classes totally has the whole "pig pile Miss Casey as she is trying to leave" thing down too.

The reception classes were mostly willing to sit tight and wait for their turn when conducting with the emotion cards and man-oh-man did we rock out with our vocal warm-ups.

Even garden time was nice: I made the mistake of running onto the field with the thought that if I got out their quickly- then everyone else would follow and we wouldn't have any of this straggling business. I misunderestimated (yes, misunderestimated) the effect that this would have. Namely that I then had to spend the whole of garden time running around playing reverse tag with 45 children.

Reverse tag: where the tykes are yelling "catch me! catch me!" while attached, limpet like, to your leg. The goal, really, is then to detach yourself in order to run to the other side of the field where you then wait for the swarm of tykes to catch up again and repeat their taunts. The secondary goal is to avoid as many pot holes in the field as possible so that the swarm doesn't tumble to the ground and start crying.

So actually- the only real issue was music club. Keeping in mind that music club has *20* tykes. The tykes are from all of the different classes so they don't necessarily know each other very well and there are some pretty significant size/attention differences between the youngest of the nursery children and the eldest of the reception children. All in one room. Just before mid-term break. After a long day's slog through school.

My usual tricks for calming them down/focusing them failed miserably. We tried using the Lycra where we bounce some teddy bears up and down- they nearly ripped a leg off of the medium bear. We tried Simama Ka- but half the kids had never heard it before and couldn't be bothered. We tried bounce and bounce and bounce and STOP- but the role play house in the corner was far more interesting, and besides: there were fights to pick!

There was kicking, yelling, tattling, rolling about on the floor, squishing, and poking. There was not much listening.

Fortunately Linda brought out the books again and that finally calmed enough of them down so that we could just sit for a bit and not pull tykes off of other tykes.

So what I'm saying is this: have a wonderful half-term break little ones. In two weeks you'll come back and we'll start learning the Christmas songs...

I swear not all of my posts are about tykes

But this one is.

You know how I told you that I would tell you if I got that other job? I did. (Oh, and I get to work extra hours at the first school when I want to too.) We start next week and I am in charge of the intro to music class for 4-6 year olds. I gather that the parents are rather a force to be reckoned with at this school so I am spending the rest of the week and weekend writing up a term's worth of lesson plans, making homework sheets, and drafting a letter to the parents about What We Will Be Learning.

I'm excited, looking forward to actually setting down all my thoughts and plans about this class. It is a new, start up school so the pay is less than stellar- but I would actually do this for free- so getting paid is a bonus anyway and I have a new practice arena! With even more tykes who don't speak English!

The school has just hired a new musical director and he is amusingly nervous. I mean, I'm nervous too because it's a new school and I'm going to need to be much more goal oriented with what I am teaching the tykes. I need to be clear from the outset what I am planning on teaching them and why- so challenging and whatnot. He is just jittery though. Worried about which set of percussion to buy. Worried about what the correct rhythmic Sol-fa syllables are. Worried about the fact that he is going to be teaching primary school students when his experience is exclusively with 16+. I told him it would all be okay.

Things I would not have thought of had we not discussed it: French Sol-fa or English? (one syllable difference); fixed Do or movable? (corollary: sing on "la", Sol-fa, or letter names?); English, American, Canadian, or French duration terms?; etc.

Really interesting.

However, as this meeting was after an action packed day at the races and continued on rather more lengthily than I had anticipated- I was glad that I had packed myself snacks. (Things I've learned from my mother: Wear layers. Pack snacks. Take up space at meetings.)

I walked to the bus stop through the park as the light was fading. It is so autumnal now- brisk weather, colored leaves, flocks of geese silhouetted against the sunset.

Sweet.