I brought two kinds of cookies today to my students at Child of God.  Originally I had made these cookies in a hurry over the weekend for my Good Shepherd students…but then school was cancelled–

Last night was the Good Shepherd Orchestra concert.  We had missed our last rehearsal on Monday due to the weather, but I knew the students were ready.  The only thing we hadn’t been able to rehearse (as much) was exactly how to act onstage, i.e. getting set up, bowing, etc.  So that was a bit of a mess, but they played great!  We also had a cellist join in, who hadn’t rehearsed at all, but he was advanced enough that he definitely added a nice touch to the group.

The one problem was that I should have double checked tuning before we began.  I had tuned everyone before, but after we got onstage we just got started, and one of the student’s violins was somehow completely out of tune.  He noticed as soon as we started and became very upset.  I felt awful, but there was nothing we could do until the end of the piece.  Two things I learned:  remind the kids not to freak out if their instrument is out of tune and just to remain calm and get my attention in between pieces, not DURING, and secondly, to double check tuning right beforehand.  Nonetheless the students did very well, especially since we missed the last rehearsal day.  Congratulations to them!

Back to today:  I needed to have all the Child of God students meet together and I wanted to run through the entire program, which is all of the pieces they know, from Pre-Twinkle Express to Perpetual Motion plus Jingle Bells.  (Obviously not all the kids play them all, but several do).  Behavior is an issue with several of the students, so on Monday I told them the plan:  IF they could be quiet and practice the run through with 10 minutes to spare, THEN we would have cookies.  If not, then no cookies…

I also threatened if anybody forgot their instrument they would not be allowed to perform on Friday.

We almost didn’t make it.  One of the girls forgot her instrument, and was crying (it’s not a teaching day if somebody doesn’t cry).  However, she was one of the students who always remembers…this was her FIRST time forgetting!  I told her IF she played the program five times between class and Friday she could still participate—I wasn’t wanting to punish them especially a first-time offended. (Yes, I’m soft).  Then her violin showed up anyway!  One student’s bridge fell over—he claimed he had no idea how that happened (I saw him and another student collide…).  The instruments were all badly out of tune.  Three children claimed bathroom emergencies.  Everybody had questions about where to stand, when to play, what song were we playing, etc.  BUT somehow we soldiered through and played all the songs with ten minutes to spare.  I was so glad as I did not want to take home these (less than) homemade cookies.

I made two kinds—gingerbread and sugar cookies. (One of the students has a peanut allergy, so no Monster cookies or anything super-fun like that.) Both were from cookie mixes to save time, and both were iced.  The students preferred the gingerbread, but then again, the sugar were slightly burnt.  And yes, they asked to trade for not burnt ones…and returned the burnt ones to the tin rather than tossing them out.  They also asked why I didn’t bring the pumpkin ones from before. But they all said THANK YOU and I know they will be good on Friday night for the performance.

Whew. One more student performance to go before vacation!

Edited to add HBBC stats:

HBBC:  30 minutes cardio/strength: 2 points