We have a thriving population of gerbils at school. They have habitats in every room. The elementary cage is of the kind with a plastic bottom and wire sides. I don’t recommend this kind of cage, but it was a gift.

Last month we had a Saturday program of First Aid training. I asked Britton to clean the gerbil cages prior to the program since they were beginning to smell. On Saturday we checked the gerbils and all was fine. But that Monday morning when I arrived, I noticed dust bunnies all over the elementary floor. Upon checking the wire gerbil cage, I noticed (who could miss) that the two wire sides were completely open! And many of the gerbils had escaped. All that day we caught gerbils. And the next. We caught what we hoped was the last escaped gerbil about 2 weeks later. It was a black one and by that time we could not reintroduce him into the rest of the community. Carl got another cage from upstairs. This cage used to be an aquarium and it had a small hole in the top for the pump tubing.

Well, it only took that fellow a couple of days to find that hole!!!! Another escapee! Argh!

It took a while to find that gerbil. He had learned the strategy of running along the top of the baseboards so he could not be seen under the cabinets! Smart critter. By the time he was caught, we had commandeered the extra cage for separating the genders of the remaining gerbils so our population would remain stable. So, we put him in a deep trashcan - with a tray over the top and a little crack for air.

Monday morning when I arrived at school I noticed that there were gerbil dropping ON TOP OF THE TRAY!!!!! Of course, the trashcan was empty.

We have a gerbil who chooses to live free. He is an escape artist par excellence!

Several things have happened recently that have reinforced for me how important music is, not just for adults, but for our children, too.

At the beginning of the year, Georgi and I were discussing which students to start on formal recorder lessons. Hand size, reading ability, and attention span are all part of the mix for determining those younger students who are ready for the challenge. As the year has progressed, I realized that I missed an important factor for one of my students – the joy of music. This student routinely chooses the music maker for producing music. I talked with Georgi about allowing this student to start “late” as it were, but she was reluctant. Then, we had the perfect opportunity. With the older students leaving for Tremont last week, there were fewer students taking class, so she said to give this student a try when she could give more attention.

Learning recorder entails practice, just like any other skill. All the older students have classes, but not all of them practice. Some progress faster than others because they practice daily (and some students even practice their piano at school, too). Our new recorder student has already found many opportunities to practice. As a child who stays late, there is aftercare time in addition to normal class time. I’m so glad that Georgi agreed to let this student start learning recorder so the joy of music will continue to flourish in that developing soul.

During the Tremont trip we had another music “incident.” I let the students who did not go on the trip choose numbers from 1 – 12 and then illustrate the items for the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song. We also started posting a new decoration for each of the remaining 12 days of school before the holidays. Once these processes started I kept hearing undercurrents of the song during the work cycle. And at odd moments, a student here or there would simply burst into song! I have to admit that I was beginning to feel a little crazy over hearing that song on and off all day long. Until…

One of the students started humming a piece from Dvorak! Each week we play a different composer during reading time and last week was Dvorak. I was absolutely thrilled to realize that even the classical music is finding its way into the consciousness of our students.

On a completely different note:

I want to apologize for not posting very often this year. I know that many of you look forward to hearing more about what is happening in the classrooms, but my schedule takes me out of the school more than I would prefer. And while I am gone, my time is dedicated to Carl’s dialysis treatments. If you haven’t noticed, he is feeling world’s better than in the past few years as his kidney functioning was declining. We hope that in time a new kidney will become available for him allowing us to resume more interaction with all of our community.

Several things have happened recently that have reinforced for me how important music is, not just for adults, but for our children, too.

At the beginning of the year, Georgi and I were discussing which students to start on formal recorder lessons. Hand size, reading ability, and attention span are all part of the mix for determining those younger students who are ready for the challenge. As the year has progressed, I realized that I missed an important factor for one of my students – the joy of music. This student routinely chooses the music maker for producing music. I talked with Georgi about allowing this student to start “late” as it were, but she was reluctant. Then, we had the perfect opportunity. With the older students leaving for Tremont last week, there were fewer students taking class, so she said to give this student a try when she could give more attention.

Learning recorder entails practice, just like any other skill. All the older students have classes, but not all of them practice. Some progress faster than others because they practice daily (and some students even practice their piano at school, too). Our new recorder student has already found many opportunities to practice. As a child who stays late, there is aftercare time in addition to normal class time. I’m so glad that Georgi agreed to let this student start learning recorder so the joy of music will continue to flourish in that developing soul.

During the Tremont trip we had another music “incident.” I let the students who did not go on the trip choose numbers from 1 – 12 and then illustrate the items for the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song. We also started posting a new decoration for each of the remaining 12 days of school before the holidays. Once these processes started I kept hearing undercurrents of the song during the work cycle. And at odd moments, a student here or there would simply burst into song! I have to admit that I was beginning to feel a little crazy over hearing that song on and off all day long. Until…

One of the students started humming a piece from Dvorak! Each week we play a different composer during reading time and last week was Dvorak. I was absolutely thrilled to realize that even the classical music is finding its way into the consciousness of our students.

On a completely different note:

I want to apologize for not posting very often this year. I know that many of you look forward to hearing more about what is happening in the classrooms, but my schedule takes me out of the school more than I would prefer. And while I am gone, my time is dedicated to Carl’s dialysis treatments. If you haven’t noticed, he is feeling world’s better than in the past few years as his kidney functioning was declining. We hope that in time a new kidney will become available for him allowing us to resume more interaction with all of our community.