Crazy routine- delightful and unexpected!

Two phrases stuck out to me when reading my daughter's blog last night:
http://www.foreignheart.blogspot.com/
(please excuse the shameless plug)

"....routine.......crazy"

"..delightful, unexpected, life things..."

So, because she was asking for guest writers for this week (and it's already Thursday), and because I am enjoying a wonderfully relaxing day while my students are at an honor choir, I am sharing this tiny space of ...space... with her.

At some point in everyone's life, if they are productive and passionate and purposeful, (please note alliteration- I worked very hard at that), they find out that, oddly enough, routine and crazy actually work out very well together. The key is realizing that each have their time and place, and knowing when to roll with routine and rock with crazy. Flexibility! Those of us who are control freaks have a hard time with this, but believe me it's one of the most valuable lessons to learn in life. Side benefit: aids in learning to trust our Heavenly Father!

Which leads to the second phrase rolling around in my head. If we are flexing, trusting, rocking, and rolling, we will discover "delightful, unexpected, life things!" Those serendipitous moments that push us out of our routine and into crazy. Those "out of control" things that happen when we least expect it, but we learn to cherish because of their infrequency. Things like unexpected compliments, deep conversations, touching compassion, random acts of kindness, surprise encounters.
Enjoy your crazy routine, my daughters. In it you will find the delightful and the unexpected.

Coaching

I've been thinking a lot about coaching the last couple of weeks for a couple of reasons.


First, my oldest son is in his first season as head football coach in a large school in Michigan. They are in the State Playoffs, and are 2 games from playing in the Championship game in Detroit on Thanksgiving weekend. We talk a lot about getting the most from our students, about preparing them to do their best, teaching them skills, about motivating them, pushing them, helping them to reach their potential when they have no idea what that is. We have a lot in common. Which is why the back of my musical shirt says: Coach.
We had a great conversation last night. He was telling me about the things he was doing to prepare his team for their big game Friday night. Things like: practicing at a school that has turf and setting a curfew and giving nutritional guidelines to parents. In the beginning of the season, the boys were unsure about their new coach. He had a lot of schedules and requirements. He was disciplined and organized and he expected them to be. He accepted no excuses and pushed them. Hard. But now they trust him because they have been successful. They will go to bed early, eat the food on the list, and show up ready to play because they trust him and they know that everything he asks them to do is important. Wow does that sound familiar.
As I think about Bye Bye Birdie, I remember the schedules and the requirements and the expectations and the discipline and the organization. And every one of those things are important for the success of the show. Every piece of the puzzle is calculated to culminate in a show that we are prepared to perform and can be proud of. Thank you, parents and students, for trusting me even when you weren't sure that what I was asking was all that important. Thank you for digging down deep to respond when I kept pushing you. Thank you for paying attention to detail. Thank you for helping each other. Thank you for making my job so enjoyable. Thanks for the memories of our oh-so-wonderful Bye Bye Birdie production. It was a joy.

Go CAM Cougars! Musical date changes!

There is only one reason why I would re-arrange the rehearsal and performance schedule for the musical because I am very committed to sticking with the dates that were published at the beginning of the school year. HOWEVER, when musical cast members and successful football team members end up being some of the same people, changes are necessary.

So I find myself in a good news/bad news kind of situation. I LOVE football. I have three sons who played football and our oldest is now a head football coach in a West Michigan town slightly larger than Atlantic. Our sons were also musical. They each had the lead in a musical during their senior year of high school. So the balancing act of keeping lots of balls in the air is very familiar to me. I am also highly committed to making sure no athlete or musician is put in a position where they must choose between the two. So the good news is: CAM Cougars are undefeated and are headed to the State playoffs, barring injury. And now for the bad news: We must be creative about getting in enough rehearsals to also make the musical a success.

Some background: The reason why we schedule the musical for the first weekend in November is because that is usually a week without any sports practices.....unless of course the teams are being highly successful and are going on in tournament play. This year is, of course, one of those years.

SO- here are the newly scheduled rehearsals and performance dates. I sincerely hope that we can have both a successful football team AND a successful, entertaining musical. Your support is needed and greatly appreciated.

Monday 10/27: 6-9
Tuesday 10/28: 7-10
Thursday 10/30: 7-10
Friday 10/31: 7-10
Saturday 11/1: 10-1 (new)

Monday 11/3: 6-9 if no football game
Tuesday 11/4: 6-9
Wednesday 11/5: 6-9
Thursday 11/6: 6-9
Friday 11/7: 6-9 if no football game
Saturday 11/8: 10-1 (new)
Saturday 11/8: Performance
Sunday 11/9: Performance (new)

and...........We're Off!!

The calendar propels us into the new school year, ready or not! I seemed to be in the NOT READY category for various reasons, but gradually I'm getting there. Between moving my children here and there (foreign countries, college transfers) and my own travels, it has been a very busy summer which I thoroughly enjoyed. But now I must turn my thoughts and energies to creative musical preparations (would you like to see a cameo appearance of the faculty barbershop quartet?), sequencing All-State music (how many times will it take me to get the counting right?), ordering music (what can we learn quickly for Homecoming?), and a thousand other details that seem to get lost in my foggy mind from time to time. Sometimes I think I have Hilary Clinton's disease: "I'm sorry, I can't recall........." (If you didn't get that, you are not old enough!!)
Here is some information you may be interested in: 1)I will be organizing a team of extras for the musical that will not need to be in vocal music and will only commit to coming to the last 2 weeks of rehearsal. To put it simply: I need more guys. Send them my way! 2)Yes, your kids will need to bring their computers to my class as well as the others. I have some activities planned that they will enjoy and will be delivering them on Moodle, which they should be familiar with unless they are freshmen. I'm also going to try to keep the calendar on Moodle so if you are unsure about a time or a rehearsal and the paper rehearsal calendar didn't make it home to the fridge, you can check it out on line.
There are lots of ways you can contact me: school phone, cell phone, email, blog. Please let me know how I can help you!

Off and running........
Mrs. Nichols

Bye Bye.........Summer

I hope your summer has been as wonderful as mine; filled with family, hard work, great play, and spiritual growth. Now it's time to begin to think about the new school year and the challenges it will bring.

What challenges, you might ask??
Well, the biggest one will be the production of our musical, which will be...................
Bye Bye Birdie!!!!! IF we get enough students enrolled in vocal music we will have a great time with this 1950's story involving an Elvis character. I really need each vocal music student from last year to bring along at least one friend so we will have enough people. Remember that students can join vocal for only one semester if they want to. The reason why we expect those who want to be in the musical to enroll in vocal music is because much of our rehearsal takes place during class until the last week in October. The last week of October and the first week of November will be filled with after school and/or evening rehearsals and this is where we pull the whole thing together. Of course, we work around football and volleyball when we have to. This schedule has worked very well for us for the last several years, and limits the amount of evening rehearsals we have. Auditions will take place shortly after the beginning of school, so recruit, recruit, recruit!!!

Mrs. Nichols
ps
You can read a synopsis of the plot at the school web site under Activities: Vocal Music

Hello CAM Vocal fans! I'm SO sorry that I haven't posted since April, for goodness sake!
I'm going to try to do better now that I have the World Wide Web in my very own little office at HOME.
I've been thinking about all the music that has happened since contest and even during the summer so far. Let's see--we sang ABBA songs, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat songs, prepared for Graduation, and Lucas sang at the Alumni Banquet. Students or former students have sung in New York City, churches in Cass County, and led music at Bible Camps. You'll see them at the Relay for Life and the July 4th celebration in Massena. We are just so busy spreading the joy! And I couldn't be prouder. One of my goals as a teacher is to help students be comfortable sharing their music in the community without me- taking their amazing abilities with them into their bright futures.
For right now, I'm taking a bit of a musical break, but you know how to reach me if you need me. I'll be ready to go at it again in August, but I'm not quite there yet. Let's see, I think I need about 40 more days of vacation! :)
Enjoy!
Mrs. Nichols

Another Contest in the Bag

I was wishing just now that I had some pictures of contest to show you, but that would mean that I remembered to take my camera last Saturday, and that I had time to take pictures.
But neither of those things happened. So you are going to have to use your imagination and picture 14 TALENTED kids singing their hearts out all day long and bringing home 9 I's and 4 II's- which is AMAZING. I love contest season for one very big reason- I get to work individually and in small groups with my students and I get to see how much they progress (which is relative, of course, to how much effort they expend!). I'm so proud of this group. You might notice that we are missing some faces in the picture, but they were with us Saturday: Riley Groves, Colton Carr, Jessica Thelen. We are also missing Erin Steele, of course. But some great news- she is being released from the hospital today!! We are so thankful that we will see her again soon. Special memories of Contest 2008: Jenna singing like a trooper through a sore throat; Mixed Trio getting totally lost in their difficult acapella piece but ending together and totally impressing the judge!; Shy Ellisa bravely singing a solo!; our FANTASTIC men's group; being the best Chamber Choir; Cassidy remembering Amazing Grace lyrics just in time :); Colton's introduction of his duet with Cassidy (you'll have to ask him); Brave Brett taking a solo for the first time as a junior; and the audience reaction when Riley finished his solo.
Unforgettable. Thanks, everyone. You make me smile.