January 17

I have the strangest teaching schedule.

I am at school #1 on Monday, Thursday, and Friday and school #2 on Tuesday and Wednesday. I am the only music teacher at school #1, but at school #2 there is a music teacher who comes in and teaches only a few classes on Thursdays, so I never see or talk to the guy - just share supplies in our closet.

At school #1 I have 4 classes in each grade (K-5). I see 3 of the 4 classes in each grade for 30 minutes and the 4th class for 60 minutes once a week. Fair enough. I can work with the extra 30 minutes, no problem.

School #2 is where everything goes NUTS. I have 2 classes each of Kindergarten, 2nd, 3rd, & 5th grade and one 1st and 4th grade. But at this school, some of the classes are split into A week and B week - which means I don't have the same schedule every week, instead I have to think in 2 weeks at a time. During the A week, I see a 3rd grade class and 5th grade class for 30 minutes in the morning, and then return to these same 2 classes for an entire hour in the afternoon. But during the B week, I see these same 2 classes for 30 minutes in the morning, but in the afternoon I visit a different 3rd and 5th grade class. You do the math. This means one 5th & 3rd grade gets 2 hours of music, while the other only gets an hour - every 2 weeks. This also happens in 2nd Grade - only one 2nd Grade class sees me for 30 minutes EVERY Tuesday, in addition to an hour on Wednesday during the A week. The other 2nd Grade class, I only see for an hour on Wednesday for the B week. Again, you do the math. 2 hours for one class, but only an hour for the other - every 2 weeks. Meanwhile, I visit one Kindergarten class 2 times a week for 30 minutes, but the other only sees me once a week for 30 minutes. And if that isn't enough, the other music teacher at this school has a "Recorder Ensemble" that meets with him for an hour every week. It is only a select group of 3rd Graders, which messes with my 3rd Grade recorder lesson plans because some of the kids have been playing their recorder since September, while others have never touched them.

Please don't take this as a complaint, but it makes lesson planning each week VERY difficult and time consuming. Instead of planning for 6 grades, I have to "double plan" and write a separate lesson for those classes that meet for the additional 30 minutes and in some cases, additional 60 minutes - and it drives me insane!!!!!

No rest for the weary.