new beginnings... again

Today, I was laid off. I am a classically trained bassoonist, but my daytime job for the last seven years had been as a Teaching Artist. I worked with kindergartners a class at a time, twice a week with one or two partners, to teach curriculum using music. An ingenious thing, as the best lessons were always the ones where the kids just learned and did amazing things without even knowing how amazing they were or how difficult these things were. Do you know the word “crescendo”? My kindergartners do, and they can DO it, too!

I hardly thought my job could continue as it was, seeing as about 300 classroom teachers and staff in the district were laid off this year. I may be hired back as a part time employee, and I do hope I am. The five dozen egg shakers and play parachute I bought this year hope I am, too! For the time being, I’ll be free to figure out what I want to do next, something much more easily coped with in the afternoon than in the late hours of a sleepless night.