Montreal, round two

I got into the school much easier this time, understanding that I had to bend my ear down to hear the "click" when the door unlocked.  The children were much quieter today.  There were no incidents amongst the class.  It appears that their behavior last week was an aberration.

Mr. Ed put me into a room with Spock and Martin, a sixth grade saxophonist who recently came from New York.  The door closed behind me, and I'm thinking to myself, "Dammit, Mr. Ed, I'm a trombonist, not a saxophonist!"  Spock plays the trumpet, and neither one of us knew much about saxophone technique.  I have a woodwinds class slated for next semester; a fat lot of good that was doing me right now.  Spock and I worked with Martin on fundamental skills, like maintaining a steady air stream, and rhythm.  We took turns creating exercises for Martin, and working through his beginner's method book for saxophone.  He was a little shy, but he responded fairly well to our instructions.  He did not retain everything we taught to him; I told Martin to be patient with himself.  I told Martin that twenty years later, I am still working on perfecting the skills we were teaching him today.  I told him that if he does the work, his skills will develop.

The period ended, Martin left for his next class, and the eighth graders began to file in.  Again, the children were much quieter today, with one exception; a boy, who was not in Mr. Ed's class, quickly popped into the room, slapped another boy in the head, and left.  The latter stopped for a moment, processed what had happened to him, and followed the other boy out into the hall.  Mr. Ed was in his office, and did not see this happen.  Greta came in late, and spoke to no one.  I did not see if she did or did not participate in class.  As class began, a staff member (it was unclear what position he held at Montreal) came into the room looking for a particular boy.  I don't know if the two incidents were related.  Mr. Ed told the staff member he would keep an eye out for the boy.

Mr. Ed put Spock and I into a practice room with Nancy.  Her project for today was interviewing Spock and I.  She asked us standard questions, like our names, were we from, how old we were, etc.  She was a precocious little sprite, and she took pleasure in bossing us around, especially Spock.  She was a little smart aleck too; she was so proud of showing us her results from her interview.  I apparently talk a lot, and am bad at telling jokes.  Spock, sadly, has a bad haircut.  After the period was over, Mr. Ed told us more about Nancy.  Nancy is one of his strongest performers.  She is also 15, and still in eighth grade.  She was held back one year when she was younger.  Mr. Ed told me that Nancy is very bright, and it is hard to keep her engaged.  She gets bored easily.  After spending a period with her, I could see how that could play out.

Later that evening, I got a chance to speak with my private teacher (I'm taking piano lessons with his wife in preparation for the upcoming proficiency tests).  He worked in public schools as a music teacher for years, so I knew he could be a resource.  I talked with him for about 20 minutes about Martin, and got some valuable insight for him as to how to instruct him.  I also got an idea about some basic saxophone technique that I can help him with next week.