Surviving Hurricane Hormone

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog...

What a week! Crazy doesn't even begin to describe it.

Let's see, I've had the unshakeable cold from H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks, a visit from the Essex County Music AST (Advanced Skills Teacher) and a lot of paperwork and stuff to get done.

The AST is awesome. He's been to see me twice now, and I will go see him in December. Beyond that, he'll be available through phone and email for advice and if I need to find particular resources. He's been a super help to me, from helping me figure out what to teach my GCSE group to helping me figure out the National Curriculum.

Definitely a good thing.

And in other good news, I'm going to be the most technologically advanced music teacher you've ever known! I'm going to have computers with composing software and midi keyboards (play a tune on the keyboard, the composing program writes it down...fantastic!!) in my room. Woohoo!!

In other news, Hurricane Hormone has been through and I managed to survive. It's been a bit nutty with the year 9s, as you might have guessed from previous blog entries. Year 9 is the equivilent of Grade 8 in the US, and we all know what that means: they're 13. Run screaming for the hills.

Friday 5th period was about as bad as they've been. Between the deputy head (who comes in every week to assist) and myself, we took HALF of the class out today. But I made tiny progress with one kid, and I was glad for it. He happens to be the son of one of my co-teachers, and I was so happy to give this guy some good (although small) news today.

Overall, I'm feeling very positive. And the cold is going away little by little. I'm still getting used to the English germs. But I'm definitely more into my job this week than I was before break.

Now--the big story. I've never really had any kind of medical thing happen in my classroom--until a year 9 girl had a panic attack in my class today. It was terrifying! The poor thing just sat on the floor and shook like crazy. She was actually hyperventilating. I know just enough about panic attacks to know that they just need to be calmed down, and that it takes time. One of my kids ran to Pupil Reception and brought the lady there back to my room. She has dealt with this before and she was great. She helped my student calm down and gather her bearings, then took her back to Pupil Reception to sit quietly and calm down.

Fortunately, I saw her later in the day and she was just fine. Apparently, she's been having panic attacks the last few months (and has always been of a nervous disposition anyway) and no one knows what is triggering them.

The excitement...and the gray hairs that will surely follow!

And my kids...bless 'em. I heard later from the lady in Pupil Reception that a bunch of them came by to ask after their classmate. I thought that was very sweet. They may act like little wierdos, but they are compassionate.

The forcast says that Hurricane Hormone is coming back for more. I think I'll weather the storm quite nicely...