OMS Choir Concert

So it is over. Tonight was my last time that I will get to share the stage with the youth of Ogallala. After 4 wonderful years at Ogallala, tonight I conducted the OMS choirs for the last time. To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to write. I'm not sure what the purpose of this post is, but I feel that after tonight I owed it to my students to post something.

First off, I need to say that I LOVE working with middle schoolers...most of the time. When one goes through college for education, very little time and effort is spent on middle school education. It is kind of that area that everybody avoids. "Nobody" understands middle school kids. They are unpredictable, stinky, emotionally unstable...They are also forgiving, hard working and loyal.

For the last concert, I didn't expect anything from the middle school classes. Instead, they gave me multiple gifts. To better understand the gifts, I need to explain one of them. The giant ball is called a hoberman sphere, and I use it to teach dynamics. When we use it in class, the kids love it. I always whine that I wanted to buy the big 5 ft ball, but I was too cheap. Well tonight the show choir surprised me with an upgraded, large hoberman sphere (pictured below)

 

The second gift was from one of my 7th grade students. Man does this kid have character. Every day, Timmy comes to my class and tells me that he likes my shirt. It doesn't matter WHAT I'm wearing, it is just his thing. So of course, of anything that Timmy could give me, it would be a shirt. This shirt is serves two purposes, because the students also enjoy the fact that I have no hair. Every day they find some kind of joke that includes baldness. Now some adults would argue that this is disrespectful, but I tell myself that their joking is a sign of approval, a sign of affection. That being said, Timmy used his wit to create the following t-shirt:

The last gift I can't share today, but hope to upload later. After the 8th grade choir was finished tonight, I began to call the rest of the groups up for our mass choir song. As I was talking, I was politely interrupted by some show choir members, who told me they had a gift. I was expecting to receive something like the above items, but this was different. They then proceeded to ask me to go down into the house and take a sit. As I went to take a seat, they all gathered around the piano and assumed a nice posed position. Once I sat, Mrs. Albee began playing and the show choir sang "For Good" from Wicked. I had never taught them this song. I had no idea that this was going to happen. These 28 middle school kids went above and beyond and learned this song to "gift" to me at this concert. They met at 7 in the morning on days we didn't have show choir. At times they would meet at a church, and other times they would meet at school. I felt SO appreciated when they sang this song. I didn't plan on becoming emotional at the concert, but this sign of respect and admiration pushed me over the edge. I really didn't know what kind of a difference I made to these kids, but the looks on their faces, the tears in their eyes said differently.

I could go on forever about how this single act has touched my life in a way I can't explain. It goes to show that it is important to stick it out. That even if you feel like you aren't making a difference, there is somebody who notices. Thank you to my students for showing their love and respect they have for me. Thank you to my MS kids for teaching me that it is okay to be yourself and show that you love music. Thank you to the parents for continually supporting their children and their love for singing. I can't wait to hear about all of the great things that are going to come from these students in the years to come!