Judy heads to school at her regular time. I’m out the door, not too far behind her. I have to make a lot of copies and there are always complications, since the copier “prompts” are all in Chinese. I also have to print the originals first, which means finding a computer not in use, attached to a printer. It’s been a long time since I’ve boarded the trains this early (7:45 am). They’re crowded but no more than usual. I’m able to find a seat for the longest stretch of the ride, which is 8 stations.

After getting the originals printed, and the copies finished, I head up to the music room (4^th floor). We have schools from the US beginning to visit this week. These are schools where our 10^th graders stayed in the US during the semester break in January/February. We’re returning the favor, and they’re beginning to arrive. Apparently, my classroom is the “hangout” area for St. Margaret’s from California. After verifying I’m still having class in the room, I begin to shift all the tables and chairs, setting up for my combined class of 38 students.

My classes go well. The 11^th grade class where I was being observed went especially well. We worked on memorizing the first verse of the school song. It took several attempts at “convincing” the students to sing louder, but after the 8^th restart, they began to believe I was serious about achieving a higher level of enthusiasm. We also touched on the “Happy” arrangement I’ve been working on, but it’s going to be more difficult to put together.

After class, I eat lunch, and then make sure the classroom and materials are ready for the 10^th grade music elective, the last two periods. After school, there is a faculty meeting. Normally I have orchestra club, but the students haven’t organized themselves yet for rehearsals with all the weird schedules they’ve had the last month. Most of the faculty meeting is a discussion led by our counselor, David, about college recommendation letters for students. The information is good and well delivered. A problem I never considered relates to translation of letters from the Chinese teachers into English, and how that’s going to be handled. I can remember several times trying to read assembly instructions from something built in China that had been “translated.”   There was always a high level of confusion. It’s important for the students’ futures these letters are correctly translated, with solid English grammar. How that’s going to happen is a serious discussion.