Good Things to Share

So after a really long, exhausting, stressful, and emotion-filled first week of school, I decided that to kind of help my sanity, I needed to pull a "Dr. Bell" and list the good things of each day.  Obviously, I won't post every single day, but today is the first day, and I haven't posted in a while.  Anyway, here they are for today...

1. I started 20 students in my fifth grade band today.  Not bad, considering that there are only 33 fifth graders total :)  My high school band has 23.  A couple more years and my band will be HUGE!!
2. I have 34 students signed up to be in the elementary school choir.  My high school choir has 22.
3. I had a really encouraging email from a parent this morning.  Nothing specifically about me, but it just made me happy because she was supporting her daughter's decision to be involved in music.  It almost made me cry.
4. My sixth graders are FINALLY starting to sing with a supported sound and they sound GREAT!  My third graders are not too far behind, either.
5. I got a monitor in my office, so I can finally work IN the band room instead of in the lab upstairs.
6. My SMARTboard is being installed tomorrow!
7. I have really great friends at the schools I teach at.
8. I have a great family that loves and supports me from 5 hours away.  I got to talk to my mom and skype with my sister and Danny.
9. My last ILNC paycheck was way more than I thought it would be, especially considering that I only worked 4 days of the pay period.
10. I got the new Activate! magazine and it has LOTS of world music lesson plans.  PERFECT for this fall, because our theme for Grandparent's Day is around the world!