Teaching Teachers, Part 2

I love teachers.  I absolutely love them.  I loved being a teacher and I love my teacher friends.

It has been a very busy summer of working with teachers.  I've been a professor for a literacy assessments course, a co-instructor for a math methods course, a research assistant for two different professional development math courses.  All four populations of teachers were decidedly unique, and I enjoyed working with each one of them.

There was one very obvious commonality among the four groups:  all of these awesome professionals are dedicated to improving their practice for the benefit of their students.  As I have written about in previous posts, I miss teaching.  A lot.  But having the opportunity to work with teachers is pretty great, too, and I found myself so impressed with these individuals' commitment to and passion for teaching.

It infuriates me when I hear people say that teachers have the summer off, because good teachers NEVER get the summer off.  They are continually working, reading, planning, taking classes, buying supplies, finding resources, and doing a million other things for their students.  I have witnessed first hand over the last few months how hard so many teachers work, giving up family time, vacation time, relaxation time to deepen their own understanding of math and literacy.  The impact these teachers will have on their students in the coming years cannot be overstated!

I could not have anticipated how fun it would be to teach and work with all of these teachers over the past several months in such a variety of ways!  I learned so much from them and they have helped me to develop my skills because teaching adults is a completely different experience than teaching children!

So teachers, thank you.  You are amazing!

Happy Tails to you!

John Williams

We went to Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts for the first time last night and it was fabulous!  We saw the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Emil de Cou, along with members of the Washington Chorus perform the music of John Williams.

The weather was perfect, stars filled the sky, and the performance was amazing.

John Williams.  Musical genius.

The greatest concert I have ever attended was with my mom and dad when I was 16 years old.  We saw John Williams conduct the Boston Pops at the Hollywood Bowl.  I cannot imagine any concert topping that one.  Ever.

I began piano lessons when I was 8 and French horn lessons when I was 12 and from that time forward, I was completely in love with classical music and orchestral music and musical scores of all kinds.  I even dabbled with the trumpet and went to music camp for four summers during high school.  Had anyone asked me during those years who I would choose if I could meet any person alive or otherwise, my answer would have been John Williams.  Hands down, John Williams.

So even though the conductor last night was not John Williams, the music was John Williams and I knew it would be great.

  

Before the concert, we spotted some unusual characters mingling with the crowd.  We later learned that they were part of the show.  Thank goodness…I initially thought they were just audience members who decided to dress up for the show, which would have indicated some pretty impressive commitment on their part.

Although we were told that photography was not allowed, people were taking photos and no one was reprimanding them, so during the finale, I snapped a few quick pictures because it was so entertaining that I just had to capture it!

Darth Vader took over conducting responsibilities

In addition to John Williams, there was a tribute to James Horner, who passed away in June.  He wrote the scores for Titanic, Apollo 13, and Braveheart, among many others.  The orchestra and chorus performed My Heart Will Go On and it was absolutely beautiful.

Here is the list of pieces they played last night:

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Lincoln

Jurassic Park

Jaws

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Home Alone

Catch Me If You Can

Titanic (James Horner)

E.T.

The Cowboys

Harry Potter

Star Wars

Encore:

Superman

It was such a wonderful show!  I was brought to tears several times simply because the beauty of the music overwhelmed me.  Jurassic Park, E.T., Harry Potter, and Star Wars were particular triggers for the waterworks and I was reminded why I have loved John Williams for so much of my life.

What an icon.

Happy Tails to you!

Shania Twain

Last week, we saw Shania Twain in concert at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC.

In general, I am not a fan of country music, but there are some exceptions.  Shania Twain is undoubtedly the biggest exception that statement, because I like pretty much all of her music, from the early, very-country-sounding songs, to the pop music that followed in later years.

According to Wikipedia, she was born in Windsor, Ontario, but moved to Timmins, Ontario when she was 2.  I had never heard the Windsor story before, because Timmins is my hometown and Shania Twain is definitely thought of as being from Timmins.  I've enjoyed telling people that I am from the same hometown as Shania Twain, but apparently that is not entirely accurate.  Don't care.  As far as I am concerned, we are both from Timmins!

We saw her in 2003 during her Up! tour and it was a great show, so we had no doubt that she would entertain us once again.  We had seats in one of the 300-level suites, and it was amazing!

Gavin DeGraw was the opening act and he was awesome.  It was the first time I've ever truly enjoyed the opening act of a concert!  He performed for about 45 minutes or so and I really can't overstate it – he was so good.  Here's his set list:

Soldier

In Love With a Girl

Fire

Sweeter

Chariot

Best I Ever Had

Big Shot (Billy Joel cover)

I Don't Want To Be

Not Over You / Heaven (Bryan Adams cover)

I loved every minute of his performance, including when he came out into the crowd, high-fiving and shaking hands, taking selfies, and interacting with fans.  Usually the opening act is something to be tolerated, but Gavin DeGraw is not really an opening act, in my opinion.  Too many great songs!

After a brief intermission, Shania took the stage.  What can I say?  She's the epitome of "superstar" and delivers such a high-energy performance!  She did a ton of her hits, was completely charming, and sounded great.  The stage and the effects were impressive and the big screens allowed for some cool scenes/images to be displayed.

Shania's set list:

Rock This Country

Honey, I'm Home

You Win My Love

Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?

I Ain't No Quitter

Love Gets Me Every Time

Don't Be Stupid

Any Man of Mine

I'm Gonna Getcha Good

Come On Over

Party For Two – with Gavin DeGraw

Up!

Today is Your Day

No One Needs to Know

Still the One

From This Moment

That Don't Impress Me Much

(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!

Man! I Feel Like a Woman (encore)

As you can see from the photos, she really does put on a great show!  At one point, she selected a little girl from the audience to join her on stage and the little girl sang "Honey, I'm Home" to the whole crowd (well, a few lines repeated multiple times, but still!).  It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Supposedly this is her farewell tour, but I hope that's not true.  I'd love to see my hometown girl out on the road again in the future!

Happy Tails to you!