On Their Level (Seussical '08)

The past few weeks have meant spending my entire day at the high school for musical rehearsals, eating fast food, having a spare change of clothes in my trunk, repairing instruments, oh yeah...all while continuing to teach my middle and elementary school string players.

Yes, it is an extreme amount of work/time when you commit to play in a musical.

But...it's worth it! This year, Northern York County School District decided to put on Seussical the Musical at the high school. Some of the best students are in the cast, playing in the pit orchestra, running lights/sound, stage crew, etc. Friday night was our opening night, and it went extremely well. Tonight's performance was equally amazing, with our only snag being the air-conditioning in the theater not working (add spot and stage lights, and almost 1200 people, and it gets into the 90's without a/c).
The most fun, though, is because I'm a young teacher, I still relate to the kids very well. Sometimes too well, to the point where I have to remind myself that I'm still required to be "mostly" professional around them. That said, last night at Al's (amazing subs!) I was one of the last to leave, but we had a great time joking, telling stories of past musicals, band trips, rehearsals, etc. After tonight's show, was the "official" cast party at one of the student's houses. While all but one director showed up, I ended staying until a little after midnight. My junior cellist, bribed me to play DDR against the party's hostess (my cellist is an amazing cook/baker, so she bribed me with cupcakes). The bass player and lead crew-man both talked about their after-party plans to "LAN-it-up" playing World of WarCraft and StarCraft, and invited me to check out their LAN-party setup. I am officially on a few of their Facebook friends lists, and I'm sure more will be coming (especially when the photos are uploading from all the cameras!).
I try to ask myself, "Is this acceptable?" but I remember that most teachers didn't have this technology and these skills even 5 years ago. When my string quartet students are using the WikiSpaces discussions to ask me questions outside of the school day, students are emailing me when they've practiced, and videos links are shared with me through YouTube, I can't help but think this is the way of the future...