Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Painful experience yesterday (Thursday). Never mind the reasons, but Jas stays behind after school for three days a week to practise.

I had Julia and Lili's Buttons and Maltesers in my case for their after school session. Never mind why again but the session could not happen, so I was able to go home early. Jas wandered in just before I left. I was about to offer her the choice of either Buttons or Maltesers to keep her energy levels up when I remembered, just in time, that her teeth braces mean she cannot have sweets and chocolate.

I felt I was guilty of child cruelty as I packed everything away and waved her goodbye.

--------------------

Lili is the sort of child we do not meet every day: monumental intellect; musical talent; wonderful sense of humour; huge zest for life; unfailingly kind and polite; loving.

I have just taken on a similar child at school 2. Meet Emily. Same characteristics as Lili. I have met many in my career who share the same characteristics as Lili and Em but being clever, not searingly bright - Masie and Georgi for example.

Save for physical characteristics, Em and Lili could be the same girl. I sent this home to Em's mum tonight after her second lesson with me:
I like to write home when kids do something funny or cute during their piano lessons. Em managed both today.

I asked about her instrument at home last week; she answered with the information that there is a grand piano in the 'music room'. This was wonderful news to me but not the point of this email apart from it starting to paint a picture of a family not entirely without resources.

I asked Em today, "Darling, you have a brain the size of Jupiter. Kids like you do not tend to have idiots as parents. Are you a high achieving family?"

We are familiar with people offering information as if not sure it is noteworthy - rising inflection and softening of volume at the end of the sentence so that it sounds like a question. Came the diffident reply, "Well, my parents are both doctors," uttered as if to ask, "Does that count?"

I could have teased her with, "No. Of course not. Every child's parents are doctors," but decided not to - she does not know me well yet, although I think she has me summed up.

Sweet children are inclined to say, "Sorry," whenever they make a mistake in their lessons. Em is one of these. This does not annoy me but what I want is for them to giggle when they do something 'wrong'. This adds to the already happy atmosphere I am trying to create.

You probably know what is coming but I will write it anyway. I said to her, "Angel, you never need to apologise for making a mistake, so stop saying 'sorry' every time you do."

Came the inevitable and invariable response in this situation, "OK. Sorry." Giggles.

A few seconds pause then, "Oops. Said it again. Sorry." More giggles.

She was starting to break the habit by the end of the lesson.

I had a wonderful time with Emily today. Thank you for bringing her to me.

:xm: :rocket:
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Another exchange between a parent of a child, Poppy, at school no 2. Mum is also a teacher at the school.

Poppy is one of those kids who likes to adopt a ridiculous hand shape whilst also refusing to use her thumb. There comes a point when I have to do something about this or there is no piano playing future for the child in question.

I decided to tackle the problem today and so taught the glorious Poppy to play a 5 note sequence (C - G) from thumb to little finger whilst maintaining a workable hand position. After that, it was time for bribery, Here is the email I sent to mum earlier:
Ehup Sarah

I have to do something about Poppy's ridiculous hand shape when she plays and her ludicrous wish to play without using her thumbs. There will inevitably come a time when she will not be able to progress.

I showed her today how to play from C to G whilst maintaining a good shape with her right hand.

I am a great believer in bribery and corruption when teaching, especially when it is something important, so I have promised Poppy a box of Maltesers if she can repeat the exercise next week.

I am just checking that this piece of bribery is OK with you.

Cheers
Came back her almost instantaneous reply:
LOL I love this idea!!! Bribe away
No doubt I have written this before but in regard to the behaviour of the likes of Saville, Harris, Hall etc, we teachers have to be sooooooo careful.

Great to be shown such instant faith by a mum.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

I was doing some extra lessons in school 1 this afternoon. Megan failed to turn up so I wandered up to Miss to find out if she was in school. The poor love was poorly and had gone home at lunchtime, so I decided to give Little Lilly an extra extra lesson (she has an extra one already tomorrow. We are talking blatant favouritism here).

Miss calls through the the relevant classroom in these situations and asks for a victim to be sent for a piano lesson. The school is full of wonderful teachers who never refuse.

Lilly arrived for her extra extra lesson. She said, "I heard the phone ring and thought, 'Please let it be an extra piano lesson for me. Please. Please. Please. And it was.' " :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

---------------

Jas arrived for her extra lesson earlier in the afternoon, dressed in her Games kit. It had arisen somehow during her timetabled lesson on Monday that we have a mutual loathing of football.

She announced gratefully, "You are getting me out of football." Come the end of her lesson and with 20 minutes to go until a change of her class I asked, "Do you want me to fake you having a double lesson on you music pass so you can stay here and do some homework instead of footy?"

"Yes please, but I will go down with 10 minutes to spare so I can change with everyone else."

Yes, I know I should not play tricks like that, but is there really anyone reading this who was not grateful as a child to be allowed to avoid something you hated? Not me, for sure.

-----------------

Then came senior choir. Evalina and Masie originally teamed up for showing the best in teen lunacy. I still hand them a tissue each at the start of each rehearsal.

Latterly, for vocal balance reasons, Miss has teamed E with Faith. The two instantly became besties. Mind, Ev is so unutterably gorgeous that I suspect she would become instant besties with anyone she is seated next to. Anybody normal that is. Bastard Putin might be a bit of a stretch.

E and F concentrated totally on the singing.

At the same time, E was knitting (yep, you read that right, a teen knitting) whilst F held the ball of wool and thread the strand through to E. The girls looked as though they had been doing it all their lives.

I was not feeling strong enough to ask E what she is knitting. Perhaps next week. It will be something ridiculous.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

More from last week.

Both schools were shut today so that there could be 'teacher training'. This came up in Bailey's lesson earlierin the week - everyone loves a shortened week. She speculated about all the teachers in the land being hearded together in the same vast hall so they could be 'trained'.

I asked her, "What do you think would be a collective noun for a huge group of teachers in the same room." Baily loves playing with words.

She thought for a few seconds then came out with a pure class reply. "A Detention."

-----------------

Remember how Eva has recently gained her Red belt in Taekwondo? My hands were freezing cold so I asked her, "Darling. My hands are freezing. Do you mind if I warm them up on your neck?"

She grinned at me and replied, "You could always try. I might let you live."

"Fair point." :smile: I gave her a hug instead.

------------------

We pianists tend to fall into one of two camps. We can sight read stuff easily, so we cannot memorise because we learn the notes instantly; we become piano accompanists. We are rubbish sight readers and so memorise easily because it takes so long to work out what the notes are that we have them memorised by the time we have learned them; we become soloists.

There is a small third camp, that I belong to. I have a substantial soloist career behind me. I am a rubbish sight reader. I am a sensitive piano accompanist - not me claiming this but have been told so for decades. (There is a miniscule third group of outrageously talented people who can do both; I hate them).

Being a sensitive accompanist is great and I love it. Being a rubbish sight reader means I usually have to learn the piano part for anything I accompany. Remember Little Brown Jug from a few years ago? Look back for a laugh at my expense if you are new here.

I teach James, a gorgeous 11 year old at school 2. His progress has been phenomenal. He also plays the tenor horn and asked me last week if I would accompany his upcoming G4 exam. We had a look at the piano part. Not a chance of me sight reading it, so I brought it home to learn. Who needs weekends? Overrated.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

One more from last week that I forgot to tell you.

Miss P and I go back quite a long time these days. I first met her aged 16 when she was a pupil at school 2. I accompanied her violin exams, taught her the piano and theory. Now in her early 30's, she is a professional violinist and teacher.

School 1 had a hopeless violin teacher. I finally persuaded the department to take on Miss P instead. She was an instant huge hit. This came as no surprise to me; she is the lovliest human being I have ever met - and I am 71 at the time of writing, so I have met some greats.

Making an early start one day last week for exam recordings with me as accompanist, Miss P was teaching so I looked in to say hello. She was teaching Lois at the time - you first met Lois when she was viciously assaulting Beethoven's Fur Elise come every possible break in rehearsals for Blood Brothers just before the pandemic struck and turned our world upside down. Read back a few pages for details.

Gwenny you all know. Evie not so much but trust me folks; she is gorgeous. I said to Miss P, "Lois, Evie and Gwenny form one of the best friendship groups I have ever met. I worship them."

It was a couple of days before we had to start paying for electricity again. :lol:

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Another quickie from last week.

Gwenny has been having a ball rehearsing with the scratch orchestra for the upcoming Xmas concert and asked to be more involved.

So Miss instantly handed her the piano parts for the rest of the carols saying, "We will bring down a second piano for you." We do not turn kids away who want to be involved in something musical.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

I am lazy these days and catch the lift up and down between ground and first floors. From there to the corridor that turns off to the performing arts department is a long corridor known as, "Main Street."

There is much entertainment to be gained on the treck. Today, two very small children were walking towards me - a girl and a boy. Clearly Y7 i.e. rising 12. Y7 appear to be quite tiny this year.

They had just been involved in an activity using coloured balls. Boy asked girl, "Would you like your green ball back?"

Girl replied, "No thanks. You need it. You don't have any balls."

Just in front of me. She saw me start to giggle.

She blushed, held her hand to her mouth and exclaimed, "Oops. Sorry Sir. I did not mean it to come out like that."

"Don't worry darling. I know what you meant."

Girl and boy ran away giggling.

------------------

I did one of my regular clean outs of Jas' jacket pockets today. Awe inspiringly terrifying amounts of stuff came out of her pockets. The process must have taken about five minutes. She has an extra freebie lesson booked for Wednesday, so no need to worry about the wasted time.

-----------------

I was just finishing off my after school lesson with Gwenny when Jas wandered in having finished off her after school practice in The Dungeon. She immediately started to draw on the huge board that is computer controlled and that I understand nothing of. Back in my day, it was white chalk on a black board. I am old.

Remember that Gwenny and Jas are cousins and friends and so know each other well? I asked Gwenny, "Would Jas take any notice of me if I told her to sit down and leave the board alone?"

"No."

I am always up for entertainment from the kids so I said, "Let's test this out."

I called out sternly, "Jas. Sit down and leave the board alone."

"No."

Gwenny announced, "Told you."

I snarled, "Jas. Sit down NOW or I will give you a detention for insolence."

"No you won't," came the complacent reply.

I left the two Certifiable Nutters making yet another excellent rendition of Peppa Pig. :clap:

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

The current fav game amongst the pre-16 year olds at school 1 is 'marriage'. A kid will proclaim that, "Such and such and I are married."

Jas arrived for a piano lesson last week at the end of Bailey's lesson and announced, "Bailey and I are married."

Then she announced, "Ethan and I are also married."

I pointed out that being married twice in this country is bigamy and that the bigamist will go to prison.

Jas thought for a few seconds and then announced, "I am telling Ethan that we are divorced."

--------------------

This all happens amongst close friends. Joey and Megan are in the same most glorious group of Y10 (rising 15) students I have ever met. This same group are travelling to London tomorrow to see the opera, 'Tosca'. Megan was finishing a lesson today when Joey pitched up for hers.

Joey announced, "Megan and I were married last week."

"Was it a tasteful ceremony?" I asked.

"Yes," came the reply, "we tied the knot over lunch, with string in our hair." She finished me off with, "Our honeymoon is our trip to London tomorrow".

Dingbats. Nutjobs. :D

------------------------

Those of us involved with educating kids are familiar with management/administrative balls-ups that could damage our students if not challenged. The last two weeks brought out a real doozy.

Before moving on, I think you folks probably 'get' that there is nothing legal that I will not do for the wonderful young people who bring such joy into my life day after day after day - and that anything illegal would have to be really, really bad before I would say, "No".

Thingy is, I tend to let the kids know how fond I am of them. Adore a kid and it will adore you right back. In spades. Sounds familiar?

So my response was instant when Miss 1 said to me last week, "Admin have told me that Megan's parents have not been paying for her piano lessons for the last three terms and that she is going to be taken off your timetable."

My response? "No she isn't."

This came as no surprise to Miss 1, who would have said the same under similar circumstances with one of her singing pupils.

Trouble was, the Admin bod in question is new to the school and is determined on a, "No pay - no play" policy so Miss and I faced an uncomfortable few days trying to sort something out.

Miss explained the situation to Megan yesterday. She came for her extra freebie lesson today so I explained that there are no circumstances under which I would accept termination of her lessons. She replied plaintively, "My mum has evidence that she has paid," so all I could do was reassure her again.

Music teachers all over the land are frantically busy right now. They should not be sorting out admin crap that should be taken care of the admin staff paid to do so.

Even so, MIss decided to go into the files and instantly found the payments made by Megan's mum. It turns out that Admin Bod is new and is rather hard line about payments for stuff. Whilst not understanding the systems. It looks like the school have managed to recruit and Admin Bod who is no good at admin.

"Rather like schools recruiting managers who are crap at managing," I hear a lot of you say.

So loads of stress and the possibility of a kid in floods of tears just because an Admin Bod is an idiot.

And that is before I go on to describe the muck up she has made of the timetable for next term. That is another story.

Hey ho.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

Poppy came back with a beautiful hand position, so Maltesers dutifully handed over.

There is another box on offer if she repeats the process with her left hand next week.

After that, the process starts to get a bit pricey.

Both hands at the same time.

Then it starts to get really pricey as we get into maintaining decent hand shapes whilst playing actual pieces.

Hey ho. I wish you could meet this glorious child.

----------------------------

Poppy is at school 2. I got together a couple of days ago, with the choir in prep for our Christmas concert in a couple of weeks' time. This is not like school 1 where we meet every Weds after school hours; Miss 2 and I would make it thus but it is not possible so we meet as and when.

Fact is, I adore the kids in the choir. No surprise there - they are kids, after all.

Nothing funny to report. Just heart warming stuff about a couple of adults keen to help fantastic kids have a lovely time. It is what we do.

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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SteveHopwood
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Thingies that happen to Steve in his other job

Post by SteveHopwood »

I have told you about Evalina before - little refugee from Ukraine that we saved from possible fates that do not bear contemplating.

To recap, I first met Evalina back in around September. I was walking towards the huge glass doors at the exit to the building. The sun was shining through and making it hard to make out who was in the area. Evalina had her hair done in braids a la Julia so I assumed it was her and went to say hello - as in, bounced up yelling, "Ehup sweetheart. What are you doing?"

A clearly frightened little girl announced, "I no speak English." I made what I hoped were conciliatory gestures and made my escape before I could scare her more.

A few months further on and this glorious little girl has become a major part of our lives in the Senior Choir (mind, she will have become a major part of the lives of everyone who meets her unless there is something wrong with them). I came across her in the same position this evening and sat down next to her for a chat. She hurled herself into my arms with a cry of, "Hello Sir."

Courtesy of Saville, Harris et al, we teachers in the UK have to be a tad on the paranoid side of thingies when it comes to our relationships with kids. Despite that, when a child hurls herself into my arms I am not capable of coldly thrusting her away.

So I held her close and safe and we chatted. She broke away and announced, "It is my birthday today."

This time it was my turn. I yelled, "Happy birthday darling. How old? Come close," and we cuddled again. It turned out to be her 14th.

Remember being 14? Lucky thing. I don't.

E happily described all the presents she had received and were to come that day. She talked about her parents and her siblings. I could not always understand what she was saying so if in doubt I smiled, hugged her closer and replied, "Wonderful."

I cannot go to school 1 tomorrow and so will miss Senior Choir. I told this story of meeting E to Miss 1 and asked her to make a huge fuss of E. I asked her to take in a box of chocs for the kid and that I would pay for. She replied,
Hi,

She is such a special soul and I am so so glad she came to us and auditioned. I have never had such a memorable audition ever, and I don’t think I’m going to forget in a hurry.

She wandered in and I asked her what she is going to sing. She burst out laughing and then every time she calmed down, just started laughing again. Eventually we got a beautiful Ukrainian song and she was in!

I’m going to the shop after school, so absolutely I will pick something up for her birthday and we can all be crazy!
Gorgeous.

--------------------------

The certifiable nutjob Julia excelled herself. She had a terrible cold and was feeling dreadful. Her lesson, that she had been determined to attend, finished at the start of the dreaded and hated Silent Reading.

I forged her music pass to look as thought she had taken a double lesson and let her slump in a corner whilst I tortured my final victim of the day - Jas. Jas did not turn up - it is the time of year for colds etc in all UK and Western European schools, so no surprise there.

We were in room 146. This is the music department's computer room - 149 is the keyboard room. So lots of cables. Lots of cables = lots of untidy tangles. Julia hates untidiness. She stood up 10 minutes from the end of day bell and started tidying all the cables attached to about 25 computers.

She finished just as the bell went so I asked, "Do you feel better now?" "Yes," she replied triumphantly and marched off to meet Lili.

-----------------

Nothing to do with the kids apart from how ridiculously difficult it is to spell correctly in English. We once had the opposite of 'baldy' being 'well', not 'goodly'. After all, the opposite of 'bad' is'good'.

We had in the snippet just above this, 'tidy' and 'untidy' spelled with a 'y' yet 'untidiness' with an 'i'.

No wonder that most of us Brits cannot spell without the aid of that wonderful squiggly red line. :arrrg:

:xm: :rocket:
Read the effing manual, ok?

Afterprime is the official SHF broker. Read about them at https://www.stevehopwoodforex.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=175790#p175790.

I still suffer from OCCD. Good thing, really.

Anyone here feeling generous? My paypal account is always in the market for a tiny donation. [email protected] is the account.

To see The Weekly Roundup of stuff you guys might have missed Click here

My special thanks to Thomas (tomele) for all the incredible work he does here.
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