student teaching

Hi Family! Sorry that it has taken me so long to write an update. School has been crazy busy but really fun. As most of you know I graduate in December and I am doing my student teaching right now to finish up my last semester. I am at two different schools. Since I am majoring in music ed I will be certified k-12 so I am student teaching at a high school and an elementary school. My high school is Sandia High School and it is less then 5 minutes from our apartment which is great. The choir program there is amazing and about 150 kids participate in 5 different choirs, most of them participating in 2. My mentor teacher (Shelly Andes) is great and giving me lots of teaching opportunities. I am pretty much in charge of the mixed choir made up of mostly first time singers. They are really a sweet bunch of kids. My mentor has also agreed to use my candle company for a fund raiser. Over fifty kids have signed up to sell and I told them that they can take all the profit because this is going to be great advertising for me. Plus I really wanted to help the choir/school out. I am at the high schools Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. They don't have choir on Thursdays so I head over to the elementary school. They schedule will last until about October when I will be at the high school only in the early morning for the mixed choir then over at the elementary school for the rest of the day 5 days a week.
My elementary school is Manzano Mesa Elementary. It is about 10-15 minutes from my house. Carla Haynes is my Mentor and she is amazing. She has more energy then any one I know and the kids adore her. I have been doing mostly observing since I am only there once a week but I so get to play the games and dance with them. They are so cute and I am absolutely in love with them. The more I am there the more open I am to the idea of teaching elementary music. I also thought I wanted to do middle school kids but now I am not so sure.
I'm still teaching privately on Saturdays and selling Candles whenever I can find time and life is great. I can't wait to be done with school. It was so much work but I am very glad that I finished. Hopefully Bob can get on soon and fill you in on his semester. I really don't know enough to write anything. Take care and we hope to hear from everyone soon.
Emily