SPC - 'Instruments' - #2

I play piano like I speak Spanish. I've received instruction to do so and passed classes that require a certain level of proficiency; I hear it better than I speak it; some passages are quite familiar while more elaborate passages elude me; I understand much of the vocabulary, yet the intricacies of the grammar are beyond my abilities; I know that with practice and study, my skills would improve, even today, but I don't spend the time. In both cases, I have a level of literacy but lack fluency.

SPC - 'Instruments' - #1

So, I'm teaching a class at my alma mater, Anderson University. The course is called -- wait for it -- "Legal Aspects of the Music Business."

We look at contracts that get used in the business and learn major (and subtle) points of negotiation; how to avoid pitfalls (even when the language appears benign) -- all the while, learning plenty about the sometimes tricky language and structure of contracts.

OK, I know you all want to...take it easy, now -- no shoving -- form a single-file line!!

Yeah, it's a class that *I* took when I was there. Pretty exciting. :-)

Despite my background and experience dealing with much of the course material, it takes me longer than I would care to admit to feel prepared to stand in the front of a classroom (something I've never done before) and give what most would describe as a -- ahem -- lecture.

I *do* believe that the course was valuable in my education and I hope that my students do (or, at least, someday will) believe the same.

Minus the anxiety that I feel as time each week dwindles and my feelings of unpreparedness grow, I have enjoyed teaching the class. The very little feedback I've received from my students, so far, has been mostly positive. I'll have to wait until the end of the semester for mandatory anonymous student evaluations.

I believe that if I have the opportunity to teach the class again, that I'll be able to refine and focus the material and approach. I am learning lots. I am certain that this will be a good example of the so-cliché-it-sounds-like-an-Onion-headline, "Teacher learns more than students." :-)

It's a two-credit-hour class, but only meets one time each week in the evenings. To my knowledge, it's always been taught by an adjunct professor. Until very recently, it's always been taught by an instructor with a full-time job! :-)

The photo is me grading papers. I apologized to my class for using red pen all over their papers, but I figured this might be my one and only chance to participate in yet another teacher cliché!

For Self Portrait Challenge - The challenge theme for March is 'Instruments.'

SPC - 'Favorite Songs' - #4

Using Tears For Fears' 80s classic for my final entry this month because - even after seventeen years - I'm still 'Head Over Heels' in love with this girl.

#funnyhowtimeflies

For Self Portrait Challenge - 'Favorite Songs'

Here's an alternate:


I've always been amused at the counterintuitiveness of this idiom. "Head Over Heels," usually is the normal state of affairs, but its meaning is precisely the opposite. A quick glance at my ever-ready American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms says, "This expression originated in the 1300s as heels over head and meant literally being upside down. It took its present form in the 1700s and its present meaning in the 1800s."

This is my...

Four Leaf Clover