As jamiahsh so aptly put in his blog, the talent show last night was exactly as advertised. I won’t say it was too much prayer, since a local church was the host, facilitator, and the final say in all things. It was their show. Also most of the talent was from local church groups, it was bound to be a religious event. That being said the talent supplied a very good show.

My bias to my youngest and her group does not prevent me from saying they were not the best group out there. I do believe one member of the group was the best talent in the event. A wonderful performance on the violin. My musical skills are almost nonexistent. I tend to notice flaws in performances by watching the face of the performer. If this young lady made a mistake while playing, her face and body language never showed it. For me it was a flawless performance.

The young lady who sang the selection from “Phantom of the Opera” also blew me away. I don’t care for that type of music, and really never appreciated the show, so this is saying something. She would have been my second place finisher.

The praise group that performed an inspirational skit to music was also very good. I could acknowledge the hard work and talent that went into the performance, but it did not have the spiritual affect on me that it had on so many others in the audience. A fine performance, surely in my top 5, but not my first place choice at all. Number 3, sure I could see that. They did have home field advantage and I’m very certain that threw them into first place.

This was a mostly entertaining show. I do feel the judges have watched to much reality TV. It was as if they thought more of their commentary than they did of the performance. So many times I was very confused by the commentary and following scores. Like I said, I know very little about music, but I do understand human nature. I feel they wanted to give each performer a sense of worth, but then gave their real feelings with the scores. I can’t help but feel that this confused the performers as much as it did some of the audience.

This was a 3 hour show, and it could have been cut down to two hours without some of the judges banter. Their were family, friends and community members in the audience. I’m sure they really couldn’t have cared less about the judges’ opinions. They wanted to see the performance.

Now one final thing. This was definitely a way to showcase the talent in the area, but it was also a fund raiser. A perfect formula for a fund raiser too. Lots of talented young people of High School age and younger given a chance to appear in a individual showcase of talent. This brings in a lot of family and friends. The auditorium was full. At 6 to 10 dollars a head, this was a very good fund raiser. One suggestion for them in the future. Open up the try outs for a good will offering. Many groups did not get in to the final show. I’m sure many more family members would have wanted to see that.

As for the YouTube… I would need to check on that. Too many minors in the acts. Trying to get permission of the talent and/or parents involved?? We are a small community, and I’m sure many parents would be against having their kids on the internet. If I can talk my youngest into letting me, I can get her vocals on YouTube, but only with her permission.

Fun evening except for the judges…

I don’t usually care for Christmas music before Thanksgiving. A little quirk of mine, true, but a quirk all the same. Tonight it was a little different. Family and friends (and a whole bunch of other people) got together for a dinner and show. It was a fund raiser for the High School Show choir, so the meal was exactly what I expected. The show itself, while way too short, was wonderful for me.

Can a father be more proud? Watching my youngest perform in the show choir was an experience I will not forget. The rest of the show choir was good too. My view was a bit biased. I had eyes for one lovely young lady. I would love to describe the show but words about that escape me.

What I do remember is a show from 5 years ago. Two other daughters performed in another dinner/music show. While not the show choir, it was another wonderful show. It was also the last show my wife saw any of her daughters in. Early the next week she was in the hospital. Two weeks later, we were told things were very bleak.

This is where my thoughts tend to go this time year. It can be very difficult to go to these events when my thoughts turn in this direction. I really wasn’t thinking of it when it started, it just kind of flowed with the evening. Sometimes I wonder how long this will happen to me. At least I don’t break down and cry now. That doesn’t happen much anymore, just kind of a sad feeling. I guess that is better. It could be worse.

I have four beautiful, talented daughters and it is wonderful to see them in whatever they do. Tonight was no exception, even with my melancholy.

You have spoken (or rather, not spoken- that is, no comments) and it seems that my links posts are not welcome.  Whether it be the links, retrogaming, or whatnot, I guess I need to stick to the teaching posts.  Right then.

Today I was a teaching assistant.  It’s okay- in the district I was in subs get paid the same whether it’s teaching or assisting, unlike the other three districts where assistant subs get paid far less.  In one district, in fact they get paid half the amount of teacher subs!  I was actually supposed to sub in a junior high, but they canceled so I got my choice of this position or a preschool teacher.  No choice at all…  Of course, when I got there I was in charge of three kindergarteners, so maybe not a win after all.  Well, it really wasn’t bad at all.  The three actually worked very well and I didn’t have to intervene a great deal.  This was a special education class, so I wouldn’t have expected that considering my experience in these rooms in the past.  Unlike the regular kindergarten students these three were there the entire day.  They were mainstreamed into the same classroom twice in one day which one would think would give them them the same instruction twice, but they must have worked out a schedule with the kindergarten teacher because while they were in there a total of almost three hours between morning and afternoon they did not repeat any instruction.

In the morning following announcements I brought them to the regular class where they worked on an assessment of their number and letter skills as well as their self-image, and then followed with science.  I feel I’m missing something, but it is so late I can’t think of what.  Anyway, they had to color and label the parts of a flower.  Oh yes, there was a worksheet that they completed and got checked off for as well.  Finally recess, then I brought them back for calendar and computer time where they typed up (with the help of the specialized software) the calendar info and practiced writing their addresses and phone numbers.  By coincidence, two of them had the exact same numerical address, though of course the street was different.  A teacher was supposed to be there to help, but she had observations to do and they were short a sub, so they pulled her sub somewhere else.  Probably because I’m a “certified” sub and could be with them without a regular teacher.  Anyway, as a teaching assistant I had to go with them to lunch and help where needed.  When they went out for lunch recess I finally got my lunch.

In the afternoon I went to a music class with a second-grade girl for a half-hour, then it was back to the three tykes.  In the afternoon K class they did reading and math.  Get this- they were given decks of cards and played war!  I guess number recognition was the key here, but after a couple games of mostly standard war they added the two numbers together instead, but then still won the cards or not by regular war rules.  Back to the self-contained class again, and back to the computers.  This time I had to watch them use the computers to make sure they went through the program the way they were supposed to.  Finally, the teacher came back, had them pack up, did a couple of dance songs (chicken dance and hokey-pokey) with them, and then finally they were ready to board the buses.  Whew.  Long day, and long post.  It is now past my bedtime for eight hours of sleep.  Goodnight.

Okay, trying to make people say Resurrection Day instead of Easter is just pointless. If you’d like, Happy Resurrection Day! The celebration of Jesus Christ’s victory over death is upon us once again! Hallelujah! No, I wasn’t calling you over, Hallelujah (private joke: there is a boy named Hallelujah in one of the classes I teach). Now that you’re finished cheering, I have a Godtube video to share. Godtube is like Youtube (ya think?) only it’s all about Christ. My pastor showed a video in church a few weeks ago that really shows using dance/drama what God’s love is all about. He loves us so much He went through the humiliation of becoming a man and the pain and suffering of becoming a sacrifice- the sacrifice for us. Anyway, on to the video. Let me see if this works…

<edit> Nope. I guess we can’t embed videos- hey C, any way we can turn this feature on? like embed, target = _blank also gets cut out of the code when trying to make a link open in a new window. Anyway, here’s the link:

[godtube]https://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5[/godtube]