i was a kid in a candy store today, in the huge file room of our local la mega church, perusing children's worship music for my youth choir. a glow overcame me, my nerdy music ed self. "i feel like i'm coming out of the desert of... 'what the heck should i teach my kids today'", i told my friend. (thanks j, for the hook up)

for this teacher, sometimes heaven feels like borrowing a huge stack of quality sab easter anthems.




update:


it's worse than i thought. i'm almost done playing through all the new material, and i am truly a nerd. singing hosanas to the neighbors and getting turned on by the thought of drum and recorder parts.

i can just see these kids excitement. there is nothing like good music. and i'm refreshed as i begin to have some space to invest in planning ahead, putting my whole self into this work. i'm remembering being a kid, what fun it could be when everything came together, when someone really committed to making something happen for my small life. and i want this for my students as much as i want it for myself. i want quality, i want energy, i want the creative flow.

i want to choreograph eye catching dance moves in pyramid shapes for the indians and tiger lily in our peter pan play. i want the pirates to have great costumes when they do captain hook's waltz. i want our set to really look like a forest in neverland. i want peter pan to fly.

why the f*** not? i spent way too many years doing my job half ass. forget that. it's not good enough anymore, for me or for them.

and so, in 2005. no more half ass. i'm sick of being bored.