Those of you who’ve been keeping up with this blog know that I’ve been dealing with my certain factors in my school system that have not always worked positively in my favor.

My first school as a director, which I praise God for, gave me many good memories and much good ‘training’ – if I can teach there and produce a good band there, I can produce ANYWHERE. It also raised my blood pressure and cholesterol, gave me small dizzy spells and stressed me out more than anything should.

My problem there was not so much the kids – as it was the administrators. To be fair, I made a lot of mistakes my first and second year of teaching. And due to lack of support from administration in addition to being micromanaged, I made quite a few more during the course of my time there.

But God gave me a repreive in the form of my principal during my third year. Kids actually got placed IN THE CLASS for band. My core group that I ‘created’ between my first and second year- stuck together. And by the time they hit year 3 with me, I developed a little powerhouse of a marching band. I proved – first to students, then the administrators who grudgingly accepted the fact that the band actually sounded and looked good – that I was a good teacher. Year four brought one of my VPs into the position of principal. The way the rumor mill has it, he’s always been one of my major detractors behind closed doors. Well, now he got the chance to make his detraction known.

That year was good for me, but also rough for me. Most of my core group graduated and I was in the ‘rebuilding’ stage. But I managed to put a group together and we managed to get stuff done. But not without classroom management problems, paperwork taking forever to get done (yes, I admit to being slow in that area, but being both band AND choir director is the equivalent of two full time jobs) and several other small ‘issues’, the admin folk were determined to try and cut the legs out from under me.

1 O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
2lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.

Hilarious stuff in retrospect. Now to be fair and honest, I had some blame in some things. I did take forever to deal with some paperwork issues that came about from time to time.

3O LORD my God, if I have done this,

if there is wrong in my hands,
4if I have repaid my friend with evil
or plundered my enemy without cause,
5let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
and let him trample my life to the ground
and lay my glory in the dust.
Selah

But in the grand scheme of things, the atmosphere of my old workplace was becoming unfriendlIER by the minute. Any time you have an administrator BACK DATE memos (let’s say back to Nov. 7th) to you to get certain things turned in by a certain time (Let’s say, Nov. 10 by 3pm) and put the memo in your in-box at 2:50pm Nov. 10th after school has let out, you know you’re not dealing with a person with integrity, no matter how much they listen to WAVA.

As time went on, I prayed. And although I grew to loathe (literally) having to deal with the principal of my old school, I still did my best to submit and work my job the best I could. I found myself, at times, wishing for his car to end up in an accident as punishment for making my life hell at that place. Kids had vandalized his car before because he allegedly lied on them, so it wouldn’t be something new in the area of justice.

6Arise, O LORD, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;

awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
7Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
over it return on high.

8The LORD judges the peoples;
judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.

9Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous–
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God!

But I realized wishing ‘hell’ on people isn’t very Christlike. I prayed for justice, but left the extent of that justice to God. I know He will repay and will repay righteously.

One day in February of last year, I had a dream that I should go and ask about transferring out. (yes, that’s the link to the old blog entry on it) Before I could actually say anything, the principal (and this is a violation of my contract by creating a hostile work environment) actually told me “I think it’s best that you transfer.”

Confirmation.

My mind went ‘free’ at the time. I no longer had the shackles of ‘oh no, I’m not going to get any other job’ hovering over me. Somehow, even in seminal form, I knew that God had a better situation lined up for me. So I gave it my all at Central, both barrels blazing toward PGCPS band festival last year. I had something to prove – first to myself, then to my kids, then to the administrators and some other folk who spent time talking about me behind their backs.

A little over one year to the day, I proved that I was not an incompetent idiot, unprofessional or whatever terms you want to use by being the first director at CHS to bring home a score higher than a III at PGCPS band festival in 20+ years. That’s right. CHS was all III’s and IV’s (average or needs improvement), some V’s (why show up ?) and even the year before I arrived ‘Comments Only’ for 20+ years and I broke that curse. The Lord heard my prayer, saw my heart and moved the hearts of my kids to work diligently and moved me toward the right resources so that my kids would sound as good as they did that night.

10My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
11God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.

The year moved forward and I believe that God would come in judgment upon Alexander the Metalsmith who did me much wrong. Little did I know how much more wrong he already had in the works…. but that’s cool….

12If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;

he has bent and readied his bow;
13he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
14Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
15He makes a pit, digging it out,

and falls into the hole that he has made.
16His mischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.

The year moved forward and I prepared my kids for the Spring Concert tha t never happened due to ‘Kerry’s Tsunami’. And the mighty wave that cost me 1 weeks’ pay and an administrative transfer….washed me right into the school I’m at now (which is where I wanted to go anyway!).

17I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness,

and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

Leaving CHS without really saying ‘goodbye’ was a bit bittersweet for me. I had a few kids who really missed me and wanted me to see them graduate (they were freshmen my first year there). But it’s cool – some caught up to me eventually.

But eventually, I let it go. Most folks don’t stay in one location for the rest of their life as teachers – heck, not even one school system! So maybe I was foolish for trying to stay at CHS for 30 years and then retire. I’m glad God had other plans.

Now this year hasn’t been a cake walk by any stretch of the imagination. About 60% of the staff at my school is either 1st or 2nd year in the building and 40% are 1st or 2nd year teachers. Whole new school, whole new school year.

So I get to make some ‘first year’ mistakes again. Middle school is NOT High schoool. But it’s all part of growing as a professional in this field.

Fast forward. As I commented to LaShawn a while back via e-mail, kids in PGC are l-a-z-y and a lot of parents aren’t taking the time to make their kids responsible for their actions. The elementary schools are basically LYING to these kids (and some of my kids acknowledged it today) by training them up to think that ‘all education should be fun!’ and ‘if it’s not fun, you shouldn’t have to do it!’ and ‘follow your feelings!’.

So disrespectful, smart-mouthed, lazy kids have been my challenge this year. Along with parents who swear up and down that their child can do no wrong, even though the kid can make up curse word combinations that even I haven’t thought of (and I used to have quite the foul mouth back in MS and HS).

But through all of this, I’ve pushed and pushed.

Well, my pushing paid off this past Friday when I took my kids to PGCPS Festival and got…. you guessed it…. another II. I even pulled off a I in sight-reading (that’s when they put a new piece of music in front of you and the kids and expect you to play it as perfect as possible).

And of course, being vindicated means nothing unless you see your old accusers go down in flames.

My old school with the new director went to Festival a week before me. No fault to the new director. I don’t think she had a clue of what she was getting into, even with the nice ‘info letter’ I left for her.

They were the only HS band to go ‘Comments Only’…. again.

Meanwhile, my new school’s admin loves me, my principal supports the program and I’ve done nothing but produce since I’m no longer being micromanaged.

God is good and gracious to me, though I don’t deserve it in any way, shape, form or fashion.

But right now, looking at the final score sheets e-mailed to me, I feel like I just won the superbowl.

But it’s not just a II – it’s a I in sight reading. THAT surprised even me. I didn’t know I was teaching them to sight-read over the course of the year and not realizing it.

But it’s not just that. It’s also two kids who decided to show off for their friends getting disciplined by their parents over the past two days that also has me feeling good.

Don’t worry, I’m still real humble about it. But it just feels good right now. The kids did good. They earned it. I’m proud of them.

They ain’t seen nuffin’ yet. Wait till the Lord fully lets me break loose And all the people who spent years talking about me behind my back….