BHS Primary Observation

My observation day for Mr. Certalic's early morning orchestra did not begin on a good foothold. Having failed to anticipate the snow that accumulated overnight, I found myself rushing to get ready and make it to the classroom on time. On my way out of my onto 19th from Garfield, I had a small fender-bender with the car in front of me. The accident was completely my fault, and although there was no damage to her car (and only a small dent on my already beat-up, old Subaru), I still felt extremely bad for what had happened. The other driver was extremely courteous, stating that the roads were terrible, and wishing me safe driving the rest of my way.

I made it to the Orchestra classroom ten minutes late, and although I was not the latest MSU student that day (Austin received that honor), attention was still brought to my tardiness once the class had started. Mr. Certalic introduced us all, and used the rest of the period to show us the different warmups we could choose to teach the ensemble in two weeks' time. To say that I was intimidated was an understatement. When Sallie asked if we had to play the violin when introducing the warmups next time, I knew I was not the only non-string playing individual there who felt daunted by Mr. Certalic's ability to lead his ensemble through warmups and showcase his amazing talent at the strings. We discussed which areas we would tackle the next time we were to enter his classroom, and I immediately jumped on the final section: folk songs. I had grown up in a household that regular played bluegrass and other fiddle tunes, and although I, myself, did not play the violin past 5th grade, I knew that I would feel the most comfortable with this designation. I ended my observation nervously anticipating the next teaching episode, thinking for the next two weeks (when I wasn't sick on my couch with the flu watching Doctor Who) of how I might introduce my portion of the warmups to the students, and generally forming a game-plan for my next teaching episode.