Sinking My Teeth into Choir

One lunch recess many years ago, I was in front of my Junior Choir directing them through a song.  The accompaniment was on a cassette tape recorder (I told you it was a while ago) that was on the floor at my feet.  In the middle of the piece, a grade 5 student just to the right of me fell forward.  Had I been one foot further right, she would have fallen into me.  Had I not been looking towards the left part of the choir, I would have seen her.  In either of these scenarios I would have been able to prevent her from falling face-first to the floor.  All I saw was a motion out of the corner of my eye and a collective gasp from the choir.  I looked down and saw one of my own homeroom students, lying face-down on the floor, her limbs twitching.

The first thing I thought of was a seizure.  I quickly bent down to help and heard one of the front row students scream, "What's that!"  I looked to where she was pointing, a few feet from the fallen student and saw a tooth, root and all, on the rug.  The student had fallen face first onto my tape recorder and knocked out her front incisor. 

Just then the bell rang signalling the end of recess.  I pointed at a student and ordered, "Go get the principal!"  As the rest of the choir hustled out, I turned the student over and cradled her and her bleeding mouth until the principal came rushing in.  The student was by then conscious enough for us to walk her to the nurse's room (no nurse, but there was a room).  I had picked up her tooth in a tissue.  I gave it to the principal and told him that it should be put in milk. (Somewhere I had read that milk provides a fairly good electrolyte match for a dislodged tooth.  Gotta love trivia when it's useful.)  I soon heard an all-call for anyone having milk left from their lunch to bring it to the office immediately.

A short while later the principal returned, a cup of milk in his hand, to tell me that they had called the parent, who had called the dentist, and had then called us back.  "The dentist said the tooth needs to be put back in the socket,"

"Ok," I replied, "I'll hold her hand and you go ahead."

"But she's your student, Rick." 

Long pause.

I reached into the cup, fished out the tooth, and making sure it was lined up in the right direction between my thumb and forefinger, I said, "Open up your mouth, honey," and I shoved that tooth as far as I could into the bloody socket.

The next morning she returned to school with the tooth cemented to its neighbour.  "The dentist said it will probably be OK."

And three years later during her Grade 8 Graduation, I noticed it was doing just fine.

The Farmer in the Room

My friend, Peter Steckle, is a local farmer, who I met in1980 when we were both cast in our first show with Windsor Light Opera.  I was doing a food/farming unit in Social Studies and asked Peter to come into my 5/6 class as a guest.

When I was introducing him to the class, there was a bit of sniggering going on.  He was, after all, a friend of their teacher, and the first 'guest' to visit our class.  I reminded them to be respectful and courteous.

The kids loved asking questions and I know Peter enjoyed his time as well.  He was particularly impressed with the quality of the questions the students asked.  When he was finished, I came up to the front to thank him and the tittering started again.  I was perplexed because they had been so good all period.  That is until Peter pulled me aside and whispered, "Rick, your fly is open."

Nonchalantly exiting into the hallway, I returned intact and actually a bit relieved - I had figured there had to be a reason why my class was behaving less than politely.  I had just figured on the wrong reason.

Necessity - The Mother of Invention

Three of the five 4' x 8' x 2' risers that Bob Hadju and I built.

They combined to give me a 20' x 8' additional proscenium stage for my musicals.

 

Flats attached to the back wall of the stage to create wings and ways to cross from left stage to right stage.

Stage entrances and wing space created with hinged 4' x 8' x 3/4" plywood panels.

One of three freestanding spot light poles.  Not the best looking, but they did the job.


























One of three six-foot high mic stands that could stand on the floor (so as not to pick up foot noises) in the front of the proscenium stages for area micing.  Created with scrap black pipe and old cymbal stands.

The flood lights in the ceiling of the stage are controlled by a switch backstage where there is no way to see what is happening on stage.  To solve this, for every show I would connect a wireless on/off switch up on the lights so my lighting team could be out front and control the stage lights.  (After each show I would unwire the sensor - to eliminate the need to explain what is was if it was discovered,)

Home made foam rubber sound insulators so the microphones that would sit on the stage would not pick up sound from the actors' feet.

My "Winter Singers" choir would often have well over 100 junior students.  To cut down on attendance taking time, each student would take their name tag off of the cork board and drop it in a coffee can as they entered the room.  The name tags that were left were absent kids.  Afterwards, there was always a kid who loved to put them back on the nails.

 Blew the horn in my old Traynor PA.  Had a couple of piezos collecting dust - voila.  Ugly but it works.

 An old 10-speed handlebar became a hanger for extension cords.

An old snare stand, a tennis ball and a plastic foot off of a stereo receiver became a trumpet stand (and saved me $20).

 

Glockenspiel mallets cost $30 for a pair and I have 5 glocks!  I got tired of breakage and loss, so I bought a giant bag of tinkertoys on eBay for $9 and I have had an inexhaustible supply of mallets for years.

When I moved into my new music room, I complained about the lighting being insufficient at one end of the room.  They sent someone with a light meter and I was told that the reading was within tolerances.  I said that regardless of what the meter said, the students sitting there had insufficient light to see their music.  In the "summary" that I was sent it was suggested that auxiliary lighting could be used.  So, off to Canadian Tire to get a shop light.  It ain't purdy, but it works and it was on sale.

Shelves for music folders are expensive, however, magazine racks at the dollar store and a few screws...

When the bass players get too loud during warmup (damned Rock and Rollers!) I had to get their attention and tell them to turn down, blah, blah, blah.  So to cure the problem, I ran an extension cord from the power bar on my desk to the back of the room and plugged all the amps into it.  When I need to, I just hit the switch.  Easy-breezy.

Djembi and hand drums are very, very expensive.  In order to give everyone the opportunity to hit something, I called an acquaintance who owned a bottled water company and got a bunch of "leakers".  I cut a hole in the top, the students turn them upside down to play the bottom and... instant conga drums - for free!

Whenever the heat comes on in my room, it would blow right at my mouthpiece sterilization station and the kids would complain.  Rather than ask for a replacement (which would require a work order and 27 years waiting) I just taped up the side that was the culprit.

When moving equipment or chairs or any stuff into the gym, the doors close and bang into the kids and their equipment.  I made wooden wedges to hold the doors open, but they were forever going missing.  A simple length of rope, looped to a nearby door handle solved the problem.

When my students were rehearsing in the hall outside my room, if the bell to change classes went off, it was deafening.  Duct tape to the rescue.

I needed risers for my choirs, so I made six 8 foot x 12" x 12" ones.  They are stored in the garage, look the worse for wear, but have been used innumerable times.

 







 
















 

 A class set of xylophones (technically, they'd be glockenspiels) slowly acrued @ $1 apiece at garage sales.

 Because my room is attached to the gym wing, they could not hook me up to the air conditioning for the rest of the school (our gym is not air conditioned).  My room therefore has its own unit on the roof.  A few years ago it was decided that the Board Office would control all of the heating and cooling in all of the schools.  Which means if the temperature is wacko in a school room, the teacher calls the office, the secretary calls the board office, and an adjustment is made (theoretically at least).  Because my unit is self contained they decided that a locked plastic case would be put over my thermostat.  A flute tuning rod just so happens to be able to fit through a hole in the case.  Funny that.