YCDSB Retirement celebration, October 16th

Florinda and I attended the York Catholic District School Board retirement celebration last Tuesday evening held at the Venetian Banquet Hall.  I have been invited to these celebrations for years, hired to bring students to provide music.  I did it with Father Bressani CHS and later with St. Elizabeth CHS.  It was nice to see all the students from Saint Elizabeth in attendance this particular evening:  vocalists and instrumentalists.  Each group of students invited me to take photos with them - it was special.  There was food, speeches, conversations, and kind words expressed when each retiring person is invited to the platform to receive a gift and shake hands with trustees, director of education, and superintendents.  I enjoyed seeing some former colleagues in attendance as well.  Florinda and I enjoyed the evening and the clock gift with engraving is a nice touch.  I am pleased to attend and it was extra special with the students providing wonderful music in the lobby, inside the dining room area and the National Anthem.  I send an email to Principal Heinrich expressing my congratulations on the showing of Saint Elizabeth CHS music department students and teachers - professional and artistic contributions to a beautiful celebration.  I spoke also with the new Director of Education, hoping to count on his continued support of Music Alive Festival!

Change of Identity

I was thinking the other day that I no longer have a “music-teacher” identity;  my identity has changed.  For over thirty years, I dedicated time and energy to be the best I could be at the teaching career.  Of course, this required much research, observation, networking, reading, team-work, listening, exploration and discover; trial and error, developing my strengths and strategies to working with young adults, showing them that I was passionate about music-making and I cared, and was (serious) about this passion - I cared about young people and I wanted them to be interested and engaged, developing a keen appreciation for Music!  Now that I have left teaching full time, I have a new identity, I manage a music festival - it’s similar to running a business.  I have many clients;  I have people to answer to, above me.  I work with technology person (webmaster), I have a great team of volunteer teachers to work with;  I manage finances, budgets, problem solve, answer emails, respond to phone messages, make decisions, organize venues, move equipment, promote, attend meetings in the community, do much planning - wow!
My other identity, one that I kept even during my teaching career, is the performing artist identity.  I continue to devote time to practicing my craft, developing and maintaining my skills.  Actually, it’s this particular identity that I have carried with me much longer than the teaching identity.
So, to sum-up, I like this new identity and am proud of my accomplishments with the “teaching” identity, and am thrilled about continuing with the “accordion” identity.
Bye for now . . .

2003 St. Elizabeth Catholic High School, part 1

It was the transition from winter to spring of 2003 that I began my work at St. Elizabeth Catholic High School.  I continued to teach at Father Bressani CHS, (to complete my year at Father Bressani, having worked at this particular school for 15 years!) but did visit St. E’s on many occasions, including meetings, and evening presentations.  It showed well on me that I was very interested in meeting the arts department members face-to-face, and to attend arts presentations, and of course, meet other teachers.  Interesting, that, both schools completed a trip to Montreal that particular spring, and we did meet some colleagues at a sight-seeing site.  I recall Anne Carey, whom I worked with at Father Bressani, say that it would be great to have me join the team at St. Elizabeth.  I suppose that my networking within the board did actually benefit me when I decided to pursue this opportunity.  I remember getting the call from Vice-Principal Anthony Mastroianni (who has passed away - and I actually taught his son at Father Bressani), to inform me that a change was expected in the department headship and the new Regional Arts Programme would need a leader; he called me at home to gauge my interest in completing an interview for the position.  That conversation included also his continuation to share a bit of information about the school and that James  . . . was leaving to take-on a new position at another school.  I remember attending arts subject council meetings in 2001-2003, and James sharing the excitement about the St. Elizabeth’s interest in exploring and offering a new program.  I remember James being frustrated with everyone thinking that St. E’s was becoming an “arts school”.  But, our understanding was incorrect.  St. Elizabeth was dealing with low enrollment numbers and facing the possibility of closing the doors to this big school building, with three floors!  There were many stories surrounding the ideas about how St. Elizabeth decided to choose to offer a Regional Arts Program.  Of course, there were other options available.  I know that the Superintendents, one in particular, was very supportive of the arts, and perhaps this was a dream for him to accomplish.  It was a time when all high schools in the board were selecting a “focus” for the school.  One school explore technology;  Father Bressani explored “a school for global education”; and so St. Elizabeth became the school with an arts focus.  In the year 2003, St. Elizabeth completed their first auditions for the program.  In September of 2003, I began in this new position(s), with lots of enthusiasm, energy and nervousness too.  The School Principal, Mary Cosentino, worked in tenacious fashion to move this new focus forward.  The new program would need new curriculum, an upgrade to facility, development of partnerships, and more.  I remember having to attend meetings that particular summer, held at the board office and even Mary Cosentino’s residence.  We needed to organize so much:  1). What is the vision statement;  2). Goals;  3). Funding;  4). Transportation;  5). Theatre;  6). Gala nights;  7). Prepare for open houses;  8). How to promote the program;  9). Organize committees, such as writing teams, and fund-raising;  10). Prepare for the following year of auditions, contacting supporters, and so much more.
I remember Allan Mackey sharing with me on a few occasions, after the early years of the program, how fortunate St. Elizabeth school was to have me at the school.  You see, he (former superintendent and school Principal) felt that James had let everyone down;  that leaving the school of St. Elizabeth at a point when they needed him most was disappointing.  James was part of the team of teachers, and administration and upper board administration that organized this new focus for the school.  It would have been better if James could have remained for a couple of years to get the program up and running - at least help to do so.  It was challenging for me to begin this new chapter in my teaching career.  I had to learn quickly and make new connections.  At the time, my teaching at Bressani was a bit of the same old and quite possibly diminishing for me and the music program.  This offer to work at St. Elizabeth did inspire me, challenge me and help to rejuvenate me in so many ways.  I am grateful, now looking back.
More to come about this . . . Bye for now

One month into retirement - how do I feel?

I really do not feel any different.  I think that summer vacation just simply carried-on.  I have been very busy.  My days run away so fast.  The number of meetings I have attended in September for the Music Alive, as part of the Character Community Foundation, has been frequent.  So, I have been busy with Music Alive, meeting the Web Master and meeting also with Edel;  Then, I have the meetings arranged by Susanne with Character Community Foundation.  Then, I have been busy with personal performing projects, preparing, and even meeting with clients.  So, I have not experienced a day where I can say that I did not have anything to do;  in fact, my days are packed full of things that I need to do to stay organized and preparing myself for each project, whether it is for the new role or for personal performance, and of course, actually performing, which takes time too.  I continue to work with Schevchenko and my regular church playing continues.  In fact, I have a rehearsal scheduled this week with the church choir.  Last week, I had a meeting 4 of the 5 days!  So, I really have not had time to ponder how I feel about teaching.
In addition, I have been trying to help-out around the house a bit more:  I do some cleaning, some food preparation;  I do some groceries, and do some things that Florinda needs help with.  I would like to do more around the house, a bit more cooking and cleaning so that Florinda can relax a bit more.  This summer was particularly busy with the wedding preparations and so I did more around the house - inside and outside.
As for teaching, I think I may miss some of the “thinking” and exploring of interesting ideas that challenged me at school.  But, I really do not miss teaching as much as I thought - well, not yet anyway.  Funny.