Another General Life Update, and already I have caught myself out for being a little slack in updating this blog. Yet again, things have been quite busy but it's good when we keep ourselves preoccupied! Here are a few updates for recent events and happenings.
Bellingen Addressed
In my last blog entry I addressed the biased, yet poorly formed, special investigation by A Current Affair that was aired over a week ago. In the the Saturday 7th March edition of the Coffs Coast Advocate an exceptional article was presented with the statement raised "We need the community to tell us when crime happens. If the issues are real then they will be addressed." A very valid point overlooked by the ACA. If there was so much crime in the area and it was being reported, then who is to blame? With so much fingerpointing going on towards the youth, police, and even a small amount towards the parents of the "hoodlum vigilantes", did some of the members of the community forget they have a responsibility to report the crimes that occur? And "trolling" about crimes on the ACA website won't go through to the police station, like a few people attempted on the video page. You actually have to ring the police.
Settling the Teaching
It looks like my teaching routine for the week has clicked into place, finally. With two days of teaching each in Grafton and in Bellingen I do have to make sure I am on top of things. The variety of continuing students of mine from last year, along with the new students, are a real delight to teach. What is even more impressive from the students is the work ethic displayed and desire to strive to get better at what they do. Yes you still get the occassional student that will slack off, but overall students a really raising the standard and the bar.
AMEB Closing Dates (North Coast Series)
Friday the 19th of March is the close off date for students looking to take instrumental examinations. As I have told many students of mine, the AMEB exams are an opportunity to be able to gauge where a student is at with their playing, are given the opportunity to perform, receive any advice or assistance from the examiner through feedback, and it is a personal goal to work towards.
After seven As and three Bs in 2009, more students will be entered and hopefully we can produce a similar amount of results. Students will be entered from the Preliminary and First Grades for clarinet and saxophone all the way through to an AMus candidate.
Coffs Eisteddfod
The Coffs Harbour Eisteddfod is on again this year, and hopefully we won't have the wild weather like we did in 2009 which prevented a lot of competitors from being able to perform. The close off dates for entries are March 31st. Details can be found at the website here.
This year will probably become the most compact program I have ever seen. The School Instrumental is essentially being rolled in with the Instrumental program. It seems each year the program gradually gets smaller and smaller.
All I have to say to this is we need our local teachers and tutors to enter as many students as they can to give them the opportunity to perform, and to support a fantastic local event where we can show off and uncover local talent. In a community where we are having more local professional performers stand up and be counted, it's about time more of our teachers and tutors do the same thing to encourage students to take part instead of leaving the proverbial "lamp under the bowl".
That's my GLU for the moment. Coming up soon, I'll be looking at the band camp series for 2010 including the first camp this month in the New England region.
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