This week:
Exercise #1 - went to the gym Monday night, having cleverly packed my gym bag and taken it with me to work - and yes, I am getting some pretty steady sub work now. I did the elliptical for 10 minutes, and the treadmill for 12, but my stamina is waning (probably since I'm getting less sleep due to work). I did weights and chin-ups too. I've decided to reduce, if not mostly eliminate, my upper body weight lifting because of the effect it has on my singing. See the singing section below for elaboration.
Singing #1 - I did this Monday night after coming back from the gym, but to be honest, I didn't make it to 30 minutes because my lungs were already too exhausted. But I'm giving myself credit for trying. I did about 15 minutes and then had to rest. Another hitch - my upper body-building is interfering with my vocal production. Rhoda, my voice teacher, was right - singers should not lift weights or do any other kinds of exercise that causes the neck to strain a lot. For some reason, I'm using different muscles to sing now, and NOT the right ones. So, I guess I'll have to put my dream of doing unassisted chin-ups on the back burner... sigh... =-P
Singing #2 - Tuesday night. I did the full 30 minutes and then some. Again, though, my vocal cords felt strange, and I couldn't access my high notes without some tweaking. Hopefully, giving the weight-lifting a rest will allow me to get back to normal. It seems, however, that I'm never without SOME tension in my neck and throat. Despite that, I did my exercises, sang some Edith Piaf, a Mozart aria, and some showtunes.
Singing #3 - Wednesday night. This is choir night at church. After bell choir, which I'm also a part of, I did regular choir for one and a half hours. I'm giving myself credit for this being my 3rd singing because my throat is acting funny. Don't need to OVERstress it this week.
Bed by 10:15
Doing okay with this one, although I lose track of which nights I do it. The first one was Monday night, when I went to bed at 10:18, then Wednesday night was 10:29 - I figured, as long as it was in the 10:20s or earlier, I could count it. Okay, maybe I shouldn't do that next week... but at any rate, it got me into bed earlier than if I hadn't set that limit. As one who has to rise at 6am, it does wonders for my stamina. Gotta do one more night this week...
Teaching Journal
I have been remembering to jot down ideas from each day I subbed this week - much of this week has been aide work and special ed classes, so I can't really glean too much in the way of general ed activities, but here are the notes I took in the few general ed classes I did teach (of course no real names or school names will appear here, for privacy purposes):
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