Tonight, another school year at Queen of the Holy Rosary ended. For my younger siblings, it was their last, as we will be leaving St. Louis soon. For me, there will be another year as I finish college at Webster, but I will miss my little brothers' smiling faces (and their occasional teasing) in class.

The evening began with the entrance of our students singing "O Queen of the Holy Rosary," which has been, up to now, our unofficial school song. Father Kurtz made a few remarks and then each class came up for a short performance. My kindergarten/first grade class gave a charming rendition of two little songs, "The One-Tune Piper" (the title leaves little to be said about the song) and "It's Fun" (about the delights of singing in solfége!) The second and third grade recorder class followed with "O Sanctissima" in two parts, and then the fourth and fifth graders performed "Dona Nobis Pacem" as a three-part round on recorders, followed by a hilarious poem about the end of the school year. The seventh and eighth graders closed the performance half of the program with "Sick," by Shel Silverstein, which was very funny.

The second half of the program consisted of awards - beginning with the kindergarten graduations, of course, and going on through Jog-A-Thon awards and certificates of excellence to the graduation of our single eighth grader. Unfortunately, the notes of his valedictory speech were misplaced so he simply thanked the teachers who had helped him through the years and then Father Kurtz handed him his diploma. After presenting bouquets to the volunteer teachers (my white and yellow roses will have to go in front of Our Lady after I post this!) Father gave the children "the last lesson of the year," a well-worded sermon on the Last Judgment -- "the final exam that we'll all have to take, and cramming is not going to help for this one." Then the whole school took the stage for a rousing rendition of the "Alma Mater" Father had written for us to the tune of the New Zealand national anthem - "Regina Coronae." The children had learned it solidly in a week, and it sounded beautiful. Then Father led a last prayer, declared the school year officially closed, and we scattered about the gymnasium to have refreshments and chatter. I was quite proud of my musicians and received several compliments on their progress; and after a while we all piled into the van and came home.

I'm glad I have another year to teach these children. Like any children, they can be a bit rowdy sometimes, but they are delightful to teach and I love hearing how they progress. The biggest jump this year was doing a lot more sight-reading with the older recorder classes. They took to it very quickly and next year I hope to give them some real recorder music by Telemann or Vivaldi, or possibly some Renaissance dances. The sky's the limit... :)