u/Successful-Safety858

Hello nerdfighters I’ve got a question to run by y’all. This seems like a good place to inquire about a friendship conundrum as this community if a place a lot of people find friends. For as long as I can remember I’ve struggled to make friends. I don’t struggle to be friendly or socialize. I do a lot of extra stuff, hobbies and classes, and I have a lot of “friends” at these places. I also had a lot of “friends” when I was in school. But lately I’ve realized that all of these “friends” are very location dependent. I socialize with these people, ask them things about their life and chat with them, do the shared activity together… but the relationships never break out of the place we met. I don’t have anyone I text with regularly about stuff, get coffee with, go for a walk around the park with etc. I don’t know how to approach someone and be like, hello I want to be your friend and do stuff with you and invite you over to my apartment just to hang out. I’ve invited people to things before and they almost always say they’re busy, and if it does end up happening it’s kind of awkward and then nothing ever comes of it. So, anyone else experience this or have advice? Or maybe you’re a person in the twin cities area who is down to become my friend? Hit me up!

Hey music teachers! I want to see if anyone else has a similar situation to me and how you navigated it- I teach beginning orchestra as well as general music at a relatively small neighborhood elementary school in a large urban district. I love my school and the community, and I want to stick around. However this was my second year now, we just finished with our spring performances, and I’m noticing a big hurdle getting in the way. I really want to push my students to see themselves and capable and to strive for excellent performances. I don’t want to say things like they’re good, for their circumstances, or that I did alright, for the population I have. But it’s so hard when I have like 50% turn over every school year. Half the kids I started with are gone and half of them started at some point between October and May. Probably only 20-30 kids total are the same kids I started with last year. And on top of that many will be absent half their lesson days, or for weeks at a time. I know that there is so much going into that, and that it’s not my job or in my scope to be able to solve these big problems. I don’t see myself as a martyr for trying to teach these kids music despite all the things they’re carrying. I love my job. But… so much of music teaching is longitudinal; building on what they did over the past years. Anyone else work at a school like this and find ways to make it work? How do I plan curriculum knowing I can’t rely on them knowing something from the past month or year. How do I find a balance of getting them a good foundation on an instrument with limited time, while still making it feel worth their time? Anyone have similar situations and manage to put things together that are actually good (well as good as a beginning orchestra can be), and not just alright for what we’ve got?