My name is Melissa Johnson and I live in Knoxville, TN.  I teach elementary music and flute after school.  (flute is my true love)  I have always wanted to open my own flute studio but on a teacher's salary, I'll never be able to do this on my own.  My finances are a mess right now after adopting/ resucing a wonderful dog named Shanaboo.  www.dogster.com/?129667  Here is his story and it doesn't mention the 4 root canals that I had to have done for him.

It seems like everytime I turn around, another financial crisis rears it's ugly head.  I want so much to go back school too and get my masters but again the cost of going and working at the same time is too much.  My teaching position is literally wearing me out.   This year we are so overcrowded that we both lost our music classrooms and we are teaching 51 classes a week and traveling from room to room.  In our school there are 1040 students and in the other schools there are around 750.    The inner city schools now only teach 30 classes a week and it's just not fair.  I taught in those conditions for 9 years and always had a full schedule, if not two schools.    I love children and I love to work hard but I don't enjoy being worked to death.  In the last three years, I've been having health problems relating to my job and have been trying to find another career but not having any success.

Please help me to realize my dream in opening my own studio for flute.  I have a good base of students in one school and have not even contacted other schools in the area because of my heavy schedule in the elementary school.  I have also been working with Gary Schocker, world renowned flutist/ composer, for the last two years and has been encouraging me to perform.

Is there someone out there who can help me?  I'm 46, single and on my own and I could not make up this horrible story that is my life.  Please advise me on what to do next.

Thank you for your time.

Melissa Johnson