A SIP Day Question

Today we had a half day with students and then meetings all afternoon. I pose a simple question...

Why is it that when students write us a note or say something nice we feel like we matter, but when a student is hurtful we're not supposed to let it bother us because it's "meaningless"?

Just a thought as I watched the video clip that our principal showed us today during our meeting to help to inspire good teaching.

Today's Rehearsals Brought to You by

Today's Rehearsals were Brought to You by The Flip!!

I have been playing with a borrowed "tech toy" and I'm loving it. I have borrowed a "flip" video camera and even though it's white and pink, I find that I'm always finding a way to get it out and use it!

Most recently it recorded some rehearsal time earlier today at SIMS. I'm not really happy with the sound quality, but I don't think there's much out there that could beat the portability and ease of use for this device. If you've got something better let me know.

This video is a run-through "Christmas Proclamation" during 7/8 band rehearsal this afternoon. I try give the students at least one straight run-through per day so they have something to really play on during the (sometimes) tedious rehearsals during that last period of the school day. It's getting there, and lucky for us we still have 19 days until the concert!

This last video is just what happened when I turned the flip on for a bit of 6th grade rehearsal first this morning. This lovely band is what I see first hour MWF. They're a great group of kids and they're learning so much so fast.

I see a lot of great applications for video as a classroom tool. How are others using this type of technology to help students and themselves? Comments welcome as I am still collecting data for my presentation in January.

Impact

Even though I headed off to a new school this Summer and I'm always ready for my next adventure. All parts of my past hold a special place in my heart. I think back fondly about my mom patiently listening to me practice as a beginner(you know that's not a pleasant sound).

I remember a lot of firsts. The first WIU band camp, we played "In the Shining of the Stars" and as I was playing I thought about the great friends I made. My father cried because he thought it was beautiful and he'd never got to hear me play in anything like that in school band. The first IMEA Concert, one of many I made it every year, jazz and concert band from 7th grade on. All-State was a real treat, never had I been around such inspiration. All these things have helped shape me as an educator. They all lit a fire in me.

College was a lot more experiences. Things that would take too long for this quick little window I have before my next class.

My first job will always hold a special place in my heart. It wasn't perfect, I can't say it was my dream job. I would gladly taken a bigger position right out of school, but things happen for a reason. I met some of the most incredible young men and women there. Even from across the state I'm enjoying hearing about them and what they're accomplishing.

I got this note today after attending a marching band festival on an off weekend for me where I saw my old band and some former students. Names are changed to keep this parent and student anonymous, but it really made me realize how great of an impact I can have.

"As always, thank you for the positive advice. Both John and I talked after we saw you Saturday. We agree that you are destine to do great things and have an awesome future ahead of you. Keep writing and inspiring because your excitement is a magnet for others who love music! You certainly touch others where ever you go- "

I love my job.

Giving 94%

I listened to one of the greatest things today. This is an audio only clip of Dr. Stamp from IUP demonstrating the difficulty of music. One of the most powerful things I've heard. Let's face it, music educators are always trying to explain what we do. This does it perfectly.

Please enjoy and keep making music. By the way, I sent it to my principal. He sent me a very nice email back. That's a blessing isn't it? :)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw4vqll9cAM

94% will never be good enough.

Tuesdays are For...

Reflection.

Tuesdays are a great day in my world this year. I pretty much get caught every Monday after school and then Tuesday I teach a few lessons, but no full ensembles. Boy, am I loving sharing the responsibilities of a 5-12 program!

This Tuesday is especially reflective. This past weekend was Smiles Day(which means homecoming here). It was crazy! We had to prepare the HS for a Veteran's honoring ceremony which meant all the service songs, SSB, and taps for two of the leads. We also were doing something that the other director cooked up for the seniors, called the Evolution of Dance. I guess it's based on some Youtube thing? Proving once again that I'm not cool... Not to mention your standard Homecoming fair of parade in the morning and football game at night.

On top of that I led the Middle School marching band through their two parades. Let me tell you, 7/8 graders shouldn't march haha. I think that they're still learning so many fundementals that it about kills them. On step? Horn ups? Straight lines? MEMORIZE MUSIC??!?! Ahh...I think pedogogically, they should do something at the end of the year to get them excited for HS marching band, not at the beginning when some of them aren't even producing tone properly.

So despite all the craziness(choir teacher driving the equipment trailer with the back door dragging...etc) and it was crazy we made it with lots of accolades throughout. Community feedback was great. Parents loved seeing those JH kids marching. The high school band paid a nice tribute to hundreds of veteran's. Oh and I'm almost over my flu/cold. *deep breath*

The high school band is still working for its two field competitions and three parade competitions. I rewrote some drill for them. Man, I wish they would've had me write the whole show. I guess they never really know what they're getting when a school hires someone new. Resumes are only so useful.

Side note: How does one become a drill writer? I love it so much and I think I'm kind of good...

The MS is now into Concert Band. I'm excited. I've got chorales and sight-reading out in the folders and as soon as this post is over I'm going to go copy a new piece for us. I can't decide what to put in the folders, time to order some music too. I believe it will take them some time to adjust to my style and that's ok. I'm shooting for November to be running smooth.

Maybe now that I'm caught up. I'll be more reflective next time. Just another thing to add to my to do list. I love teaching music.

Week 1 - New School

Well I have officially survived my first full week for the Schuyler-Industry school district. There are good and bad things with every change in life. I am working with a veteran teacher who has lots of experience to share with me, but some differing philosophies. I am no longer killing myself running a 5-12 program by myself and I don't have to teach general music(thank goodness).

I've met all my students, now the task of learning the 200 or so names! I'm getting adjusted to the new school, schedule, other teachers, and all that jazz. I know it will take time, I kind of just feel like I'm doing a clinic right now.

It's just all very different. Somedays I'm so excited for the new opportunities and challenges that I face. I wonder how far can I take these students at my new school. What can offer them and what will they teach me? Other days I just want my EPG kids back, notice I didn't say the tough schedule or the headaches, but the kids.

and that's why we do this...for the kids that we will impact.

Week One

Well least week was all institutes. The week before was band camp. Now we're settling into the patterns for the year.

I'm enjoying meeting new kids in a larger program, but learning new schedules and procedures isn't that fun. Plus I do miss some of my first students.

Do all teachers remember those first kids?

IMEA Presentation

Calling All Music Teachers!

How many times have you wished that you could hear exactly what you needed to at a clinic? You're spending over an hour of your time and I'm sure we've all been to a presentation in which we did not find the value. Now is your chance to help customize a session to meet your needs.

I have been selected to present at the IMEA All-State Conference this year and I couldn't be more honored. My presentation will be entitled "The Virtual Podium: Band Communication Blogging". However, you can help customize the content right now by leaving comments on this blog post! By helping you are proving the power of this type of communication tool!

I'm looking for input of any kind so that my presentation will benefit you. For example:

• Format. Do you want me to post a big screen and create a blog in front of you?
• Examples. Do you have pages you'd like me to use in my presentation? Send 'em!
• Student applications. How will this work for them?
• Parent application. How will this work for them?
• Public Relations. You're doing great things! Let them know.
• Administration support. We could all use that right?
• Other internet communications...ideas here are welcome!
• Professional networking. Personal blogs and networking sites.

Does any of this sound interesting/not interesting to you? That list is kind of my starting point, any feedback is appreciated. Thank you for your time and I look forward to making my presentation/clinic better with your help!

Teaching Portfolios

http://langwitches.org/blog/2009/07/17/digital-teaching-portfolios/

I just took this from Brenda's Plurk. Basically I'm just posting this to remind myself to go check it out.

This is blog about E-Portfolios for teachers. Check it out!

Birthday Trip

It's been a great first trip of the Summer for us! Jes and I are both busy with rehearsals for Seussical(I'm serving as the Musical Director, while she is on stage as the Amazying Mayzie). However, we got the night off for her birthday so I planned a secret getaway for her 24th birthday.

I picked Galena, IL because Jes is really into history. Well maybe not so much history, but she likes things that are pretty and natural like all the rolling hills, ivy, and limestone walls. She also likes row houses so pretty much any historic downtown is going to be neat to her. I'd never been there so I did some searching on http://www.galena.org/. I found some great little events for our whirlwind vacation.

We left early Thursday after I ran down to Panera to grab breakfast and her favorite sweet treat, the frozen caramel coffee. The trip up was non-descript, but once we hit town I knew I'd picked the right place. Main street was perfect. Lines of old buildings holding restaurants and shops.

We had a great time escaping for the day and a half. We walked Main Street, checked out shops, ate some great food, toured a winery, did a wine tasting, took a trolley tour, and enjoyed our first stay at a Bed and Breakfast.

We tried to take quite a few pictures so I will let a slideshow tell our story. You can also view the pictures on my Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/KFreesen/

Here's a slideshow of our pictures from the trip.

Hope you are enjoying your Summer!

Summer Vacation

Well Summer Vacation is officially upon most teachers(at least in Illinois). This is my second summer vacation as a teacher. It is a fantastic feeling, knowing that I taught my students so many things. Maybe I should blog about those things since it'll be nice to look back on some of the things we accomplished together. However, this is not the time nor the post!

Last year I spent the summer working a for a summer theater group and getting things in order for the next year. I moved to Peoria and I have really enjoyed the city. Hopefully my towns will keep getting bigger as my career continues. I had a lot more work to do last year, but I think as a third year teacher I'm starting to get in the groove. I'm finding what works.

This summer I'm trying to expand myself and with the help of my free-spirited girlfriend of almost two years, I think it's the perfect time for it! I have already done some new things for me, such as getting a library card. I had one in my hometown, but let's be honest the Peoria Library System is a little different than that of my hometown of population 1,400. So how will my summer be spent you ask?

I am currently reading a book called "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles. It's about a brotherhood of 16 year old boys at a New England boarding school during the World War II era. It's supposedly a classic piece of literature and I'm in enjoying it very much. It's prose is well-written and the story of these boys loss of innocence is intriguing. It makes me wonder what my job as a music teacher would have been like back then or would I have been called to war...I'm sure my asthma would've barred me from the draft come to think of it.

I plan to take some type of trip, but I haven't settled on the right kind of trip. Camping and outdoor adventures? A place of historic value? Somewhere that seems indulgent? To be honest I'd like to be on tour with a drum corps...I need to see if I can get on staff somewhere next summer, what an adventure that would be. As of now I'm just going to a couple of weddings in July. Why do people insist on getting married in the hottest months of the year? I digress.

I am going to begin planning more specific year long goals and start thinking about literature for next years groups. I will probably grab a couple books to energize my teaching techniques. I know I will be going back over my Ed Lisk book. I think I'm going to utilize even more of that book with my classes this year. I also am going to start looking into grad schools, going back might be in my future.

Of course there will be time spent at the pool and grilling at my apartment. I love being a creative cook. Jes and I like exploring the local restaurants and I will make frequent trips to Buffalo Wild Wings to play trivia. In fact, she just texted me to go to one of our favorite new spots, Sullivan's in Peoria Heights. Make to check it out if you're in the area!

That's all for now. I hope all of you are enjoying your summer, no matter how you choose to spend it. Any ideas for me? Feel free to comment with some great tips.

Urinetown Review

So I was just curious what would happen if I "Googled" myself today and I found some interesting stuff. The most exciting was the review that ran in the Bloomington Pantagraph about the musical Urinetown. I just finished up a run of that show in April at Community Players Theater in Bloomington, IL.

I just can't believe the Musical Director was mentioned by name!

Urinetown_Review

Check out if you get the chance. I had such a blast working with the talented cast of that show. Hopefully, some of them will try out for Seussical tonight...hint!

Twitter

To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question.

If any of you out there have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. Send me a comment about it. I'm thinking about joining, but I don't need another reason to be obsessed with my Blackberry!

I want to hear about if it's a valuable thing for an educator.

Oh and can you have to accounts, like a band account for your group so you can instantly communicate with parents and students and a personal account?

Any help is appreciated keep pushing through. I know most of us are almost to the end of the year!

Band Kids Say...

UPDATE: 5/29/09
I don't really remember that show about kids saying funny stuff, but I realize it happens all the time here. Lately it seems that I'm spending just as much time laughing as my students. Here's a few gems that have come up in rehearsal. Maybe I'll resolve to do this once in awhile sometimes nice to just enjoy what happens in between the notes. It's all part of the gig right?

"I think my instrument is broken. It won't play low."
"I think my trombone is broken. It won't play high."
- Two of my 7/8 Band guys

"That's not spit it's her trombone crying because she doesn't practice." - 6th grade trumpet player

"Simon and Garfunkel? Isn't that the moose and squirrel?" - 6th grade Percussionist

"One Word: Matching shorts." - Senior drumline...can you believe it?

"So do you fish for bass because it's spelled the same as bass?" - one student talking to my bassist who lives to play it.

Neat Sites

I found a couple really cool sites today. One because I'm working on uploading audio files to my blog, let me know if you know how to do that easily. I also found one that's a real self-actualization kind of thing.

1. www.last.fm - While I haven't gotten to fully explore this site since I found it on my lunch break. I think it's a cool thing. You can sign up for account and listen to tons of music of all genres. It will stream right to your computer. I have a widget on the right that can take you there. Check it out and you can see what I'm listening to as well!

2. www.43things.com - Jes showed me this in a book when we were strolling through a Barnes and Noble last night. It was called something like Dream it. List it. Do it. Anyway this website is where the book got its start. I really like thinking about what I want to do and try to take the steps to do it so I signed up.

I hope you find these as cool as I did. I'm sure they'll keep me more occupied than I should let them!

Composer Heroes

I recently took three JH students to Eastern Illinois University for a truly unique honor band experience. If you want to read/hear about what the students did please visit, Titan Bands Online. This post of more about my experiences during the day.

Honor Band days always begin early, especially when travelling South to EIU. I got up around 4:30 to prepare and then I drove into El Paso to meet my students. We loaded up the van and boy were we a sleepy bunch on the way to Charleston. The students had their IPods going while I just focused on the road and the hum of the old van radio. I really wish the school van had a CD player.

Once we arrived and registered I headed off to Starbucks to play around on my computer. I don't even drink coffee. My addiction really is to technology! I played around on my Blackberry and my laptop for about an hour before heading back to do my favorite honor band activity...listen to the great clinicians teach!

I don't think Dr. Allen could've gotten better clinicians than Pierre LaPlante and Larry Daehn! I have been playing these guys pieces since JH and now I conduct them with my own groups. I know it's dorky, but it was like meeting my favorite movie stars. Well, maybe not quite as exciting as meeting Jenifer Aniston, but that's for a totally different reason! :)

We went to Pizza Hut for lunch then back for more rehearsal. The students even got to hear a chamberworks concert! I especially enjoyed the tuba solo, man that guys fingers were flying! Of course at the end of the afternoon was the concert in the awesome new Doudna Recital Hall. It was really cool to hear my students play in there and judging from conversation on the two hour ride home they thought it was pretty cool too.

Yes, I was the dork asking the composers to take pictures with me. These two men really are composer heroes for the way they craft music for developing bands. Many of their pieces are featured on my favorite CDs, Teaching Music Through Performance. I was honored to get to talk with them and I'm thankful that I have these pictures as memories of a great day.

The pictures are me with both composers(Mr. LaPlante on the upper left and and Mr. Daehn on the lower right).

YouTube Celebrity

Yep it's official one EPG's finest has hit the big time...well he's on YouTube and that's close enough right?

Now I know what you're thinking a lot of people are on YouTube for really stupid reasons. Not Andrew, he's on there because he made the All-State Jazz Band. He was pretty proud when he told me about this yesterday so I figured I'd do a search and slap it up here.




Congrats man!

IMEA Conference

I always love the All-State Conference in Peoria. Here's why:

• It brings together music teachers from all over the state!
• The best students in IL get to perform and have great experiences.(I was so glad one of mine got this opportunity)
• I get to go clinics where I learn new things and talk about how to improve myself.
• Of course there's also the exhibit hall...can't go wrong with all that cheesecake.
• Best of all it reignites my passions so I get to be the person I want to be.

This past weekend was the conference and it delivered. I was able to do all of these things. I'm tired, but since one of the sessions has resparked my interest in my professional blog I thought I'd spend my Sunday afternoon blogging a little. So here's "How I Spent My All-State Weekend".

My student and I took off from the HS right as first hour was starting. It was nice to get everything ready and then get on the road. It's also nice that we only at 45 minutes from the conference. We listened to some Coltrane to get the vibe going for his audition. Did I mention he was a tenor player? Anyway, we got there with plenty of time to spare. I got him settled for his audition and then went to register.

Awesome Moment #1 - When I returned he was jamming on an Ellington tune with five other kids who were waiting to audition. How cool that this is what they chose to do, a bunch of 17 year olds who had never met, just playing.

After all was said and done I headed off to sessions where I got a text from him saying he was lead tenor All-State Jazz Band. It was the perfect place for him to be as a junior. However, anywhere in the state bands would be an honor. We met up for food after some rehearsal and...

Awesome Moment #2 - Over meals I had a chance to talk with him a lot. I really wish more of my students could have experienced this, but it couldn't have happened to a more humble kid. He got quiet and when I asked what was up he just talk about how the "magnitude" of this whole event was blowing him away. He couldn't believe he was worthy of this. He is.

We had a little bit of hotel drama. There was water damage and we were just weren't in the nicest place anyway. I guess I shouldn't really complain since our school does cover it all. We got back to the hotel around 10:30 and both went right to sleep. It was a great first day.

The second day was more of the same. I went to some great sessions by Milt Allen from EIU. I wonder how EIU would be for graduate work. I had lunch with some other teachers, one the guy I student taught under, the other my predecessor at EPG. It was cool to just talk shop(and other things) with friends.

Awesome Moment #3 - As I left lunch it was cool to reflect on all of the conferences I had attended here. I was able to go as a senior in high school. I went every year of college and then student teaching. Last year I was a teacher with no students and this year with a student. It's been different, but enjoyable in every stage. I'm pretty lucky huh?

That night was the concert. When the students got out of rehearsal we went to dinner, but I sat across the restaurant. Now he had made friends and I wanted to give him space. How cool. We made it over to the concert and I took my seat in a box. I love the box seating in the Civic Center Theatre. I was more nervous than he was, but when he finished his first solo the place went nuts. I can't even imagine how he felt. I'm so glad IMEA gives this opportunity to these kids.

Awesome Moment #4 - Seeing a student that I see everyday successfully soloing on stage at the All-State Conference in front of hundreds.

That night I went out with Ben and Jordan, two of the Galesburg band guys. We sat for a couple hours just talking about students I'd known and everything else you could imagine. I really miss that district. I had a really great experience there, maybe someday I'll be back. Band directors are kind of nomadic aren't they?

The next morning is the reason I am back here blogging away. I went a clinic about this stuff because I'm presenting next month at my school about using blogs as a communication tool. I was shocked that after speaking a little at the end of Mrs. Muench's clinic a few people came up to ask about my blogging specific to being a band director.

Awesome Moment #5 - The IMEA Technology Chair asked me to submit for presenting next year. I was flattered for sure. I thought only experienced teachers and college professors got to do that, but he was for sure I'd have something to offer.

The conference was slowing down. I walked the exhibit hall and saw that my band's new uniforms were being featured at the DeMoulin booth. Again, pretty cool that they thought that highly of my design. After saying some goodbyes, I turned in my CPDU's and walked out.

I think I slept for the next 20 hours, but it was worth it. I am already excited for next year!