School Resumes

Well we are back in session. I wish the new quarter would've started yesterday, but it's not for another week. Even though the kids are recharged(and kind of crazy) and the teachers rested(and slightly lethargic) we're in the last two weeks of a grading period. Odd.

On a personal note I had a great break. I don't think I said this before, but I got engaged just a few days before my last post. This means some of break was used on beginning to plan a wedding that is over a year away. I had no idea there was so much to do. We looked at venues, spent lots of time talking, got information from her parents(no word on mine yet), and had an engagement party.

The party was great we met a little Irish pub in normal with about 40 friends, mostly theater people I've met as a music director while my fiancee has been on stage. I even got to see some of my former students. It's weird to think that by the time I'm married all of my first high school band will have graduated high school. They're off doing all kinds of things and it was the highlight of my night to hear about it. One just left for Spain to study a semester abroad before coming home to be a nurse. Many of them have continued playing two as music majors, one as a minor, many in their unversity marching bands, and one is almost member of the Glassmen(good luck Kory). It just makes me so happy that they're keeping music in their lives on that level.

I did a lot of article reading over break. Your basic stuff I guess how to be a better director and more importantly how to be an educator. What can I teach my students about music through music while performing music? That's from one of my books, "Teaching Music Through Performance" and it's really great to work on that. I'm trying to get my students into reflecting on their performances, we wrote short essays after watching a tape of our concert and I'm thinking about doing that once a month with great ensembles playing the literature we're playing. I'd like to do a listening journal next year...if anyone has thoughts on that it'd be great.

I read about different methods of score study because I'm trying to find something that really works for me. I'm almost through my first score using a method I'm developing and I think it's helping me to understand the pieces with more depth. I'll outline my plan sometime on here incase it maybe benifical to someone. I wish I would've done this two years ago...but we have to keep improving or we die. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

How can I  become a better music educator, pursue my dreams of higher education, and not drive my fiancee crazy in 2010? Stay tuned.

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.

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.