Teaching Con Moto
Life is short but art is long
Monday, June 2, 2014
New Co-Worker
So my beloved co-worker Cathy is retiring at the end of this year and I am terrified. It turns out rightfully so. Change is always scary, but in this case it's slightly higher stakes. I found out in a general staff meeting that Cathy's replacement had been hired. Oh, that's cool. I'm glad I was informed earlier, or was in on the decision process. Thanks again Principal. So this chick they hired used to be an elementary teacher in the district. She was basically incompetent and sucked and ended up loosing a ton of instruments and was let go. So I get to deal with that next year. I just asked admin to re key the building so that there is a physical barrier there as well. I can just picture her poking around, borrowing things, lending things to other people. I trust Cathy. I don't trust this new woman.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Evita
A large part of my extended absence from posting has been due to the fact that I was doing the most difficult musical undertaking of my short career thus far: Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Evita". When I was first approached by the drama teacher about doing this show, I freaked out. I'm not Webber's biggest fan, and this show in particular is quite difficult. But since I'm a sap, I went ahead and said yes. I watched the movie and found it to be confusing, overwhelming and disorienting. I saw a stage production, and it made a little more sense. I was sort of on board now. That is, until I saw the music. 10/8, 9/8, 5/8, 6/8. Page 1. Are you serious Mr. Webber? Somehow, we managed to have an almost full pit (15 kids and 2 teachers) and the music happened! And it happened well. As in, I wasn't embarrassed to invite people to see it. Not that many did, but I appreciate the few that came!
One fun thing about doing productions here, is that things are terribly organized. As in, 5 days to open, and no live sound. Or some costumes. But I digress. I was asked to fire all of the pit but the piano player, because we'd be too loud. First of all, I would never do that. My kids worked their butts off getting this ready and there is no way I'd tell them they couldn't do the show because the person in charge didn't have the equipment they should have. Second, you can't do this show with just a piano. That's not how the piano book is laid out, and he's not learning the piano conductor's score with 4 days to open. So then it magically became my job to get microphones and accessories. Fortunately, I know a girl who knows a guy, and I was able to get 4 wireless mics and receivers for $600, which was a total steal. Then I had to figure out speakers and a mixer. Fortunately for me, one of the school science teachers had volunteered to do guitar/trombone, and he was also pretty handy with wiring. We played around with the embedded system, which was totally crappy and patched together. We were never able to get it to work though, so I had to put in a desperate call to the leadership teacher to borrow their PA system. Then we had to hook it all together with cables that may or may not have existed in our world prior to that. But it worked! I will be forever grateful to the science teacher. He came to our rescue as a guitar player, and again as an audio tech.
The audiences were pitifully small. Granted, our school theater is a pretty crappy and hard to find venue. But I would have expected it to be advertised much more extensively. Sunday matinees are particularly poorly attended. I was also gifted this lovely, lovely chair to use for my conductor perch. It saved my butt. Literally!
One fun thing about doing productions here, is that things are terribly organized. As in, 5 days to open, and no live sound. Or some costumes. But I digress. I was asked to fire all of the pit but the piano player, because we'd be too loud. First of all, I would never do that. My kids worked their butts off getting this ready and there is no way I'd tell them they couldn't do the show because the person in charge didn't have the equipment they should have. Second, you can't do this show with just a piano. That's not how the piano book is laid out, and he's not learning the piano conductor's score with 4 days to open. So then it magically became my job to get microphones and accessories. Fortunately, I know a girl who knows a guy, and I was able to get 4 wireless mics and receivers for $600, which was a total steal. Then I had to figure out speakers and a mixer. Fortunately for me, one of the school science teachers had volunteered to do guitar/trombone, and he was also pretty handy with wiring. We played around with the embedded system, which was totally crappy and patched together. We were never able to get it to work though, so I had to put in a desperate call to the leadership teacher to borrow their PA system. Then we had to hook it all together with cables that may or may not have existed in our world prior to that. But it worked! I will be forever grateful to the science teacher. He came to our rescue as a guitar player, and again as an audio tech.
Anyway, I'm incredibly proud of this production. Once again, we made the impossible happen. And I've begrudgingly started to appreciate the evil genius that is Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Policy and defending our Art
In January, I went to this music education conference. Despite being massively sleep deprived, I attended some incredibly useful sessions, one of which was on the new National Core Art Standards and the effect Common Core has on the Arts. I learned so much in this presentation, it's hard to distill it down into a short blog post. I actually volunteered to give a version of this presentation to all the VAPA teachers in my district in 2 weeks for our collaboration. I'll attach my outline since I'm pretty damn proud of it. I was reading an article today titled ""Why Better Music Education Really Matters" (found here) and I came across this quote which did a fantastic job of explicitly explaining how music helps:
I usually hate having to defend my art by justifying it with other 'core' subjects, but this does a great job of tying it all together in a neat little paragraph. So enjoy that and also my outline!
"When a musician first learns to read music, she develops a process of recognizing and decoding a complex system of symbols. The musician then translates those symbols into appropriate motor actions that use both hands, and confirms the accuracy of her actions through multisensory feedback (both sight and sound). In addition, musicians practice motor skills in the pursuit of metric precision, they exercise memory functions in the absence of written music, and create new combinations on the fly through improvisation."
I usually hate having to defend my art by justifying it with other 'core' subjects, but this does a great job of tying it all together in a neat little paragraph. So enjoy that and also my outline!
“Not So Common Core”
1.
Common Core and the Arts
a.
Common Core is being adopted only by ELA and
Math. Every other subject will use the state standards (also called content
standards) which can be supplemented by the common core literacy standards, but
those literacy standards will not replace the content standards. It is up to
the state to decide the overlay.
b.
Technical Subjects
i.
Courses devoted to a practical study, or wider
field of study.
ii.
Standards that are being used by technical
subjects are reading and writing.
iii.
Part of having a student who is CCR (college and
career ready) is having them literate in a variety of fields.
2.
Literacy
a.
What does it mean to be literate?
i.
Content area literacy is exemplified by
individuals who
1.
Use their background knowledge
2.
Use print and non-print texts
3.
Use developing technologies
4.
Use the tools of reading, writing, speaking,
listening, representing, and viewing to explore, construct, learn, and
communicate information within a variety of social and cultural contexts both
in and out of school.
ii.
Students need to be “multi-literate”
1.
To be CCR, students need to read many types of
texts in technical subjects
a.
Reading in the technical subjects requires
students to read both literal English language texts, as well as complex
discipline-specific texts that contain unique symbol systems, syntax, and
visual representations.
i.
This type of reading is specified in the CCR
Anchor Standards (CCS ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7) integrate and evaluate content
presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively,
as well as in words.
b.
Parties du Coups, graphs
2.
Writing in the technical subjects
a.
Students in technical subjects who are CCR
understand and are able to write not only the written word, but also in
combination with, or at times only in discipline-specific technical notation,
graphs, images, or symbol systems to communicate.
b.
Ex: composing music, drawing/painting
Part 2 – New Arts Standards
1.
A new layout – Reading/Writing
a.
Each CCR anchor has an accompanying grade
specific standard translating the broader CCR into grade appropriate end of
year expectations.
i.
Ex: Key Ideas and Details (CCR) has grade specific
standards # 1 – 3 under it. These translate into grade specific strands with academic tasks that follow the students
through grades increasing in difficulty.
b.
Example
2.
A new layout – The Arts
a.
The updated arts standards follow a similar layout,
but have more specifications.
i.
Artistic Processes
1.
Creating
2.
Performing (Presenting, Producing)
3.
Responding
4.
Connecting (new)
ii.
Anchor standards (11 total)
iii.
Performance standards
1.
Proficient
2.
Accomplished
3.
Advanced
4.
New additions for music: novice, intermediate
iv.
Strands (types of classes)
1.
Ensembles
2.
Composition/Theory
3.
Harmonizing Instruments (guitar, piano)
4.
Music Technology
b.
Example
3.
Applying the new standards to the classroom
a.
Discipline specific instructional materials and
assessments are being developed.
i.
Enduring understanding
ii.
Essential Questions
iii.
Links to anchor standards
iv.
Links to performance standards
b.
Uses Blooms Taxonomy words
i.
Select
ii.
Analyze
iii.
Interpret
iv.
Rehearse
v.
Evaluate
vi.
Present
c.
Example
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Silence is golden?
Haven't been posting much lately. Lots of things have been happening, I just haven't had the will to post. So I kind of owe a lot of pictures and updates and such. They'll happen soon.
Lately I've been having a lot of Feelings. I don't like having a lot of Feelings. I'd rather sleep, and ignore them. Or have things be so fantastic, I don't have room in my brain to process them. But all I do is think about them now. All the things that could have been, but will never happen. Sleep has been patchy. I'm exhausted all the time. I felt like I was bipolar for a while, but then was reminded that I actually have legitimate reasons to be down about things. I think things are evening out though. The sun is out (for now) and it's a new semester.
Anyway, lots of interesting and not bad things have been happening lately. Like I said, I owe some updates. Here's a picture of me doing a gig in a church. More to come!
Lately I've been having a lot of Feelings. I don't like having a lot of Feelings. I'd rather sleep, and ignore them. Or have things be so fantastic, I don't have room in my brain to process them. But all I do is think about them now. All the things that could have been, but will never happen. Sleep has been patchy. I'm exhausted all the time. I felt like I was bipolar for a while, but then was reminded that I actually have legitimate reasons to be down about things. I think things are evening out though. The sun is out (for now) and it's a new semester.
Anyway, lots of interesting and not bad things have been happening lately. Like I said, I owe some updates. Here's a picture of me doing a gig in a church. More to come!
Friday, September 20, 2013
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Fantastic day
The parade today was great! Good attitudes, promptness and music all around. I am happy.
Got to hang out with some of my friends the rest of the day which was pretty cool. We had lunch at the Italian festival and then went back to school and ended up hanging out and fixing instruments. They are the best!
Some kids were mentioning the toilet water was coming out a strange color. You mean the bathroom plumbing sucks? Shocker!
Friday, September 6, 2013
Recgonition
Earlier this week, I participated in an event held on campus called Challenge Day. This is a day dedicated to a series of activities dedicated to making participants feel safe enough to show their true struggles and find solidarity in their peers and adult participants. I wasn't prepared for the things some of these kids have gone though. Although I can't discuss specifics, I feel like some of these kids have seen more hardship in their 18 (or fewer) years on this earth than I ever might encounter. It was a humbling and touching experience. (More info here: http://www.challengeday.org/) One of the activities was called "if you really knew me" where you were supposed to share something that might typically hide from the world. I talked to my group about how "if you really knew me" you would know that it breaks my heart to see how little value is placed on music in this community. It's just an elective, it's not meaningful, it doesn't help you get into college, it doesn't deserve the funding the other classes get, etc. I didn't realize till I vocalized this how much it truly bothered me. Then something nice happened!
Today we (being the 'marching' band) did a practice out on the field during class since we aren't able to meet after school because of SPORTS. We did some marching basics, then practiced marching and playing several times. Josh has been a huge help with the drumline and gave some good pointers to the band also on marching technique. (SO thankful he's out here!) JROTC saw us marching and jumped in behind us to practice as well. I felt a little smug to hear the Commander telling his cadets to get it together and try to look as good as we did. I was worried about bothering the other classes in session, so I only had them play 3 or 4 times before we went back in. I had everyone clean their instruments for tomorrow, and walked over to my computer to this email from the football coach:
I just want to let you know that as I write this, I am sitting in a meeting at the district office with the windows open, and wow, the band sounds great!
Today we (being the 'marching' band) did a practice out on the field during class since we aren't able to meet after school because of SPORTS. We did some marching basics, then practiced marching and playing several times. Josh has been a huge help with the drumline and gave some good pointers to the band also on marching technique. (SO thankful he's out here!) JROTC saw us marching and jumped in behind us to practice as well. I felt a little smug to hear the Commander telling his cadets to get it together and try to look as good as we did. I was worried about bothering the other classes in session, so I only had them play 3 or 4 times before we went back in. I had everyone clean their instruments for tomorrow, and walked over to my computer to this email from the football coach:
I just want to let you know that as I write this, I am sitting in a meeting at the district office with the windows open, and wow, the band sounds great!
You have done an amazing job with those young students, and I am looking forward to having them at the games. Thanks for your hard work! As an MHS alum, I am very proud to have such a quality product representing us!
Boy that sure felt good! Sometimes when you're in the middle of it, all you can hear are the holes and problems and it's hard to step back and listen. I shared with the class and they were all smiles heading out the door. Today must have been magical or something, because a ton of kids came back to hang out in the room during lunch/8th period and they were telling me how their teachers were either complimenting the band on how good it sounded, or were surprised that the school even had a band. Glad no one was mad about the noise!
Anyway, I hope this support continues! Making me feel not quite so alone out here.
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