FACULTY MEETING

Today was very rewarding musically and educationally. The string students played their lessons very well. I noticed that most of them played close attention to posture and hand position. My new cello students is gradually getting use to the hand positions of the cello even though she is a tall 5th grader with large hands she is doing quit well. We are getting ready for a performance at Lenox Square Mall next week and for most of them, it will be the first time they will perform before and audience outside of the school environment. They are excited and and playing their music with more confidence. Time is limited for practice, about 45 minutes for two days. In that time I have to provide a lot of information for them to digest. With these time restraints (like my collegues) it gets to be rather frustrating to have to let them go just when they are starting to sound like a group. In some respects they are suconsciously in a way listening to themselves and hearing music. Which leads me to the faculty meeting after school. We had a great discusssion between the principal and the music teacher debating whether rap artist are musician. The principal went on the discuss merits of fields trips taking away from class instruction. One classroom teacher passionately expressed the fact that too much emphasis is placed on testing and not developing the complete child. She stated that these field trips are meant to introduce these students to places and exhibits that would not normally see on a day to day basis and that the test (CRCT) should not be the sole criteria for a successful school or student. Let me say that my base school principal is truly supportive of the arts but he is trying create an atmosphere of teacher and students success using all resouces available to him. With that in mind, myself the music teacher and band teacher will be doing our best to enhance the school adgenda.