Last week was LGPE for elementary and middle school string orchestras. We were scheduled to perform on last Wednesday at 6:50 pm. The problem was the weather the day before. The time for our performance would be delayed two hours. Based on my timing, my 2nd, thru 5th grade students would have gotten back to school at 10:00 pm. In any case, I called to cancel. I mentioned this to say that I feel my students were ready to play. This year I would have incorporated my 2nd graders who have been with me since kindergarten. They were excited along with their parents. I am getting a lot of notice and positive feedback, support and encouragement from my parents. I want to build on that for the rest of this year and the beginning of the next. The String Fling musical in the spring will be a good time for all the string teachers to parade their work to the parents in APS and promote the program hopefully to stem the tide of cutbacks due to the financial crunch.

Recruitment will be the focus for the remaining school term. I have the support of my principals and parents and I want to create new ways of promoting music and the arts in the schools. With all the testing and reforms taking away from the arts in the schools we are going to have to do more than just perform at PTA's and Holiday programs. I want to find ways to get the entire school thinking about music throughout the day. We have talked about integrating arts into the curriculum, but I see that more is needed. The parents are the key to what we need. Which brings me to my violist. I have a 4th grade viola students who is behind in his work. He has already been kept back and I think he will be kept back again. The only thing he wants to do is to play the viola. He is a good viola player and I think he will stick with it throughout high school. His mother wants him to play the viola, but she seems not too interested in his classroom work. I am thinking that music may be the key to turing him around. This creates a problem for me. I want him incorporate music and homework together. I don't know what the future hold for the young man. I might have a great violist hidden behind all of the bad grades. This reminds me of the movie with Sandra Bulloch. Maybe I will have to intervene in some way.

Today is the first of my two day break from school. I need break to help me get ready for the LGPE on the third of March. The students are excited. Most of them have never been to one and I feel it will be a great experience for them. I am focusing on presentation as well as the music aspect. I want the students to do the best they can and I feel they will. I want them to look uniform with their outfits and in their performance. My principal at Thomasville said he wants to attend and I will try get the other prinicipals to come as well.

Most of the students going are first year students and I think they have done well with the music they have learned. So far this has been a good year. I am busy but relaxed through it all. By the end of the year I hope to send some good students on to middle school. I just hope they stay with the program and not get bogged down with other classes and activites. Tomorrow I will begin getting their uniforms and music together. This two day break was a good idea.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I attended the GMEA Conference in Savannah. I make it my annual pilgirmage to relaxation and getting a fresh start. It seems that were not as many workshops as in the past. Some of the ones I attended were very interesting. Each class related specific area in my schools. One clinician emphasized the importance of ensembles in instrumental music. I sometimes have my better students play either solos or duets for programs. This approach has a definite effect on other students wanting to play solos. I feel his main point was that we or I should incorporate as many students to do the same, not to restrict participation. The other class dealt with reeds and mouthpieces. The relation to the first class was that in choosing a mouthpiece for your students in the band, do not start with you best students(1st and 2nd) but start with the 3rd and work your way up. It could be the mouthpiece that is keeping them in the third section. He gave examples of students moving from 3rd to the the first clarinet based on the changing of the mouthpiece. I think I will incorporate this concept with my violin students. Checking bows, shoulder rests to help move my slower students along.

The other two classes dealt with new piano music and a new instrumental music book coming out this spring. The important aspect about the book is that you can personalize it and add you own teaching ideas to the finish product. In any case the presentation concept dealt with the style and look of the book. I think what got my attention and others is that we can place our school on the cover. I think we are all looking forward to this new edition. If you are really into music education this conference and others is always a good way to learn more about how you relate to students and how important we are to the whole student and school. I met new people there and some who are taking this Saturday class. They wanted to know when the next class will be and are we going to make up the one we miss.

Tuesday January 26,2o1o

It has been some time since I have written anything about music or teaching. There has been a lot of activities going since school opened back up. We moved back into the new Dunbar Elementary school. The music staff has pretty much gotten our area in some working order. The room is spacious. The students are still very excited about being in the new school. I guess the newness has not worn off yet. As I mention in my last blog, I wanted to use the new atmosphere to get the students more excited about the music they are playing. I have some 2nd graders who are getting more comfortable with their instrument, the fingering, bowing and posture. More students in their grade level are asking to be in the orchestra. The teachers are cooperative there as well. All last week I made a point of passing around the judges comments from last year's LGPE. I pointed out the scoring procedure, the difference in the judges comments and what we need to work on. This was a very good move on my part. I was able to make them understand what I have be saying based on three other persons. So when I made a comment, they would reflect on what the other judges wrote. I took this revelation to the other schools it is working well. It does help them focus more.

I am on my way to Savannah in the morning. I find it is always good to get away and see, hear and learn what others around the state are doing.

Today was test day for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students. I was able to work with my students in the afternoon and get ready for upcoming programs. Some of the student were having a hard time with one piece and after some trial and error they were able to play the piece with relative ease. I tried some classroom techniques and asked them to give me one word that would sum up what they feel about themselves in relation to the piece they just played. The word I was looking for was confidence. I could see the positive reaction when I said the word. I want to try this again with my other students and see how it works. Although I have to make sure that my teaching methods will receive the same results.

I am finding now that there is a more urgent need to do well on these upcoming tests. The music teacher and PE teacher are facing schedule changes based on administrative urgency to pass and test and it is disrupting their class routine. I think these areas need to maintained and not disrupted to help stimulate the students minds in areas other than acedemics that would ultimately help with successful testing. The front office is minimizing the importance of the arts in that respect.

Well it is vacation time and I finished my last holiday program on Friday. I am seeing improvements in my students convidence and ability. The music is quite easy for some and some of the advanced I have given a solo or duets. I am reviewing the Pink book to see what I can do to improve the quality of my program. The feedback from some of the teachers and my base school prinicpal has been good so far. When we come back from the Christmas brake, we will be moved into the renovated Dunbar. From what I have been told, the new band room is nice with good storage space. Hopefully I can take the planning day before and create new positive atmosphere for the rest of the year.

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.