7 Quick Takes Friday!!

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It's Friday Already?

These week we had (count 'em!) 4(!!!!!) snow days. FOUR. After a practically record setting snowfall, the city pretty much shut down. There were, of course, many positives to this situation, including some much much much needed free time and rest and having my mom snowed in with me. However, I got sick on Monday night and spent the entirety of my snow days in bed feeling miserable. Now that's it's friday, I'm starting to feel better.

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Yeah Musical Theater!

My jr high kids just finished doing a month long unit on musical theater. They studied two different musical in class - we focused on the elements of musical theater, staging, lighting, acting, etc. To finish it off, we did a group project. It's one of my better ideas, if I do say so myself! I hope to post some video here soon. In groups of 4, each group was assigned a scene from a musical. They had to act out the scene and write a group paper (each person in the group was responsible for one page of the paper), then do a presentation on their report. The kids really got into it! Some groups went above and beyond in creating props and costumes! To top it off, next week we are going to watch the professional version of each scene.

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Kids Cheat.

As I just mentioned, my kids just finished some awesome musical theater projects. However, a RIDICULOUS number of them straight-up copied from Wikipedia. Those kids should be happy that I've had 4 snow days to cool down. How crazy is that?? I can't believe they thought it would be okay to copy and paste.

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Oh my Goodness, IMEA!

IMEA was amazing. I got a ton of great ideas, but also felt a little dispair in my heart. My school is so lacking in resources - especially with instruments! I have all these great ideas for lessons that I can't do yet! I went to two great sessions on world music - one was kinda of an overview, and the other went in depth into Indian music. I want so badly to have World Music be a MAJOR part of my curriculum! It's so interesting for the kids (and me) and helps them learn concepts in a meaningful, hands on way.

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The Woes of Private Schools

This week I was all excited to set up an account on donorschoose.org. It's a fabulous website for teachers that allows you to post what you need funding for (INSTRUMENTS!!) and people can donate to your project. I was all settled in and ready to get set up when the sentence "donorschoose does not support private schools" popped up on my computer. I understand that many private schools get a lot of funding, but many don't! Many private schools receive even LESS funding that public schools. So now I'm back to square one. I applied for a grant through fender... and I guess I'll just have to keep searching...

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Feeling the Blues

It's great to have good friends. I am doing a harmonica unit with 3rd grade and 5th grade. It's a GREAT unit. The kids are so so so excited (i hear harmonica playing coming from the hallways and classrooms after school!) I've tied it together with a short unit on the blues, and it's been going well. THe hardest thing has been teaching an instrument to a whole classroom of kids. I mean, in a band class, it's a little different. This is a general music classroom, and most of these kids have never had any experience with playing an instrument. It's hard to find a balance between letting them play the instrument and practice versus me talking and only letting one or two kids play at a time. I've shared this unit with fellow blogger Sara, and she had some really kind and inspiring words to say about how I was doing! She was able to pull a lot of meaning out of the way I was teaching the unit and show me that what I have been considering "free time" is ACTUALLY well structured independent learning. Thanks, Sara! I'm excited to go back and keep teaching those songs!


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THE. SPRING. MUSICAL.

Never have three words filled my heart with such excitement and dread. This year we are doing "The Secret Garden." I'm pretty pumped, but at the same time, it's a LOT of work and a LOT of planning. I'm not so good at the organizational stuff, so hopefully I'll be able to find a right-hand-man to help me out. Auditions are next week, and soon after that we are going to be knee deep in rehearsals. I have never ever been in charge of a musical before. I have no idea how to schedule rehearsals so that everything will get done and learned. I'm terrified. I just have to trust in my knowledge of and my experience in musical theater and do my best. As long as I keep calm and rational, everything will be fine. It's really going to be a fun experience, and the kids are really excited.


Well, that's what's new with me! Thanks for reading!