Susannah's Aria from the opera story:  The Cafe Where Dreams Come True.  July 22, 2014

July 16, 2014-  Reflection on Reading and Writing For K-5th

Good morning blogging fans.  Today's blog continues my reflections on work I did for the summer institute.  I am hoping that many people will read my blog, especially other teachers and administrators and will pursue the classes at Summer Institute next summer because of my enthusiasm and passion for the classes I took.  My first blog was about GAFE Peak summit.  This blog is about the first two days of the summer institute at YMS.  I took a class on reading and writing for Kindergarten-fifth grade, and I was the only person who was not a classroom teacher in the class.  The teachers were very helpful, and patient with all of us, and helped us to see the importance of using mentor texts to help students learn to read and to write.  It may have seemed funny for a music teacher to take a reading and writing course, however, it is very clear that reading and writing is a huge part of music class!  I have students write about music all the time, and often they write creatively about music.  Often music is a jumping off point for a poem, or a story or a reflection.  I can see if my students at YMS have their own blogs, they could have a music section and write about music that thrills them on their blogs for all their peers to read.  Kids seem to enjoy blogging and I can now see how it can be a fun and informative way to communicate with my students about music.

My favorite part of the class about reading and writing was about the mentor texts.  I chose one, An Angel for Seymour Solomon, to use in my music class.  The story is a picture book about a man who has moved to a hotel in New York City from his home in Indiana.  He has a certain sadness about him all the time because he misses his life, his home, and the surroundings he loved in Indiana.  The light is different, the sounds are different, his lifestyle is very different, and he is struggling to transition to this new life.  He finds a diner that is warm and inviting one day, and he starts going there each day for a meal.  He gets to know the guy who runs it who greets him each day when he comes in.  This diner and the relationship he makes with Angel, the diner owner, changes his whole perspective on the world.  I would like to use this in advisory to talk about how your attitude can change with the help of the kindness of others.  I would also like my music students to use it as a starting off point for their opera stories, if they need a subject to write about.  I always tell them to write about something they know about, and something that they are passionate about.  What makes you happy?  What makes you think?  What is a challenge for you?  But sometimes these questions are overwhelming and don't help them at all!

My thought was to take the story's diner, "a place where dreams come true" and use it as an idea for my students if they need it for their opera story.  Can you tell me about a place where dreams come true.  A cafe, a diner, a restaurant, a playground, a school, any place that interests you, where dreams come true!  I decided to take that idea myself, and test it out!  I have written my own opera plot, which was a big challenge and great fun!  The more I write, the more I want to write.  This is a thought that I want to share with all my music students.  The more you write, the easier it gets.  If you run a lot, it gets easier to run, right?  If you play a lot of video games, you get better at video games and they are easier right?  If you play a lot of soccer, that gets easier too, right?  Well, clearly, I can attest, that the more you write, the easier that gets as well.  And, just for the record, it is pretty clear, that the more you practice your instrument, like your band instrument for Mr. Neel and Ms. Etter, your singing for Ms. Etter or for me, or if you practice playing the piano and writing music for the piano, that gets easier too!

It was a challenge to write this opera story, because I created characters at first that I may not have actually been able to connect with, as I didn't know very much about their experiences.  I created a character at first who had returned from Iraq after his tour of duty.  As I began to flesh out this character, I realized I knew nothing about this experience, and although I could have perhaps researched this topic at length, it would not have sounded as organic as the characters I replaced this one with.  I wanted my students to know that I have learned first hand how it feels to write yourself into a corner and not know how to find your way out.  I therefore, rethought the idea completely, revised my original characters, and changed their connections to the other characters as well.  I am pleased with how it came out, but you need to know that writing, although a wonderful challenge in this world, is not always easy, even for someone who does it all the time, and is an adult, who has a great deal of experience with it!

That brings me to my last point about reading and writing!  It connects very well to music.  We speak of literacy with reading and writing and students becoming literate at different rates, and with different styles of learning.  That is something that connects perfectly with music literacy.  I have tried several ways to have students understand how to read music, but there are so many ways to teach it, so many ways to reach into the different styles of learning, and now with this class, I can see even more ways to do it.  I can translate some of the ideas I learned from Reading and Writing for k-5 into ideas that could help students to read notes, clefs, sharps, flats, rhythms, and key signatures.  I need to break it down to the simplest parts, and begin again and again, and give them as many chances as they need to hit those learning targets.  I look forward to their continued success with these subjects and my new techniques that I want to use with them this fall.  My opera story is now on my webpage, you can download it and read it, as well as the lucidchart I used to chart it out with my ideas before I wrote it out.  Google has it all right there, and it is very accessible, intuitive and easy to use.

 The last part of this project will be the recording of the song that I am writing, which is also an exemplar for my students.  They will also write a song for one of their characters in their opera story, so I wanted to show them one as well.  I have not finished the song, but I will do that before the week is over.  I hope you enjoyed reading this entry and this reflection about two days of Reading and Writing for K-5th grade.

July 14, 2014- GAFE PEAK SUMMIT Summer Institute

This is my first blog in all the time I have been writing, which is a long time.  That sounds a little strange, but you need to know that I love to write, and I write in a journal, longhand, every morning.  However, this is a new experience for me.  I did not grow up in the social media age.  I did not grow up with everyone reading my facebook page, and watching my life flow across the internet.  Therefore, writing this post is something I will need to get accustomed to over time.  I might sound, at first, slightly awkward, or perhaps a little stilted, like the first time you find yourself with a group of people you don't know.  I might not know what to say, even though I have been saying a great deal for years.  Therefore, I apologize if my first blog is like one's first pancake, a little scorched on one side, a little over done on the other side, the heat not quite just right.  I hope to get more attuned and begin enjoying this experience as time goes on.

I have a specific subject to tackle, even though it may have sounded at first like I was just thinking out loud.  I took a very intense two day GAFE peak session after school let out this year, and part of my assignment for the summer is to practice all that I have learned about at this educational conference.  I hope my students will read my blog, and respond to it, and write about their educational experiences as well.  I love Google apps and google everything, for many reasons.  I want to reflect, first, on this, and then, on my last several hours of work that I have been doing, to combine the two sessions that I took, gafe peak, and Reading and Writing for k-5.

I love google apps for education because everything is right at your fingertips and it is all connected.  I never thought having a youtube channel, having a blog, having a webpage, and managing my email would be this easy and simple.  I have not come to technology quickly, but I have been a steady student all the way along.  I just assumed that it would always be a challenge.  Now, I am always looking for more of a challenge to keep me learning!  I love that!  This is what learning is supposed to be all about.  It is supposed to be fun, and it is supposed to be about thinking, and responding, and playing, workshopping, and collaborating.  That is what google apps is for me.  So many different ways to share your work, so many different ways to communicate with others, and work with others, and all using the same format?? All I can say is wow, and thank you, thank you, and thank you again.

  I think all the teachers that we had at the conference were wonderful, because they got you going on even the simplest things, and didn't ever make you feel as if you should have been further along, you are supposed to be where you are, and you can take it anywhere next, and then next and then next..do you know what I mean?  They were great examples of excellent teachers.  I not only learned about how to use these apps in my classroom, and how to use them to support my teaching, but I studied how to be a better teacher as well:   patient, enthusiastic, fun, and engaging all the time!!

  I would also like to add that the way the conference was organized was fantastic.  There were many choices of what to take, and they organized it so that if you had never done something before, you could learn with the beginners, if you were more experienced, you could learn with more experienced people and so forth.  I think we all come to new challenges and new information and new languages with different skill sets, and it is so important for everyone to see the different learning styles and work with them.  We were lucky to have several spots for these different classes, two or three different labs, as well as the wildcat room for larger groups and presentations.  I was thrilled to be a part of it, and let me tell you, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend part of my summer doing this..but now I want to take a class every summer, and have independent time to write, and blog, and work on youtube videos.

Which gets me to my next challenge.  The other two day conference I went to was about reading and writing for students no matter what you teach on a regular basis.  Almost all the teachers in the class were classroom teachers, so I brought a unique perspective, being a music teacher.  I am going to end this first blog, here, as I believe the Reading and Writing project that I have been working on should be a separate reflection.  Let me just say, I want to thank the GAFE peak organizers, especially Eric Lawson and Barbara Maling, as they spearheaded this conference and made it so accessible, even at the last minute for all our constituents.  I also was very impressed with the Keynote speaker, he was engaging, helpful, available after the talk, and really gave us a great perspective on all this technology stuff.  Sometimes I get a little scared by it, but most of the time I am pretty excited about it.  I will give you another reflection about my final project for reading and writing class at a slightly later date, until then, Long Live GAFE!!!