First day of school 2014-2015

Yesterday was the first day of school for the 2014-2015 school year.  I was a little bit nervous, as I am every year, about the first day going well.  I am always worried that my technology won't work when I need it to, that I will not find all my students in the correct place, and that I won't be able to remember what I wanted to say to my students on the first day of school!  I know you all wanted to hear that, as I still remember how nervous I was as a student on the first day of school, it just never changes, does it?

I wanted to write about sharing my opera story and my song with the class, as it relates to my work this summer and to the other blog posts I have written so far.  I began the classes, as I always do, with a review of the habits of work and learning and of an overview of the class for the term.  I wanted my students to remember that they will have music for four days of one week, and then they will have gym for the next week, and then they will come back to music, and so forth, all the way until January.
After the "Do Now" project, which took them half of the period, and led to a discussion of what they remember from last year, and what they would like to learn in music, I talked to them about my summer work.  I explained that after next week, they too will be writing an opera story.  They too, will eventually write a song, and they too, will be sharing some form of this with the class in the weeks to come.  I spoke a little too fast, as I always do while sharing my story, but I enjoyed sharing my work with the kids, as I have not ever really done, and I felt like I received some good feedback from them.  They understood better what I might be looking for, and I also gave them the option of beginning with the idea of a place where dreams come true.  In my story, the place is a cafe where dreams come true.  They could begin with a deserted island where dreams come true, they could begin with a planet, a playground, a middle school classroom, whatever they wanted.  They could also write their story about something completely different, as long as there are 4 or more characters, there is a plot and a subplot and some twists and turns of the tales.  Good luck to all this year, I will be trying to write an update every week, on a subject that has to do with work here in General Music, hope you enjoy it!  Be sure to send feedback if you wish!  Happy trails!