Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Skyler's Visit

Today is a lonely day for most allied arts teachers.  It is conference time at York Middle School and the parents are arriving all day long with their children for student-led conferences.  The students talk about their accomplishments over the last few months, and they speak about their struggles, challenges and successes in school.  It is too much to schedule in the music part of their lives during these student-led conferences, so if they have time they come by and visit, but on a more informal basis.  I understand the importance of time for the core subjects, but it would be great if I was able to be a part of the whole experience.  It is complicated though, and I understand completely why it is done this way, but now I hope you will read my blog so you know what has been going on this week during music.

Our former student, Skyler, came to spend the day with us in the music department.  He is a singer/songwriter who grew up in York, took guitar lessons from a local musician, went to YMS and YHS, and had his first experiences as a performer playing guitar as accompaniment to my choruses, as well as composing songs on the playground, and then singing his own compositions in high school during their Cafe Paloozas.  He has since studied music, singing and composition at Berklee College of Music, and has toured his over 400 songs all over the US.  He has opened for such bands as the Goo Goo dolls,  The Band Perry, Daughtry, and the Plain White Tees.  He is having his cd release party at the Music Hall Loft this weekend, and I just purchased four of the last ten tickets available.  I am excited to hear him with his band, and have my family experience his joy and talent!

The students were enthralled with his performance.  He played some of his own music, plus he played some Taylor Swift songs, "always great to have a little tswizzle in the afternoon" he quipped,  Beatles songs, and "Home" by Phillip Phillips which the students sang along with.  He shared the story of "Stephanie", and then sang this catchy, fun, romantic song..that turns out has been used in a  "Supercuts" commercial.  "Got free haircuts for a year! Hey..they get expensive!" he laughed.  He answered hours worth of questions about his life, and living on the road, and writing music, and learning to sing.  He is a very open, friendly and accessible person as well as being an excellent performer.

 It was a thrill for me, because I remember him well as a York Middle School student, always enthusiastic about life, always loving music, always learning and thinking and passionate about history and literature.  I was impressed also with our students' questions.  "What is the most important thing you have learned while being on the road?" someone asked.  "Who are your greatest influences?" someone else from my class asked.  "What is the favorite song of yours that you have ever written?" My students were focused, interested in all Skyler had to offer, and it was a very productive and wonderful experience for all of us.  I look forward to the show this weekend, and hope to see some of the York Middle School students there as well!

Check out Skyler's website: Skyler's website

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, talk to you next week!

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

MIND, BODY, SPIRIT

BEFORE I BEGIN MY BLOG I WANT TO RECOMMEND TO PARENTS WHO READ THIS TO COME VISIT ME DURING CONFERENCES.  IF YOU WOULD LIKE A CONFERENCE WITH ME JUST EMAIL OR CALL ME.  I HOPE YOU CAN COME SEE ME AND LOOK AT ALL THE WORK YOUR CHILDREN HAVE DONE THIS PAST QUARTER IN MUSIC.

                                        MIND, BODY, SPIRIT IN LEARNING TARGETS

Yesterday I had a wonderful time with my classes teaching a song "Farewell to Tarwathie" which relates to the history of whaling in Scotland, and in America as well.   I love teaching a lesson that hits several learning targets head on, and relates to many national standards for music.  The learning targets on the whiteboard are, "I can sing a song with correct notes and rhythms with a group", I can talk about the history of the song, (analyze art forms)" and "I can conduct in 3/4 time with a group."  At the beginning of each class, I direct the students first to the "Do now" and then after a few minutes to the learning targets.  I began to explain them a little bit yesterday morning, and realized in the middle of my explanation, wow, these targets work symbiotically together!  I told my students that "I can talk about the history of the song" uses their MIND and makes them relate history and culture to music.  "I can conduct in 3/4 time with a group" hits the BODY part of learning, because conducting is a very physical activity that uses your whole body, plus your mind too, because you have to count and remember where to direct your arms in which direction.  Finally, "I can sing a song with correct rhythms and notes with a group" hits the mind and SPIRIT part of this idea, because you are connected to your breathing, your emotions and your thoughts together when singing the song.

 It was a wonderful realization to have, and it is important to note this for many reasons.  First of all, how many other classes can you say that you are expressing mind, body and spirit parts of yourself? Second of all, how often in music are you touching on all these parts?  In fact, most of the time!  We sing often, we dance and move often, and we are always using our thoughts, minds, creative problem solving skills, as well as collaboration with others almost every day in music class.  It is essential to see this, to note this, to remember this, when so many schools are looking to find more time for the "core" and are ready to dispense with music and the other arts in the classroom.  Can we just remember that music hits the "CORE" and also hits the "coeur" (heart), as well as teaches skills that are not offered in any other time of the day or week.

 I leave you with this link to my favorite version of the song which includes the beautiful songs of the whales as accompaniment to the song.. Link to Farewell to Tarwathie by Judy Collins



HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE
KEEP YOUR LIGHT SHINING
YOUR MIND, BODY, SPIRIT WORKING
COME SING A SONG DURING CONFERENCE TIME NEXT WEEK! 

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Boston Museum of Science Trip

Last Thursday our entire sixth grade class took the train down to Boston on the Downeaster (Link to the Downeaster)  and had an incredible experience at the Museum of Science!
 Museum of Science website




Last year it was a glimmer in the eye of the science teacher at York Middle School, and soon after that the team that he was working with organized a trip for an overnight there.  I was fortunate enough to be part of that team so I was invited to go on this trip.  The music teacher on a field trip to the science museum? You might ask?  May I just be the one of the many people to say that there are a lot of connections between science and music, just to begin with the physics of sound!  How about the behavioral transformational effects that music has on all of us?  How about how we make instruments and figure out pitch with strings or glasses of water, for example?  Just for starters!  In any case, I also work with a sixth grade advisory, so I was also invited because of the team-building aspect of the trip.  It was such a positive experience last year, that this year the entire sixth grade decided to go.

There was a great deal of preparation and planning that went into the trip, and I would like to publicly thank all the 6th grade teachers for all the work they did to make the trip go smoothly.  I think the students were very excited about spending the night under the dinosaurs, or in the hall of human life, and this was a great experience.  Yes, the floor is hard, and yes, you stay up past your bedtime, (activities go until midnight!!) but this is a trip that no one will ever forget!!  It is great to have the run of the museum in the evening, with hardly anyone else there.  It is fabulous to be able to see the newest IMAX presentation, "The South Pacific" was full of beautiful panoramic views of coral reefs, animals, fish, the wonderful people who live there.   There was a fascinating story of one boy and his experience on a boat studying the turtles and the coral reefs and how to take care of them and save them.  The Planetarium show was very entertaining, and the lightning show is always extremely exciting!  The presenters really know children and know how to keep them engaged, watching,  asking and answering questions.  I especially enjoyed the presentation on the oversized Newton's Cradle, because growing up I had one of those at my desk in my room, and I never knew what it was called, nor had I ever learned why it works the way it does!

The best part for me is seeing the faces of the children as they experience the museum in this unique way.  Their expectant faces on the way into all the exhibits, their curious expressions as they begin to try new things, and learn new ideas, and their exhaustion and giddiness as they finally settle down at the end of the night in their sleeping bags together as groups.  I loved being with the whole sixth grade, and I was impressed at their excellent behavior and ability to stay focused and learning the whole evening and through the next day.  They always asked great questions, and had a lot of the answers when the museum presenters asked an assembled group of several schools.  These students know their science standards, for sure!!

 I want to thank all the parents who were willing to help and to all those who chaperoned, and I would also like to thank the administration for being so supportive this year and last year with this field trip.  I hope it becomes a regular annual event, but no matter what, I know my students in a different way than ever before, and we will always have this trip to remember!  Everyone knows now, that Ms. Frank has no trouble falling asleep anywhere!

Have a great week talk to you all next week, take care, and write if you have any reactions to this blog!



Wednesday, November 5, 2014

I CAN REFLECT...

ON FRIDAY, the portal will open.  There has been a great deal of buzz around the new grading system, and the mastery connect portal being open this coming Friday.  I am excited about this, because once it opens, the anxiety will be gone, and we will just be answering questions about what certain things mean or why a student received a yellow instead of a green square and so forth.  Let me be the millionth person to say, however, that I don't think this is what education is about anyway.  It is not about green squares or yellow squares, it is not about what a teacher "gave" a student as a grade.  It is more about what a student can say that he or she took away from a class, what a person gained from being with that teacher in that class for that time period.   Let me illustrate this..

My sixth grade students just received ipads to use during the school day.  At first, it was very exciting for them, they were distracted by the need to download every new game or app or this or that.  When students calmed down a bit, and teachers got a handle on the guidelines for this, the ipad became just another tool to be used in the classroom.  So- I took the opportunity to use the ipad as a way for my students to write and reflect on their experiences in my classes this quarter.  I have stopped complaining now about how distracting the ipads are, because I am happy to say that students in sixth grade at York Middle School write more and share more when given the opportunity to write on ipads instead of with pencil and paper.  They also write more when they know they are sending it to you or "sharing" it with you via google docs and they are encouraged by this process, which they are more familiar with than any other at this point.

 It was a great experience for me, especially because I have been changing the way I do many things, and I have also been teaching a brand new class this quarter.  My enrichment class is a creative drama class, and it is very different from any class I have taught in a long time, since the beginning of my career, so I was a tentative about it.  Well, it turns out, students enjoyed it, they learned some new skills, and they worked together cooperatively.

So- I leave you with a few reflections from students about their first quarter in music and what they learned from their enrichment class this quarter.  Hope you enjoy the reflections..I know I do!

 This is what I liked about our first quarter of          
                               Music
      I liked that we got to do the operas it was fun being able to create a story on what we wanted to write about. Also about the operas it was fun creating pictures to go with your story . Next I liked being able to use the piano lab to play and write our songs. Also I liked when we got to draw a picture to go with what we were learning about. Everything was pretty good but, I didn't like to sing.

    In my experience of enrichment was good. We got to play a lot of games. I liked how we had to write a poem and share it. I liked sharing the poems especially the scary story's. At first I thought it would not be fun but it is fun.

    My favorite part of enrichment was the games. I liked all of the games that we played. My favorite game was
Telephone. I also liked the game where we had to talk for a minute about a question non-stop. I also liked the family dinner game not the thanksgiving one the Christmas one.

My favorite creative drama game I've played this quarter is definitely two headed monster or family diner or the game were you write down a sentence and fold the paper in half and pass it the next person so they can draw the picture of what they thing the sentence is about then pass it to the next person so they can write a sentence about what they thing the picture is and so on. I also loved doing all the voice exercises and it fun because you learn how to talk in front of a group of people.
But I was pretty upset at how people played family dinner because people wouldn't take the game seriously and people were trying to be funny when they were acting stupid.

My experience for this quarter in enrichment is I had a lot of fun in the activities we did, like the family dinner activity, or that fun mirror activity. I also enjoyed the times when Mrs Frank did those speaking activities, like when we had to say " Toy Boat" and stuff. I learned a lot during this quarter, and even though it was tough, I liked that Mrs Frank made us read poems or story's to the class, because I'm sure that it will help me in my future life to speak in front of groups. I've also gotten to know a lot of the people in my class here, so that was a great experience also. In shorter terms, I have learned a lot about people in my class, and how to speak in front of people, which is important in life.

One of my favorite activities during this quarter of enrichment, was definitely the family dinner activity. It was so funny to see how people reacted to their roles! I must say, however, I was kind of disappointed when people wouldn't take their roles seriously. Another great activity was " Two Headed Monster", because it was a great lesson to learn that what you wanted to say could be changed by another person saying something else, so it was a good lesson to learn that people think different. Also, I liked that the learning was in a way that was fun! My final favorite activity was probably the mirror activity, even though I didn't feel there was meant to have a lot of learning parts to it, but it was a fun activity all the same.


     Well my experience in this enrichment was not the best I'd say. I didn't really want to be in it. But after a while it was sorta fun not too much though. But altogether it was a good experience. Even if I didn't like it too much.



   My favorite activity was the family dinner game. It was loud we'll semi loud but it was a nice loud like most thanksgiving dinners my family have. It was also fun being the servers because everyone was ordering outrageous things. But I guessed that's how rich family's are. All in all I think that it was one of the better games.


Q:2 Even though it is the only enrichment I've ever had I bet it will be the best.
My favorite activity was the game were you had to switch chairs with the other person a you had to trust them because if they pretended to switch than you would be stuck in the middle a have no seat.it was very fun play that.my other favorite was the game when you had to try to mirror image what they were doing. It was better when you went slow so the other person coul tell what you were doing.

Q:1 My experience in this class was great.


Bye, bye Enrichment students, see you in music this quarter, but enjoy the other enrichment classes! Thank you for making my first experience with middle school creative drama class a good one! Remember to speak loud and convincingly and use all the techniques I taught you from now on!!