A friend from a distant school emailed me the other day asking my (along with several others) for some input about a scheduling/curriculum issue. I read through the email, and decided to give it some thought during my 44 minute red light of study hall duty. Later that night I returned to my email to find another colleague had responded to my friend and the other dozen or so of us he contacted…
So Dr. Pisano says to me ” You’re hosting the November Blog Carnival.”
I say “Sure!”
He didn’t share with me that this carnival lacks funnel cake…very distressing.
But we are lining up a series of great posts for the November carnival. I can almost smell the funnel cake from here…
There is plenty of room for new posts as well as bringing back some old ones that have received attention. So far I have really enjoyed reading a number of older submissions and reflecting upon my current perspective compared to the one I had reading it the first time. It really is amazing how this campaign has taken off, continued to evolve, and is bringing some refreshing conversation to the perspective.
If you have not submitted before, never fear as this is easier that cleaning your band office coffee pot after a two week coffee hiatus….not there was mold growing mind you, just a penicilin experiment gone awry. The process is actually very easy. You can find the Music Education Submittal Page by clicking on the following link: http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_4443.html.
I am looking forward to hosting, so come one and all and step right up to the greatest show on earth! And if you are able, I am really jonesing for some funnel cake…
The Olympic Games have been nothing short of amazing displays by amazing athletes. Phelps certainly has claimed his spot at the front of the class with his amazing swims over the first 8 nights of these games. Watching others go through the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” (Thanks Jim! Rest in peace!) is as real as it gets and it has kept me thinking about lessons learned, not only from Michael Phelps, but other great athletes in these games. As we approach the start of school, it is time for music educators to get back out their “coaching hats”, and get ready our students ready for a 9 month decathlon.
Tuesday was awesome! I was able to take all 3 of the concert bands at Mercer to the PMEA Instrumental Adjudication festival at Westminster College. I am very pleased with the groups and their performance. Pennsylvania’s adjudication circuit allows directors to choose music from the state list (which NEEDS serious revamping PMEA!!! Not that I dwell on the problems within the list…) and prepare 2 to 3 selections. Those selections are then evaluated by a panel of judges, usually a group of collegiate educators. After the prepared selections are completed, the group is then asked to perform a sight-reading session. In a nutshell this is what happens: The ensemble is given music one grade level below what they performed on the prepared section. The director and ensemble have 2 minutes to silently read the piece. After that time passes, the director can talk with the ensemble for 3 minutes. They may speak parts, sing parts, clap parts, talk about key and time changes, tempo, style – whatever – but they cannot play a note. At the end of that time, the ensemble is to play the piece from start to finish. It is a really great exercise and one that I prepped my groups for by doing regularly over the last two months (I even had my Middle School group do it in that format for a live audience at our February concert).
What a great day of teaching! MS Band played through the setting of the Jupiter Chorale, HS Band worked Flourish for Band by Vaughan Williams, and the Wind Ensemble really dug into 1st Suite by Holst (After all, The British are coming…). But that wasn’t even the best part. Thanks to the encouragement and assistance of Dr. Joseph Pisano, I brought a little bit of 21st Century Technology into my presentation today. Using a Lenovo Webcam (provided by our Classrooms for the Future Coordinator Tracy Sevin), a spare data projector, a couple of microphones, and some auxilary speakers Jason Davis (from Texas!) was able to join my 8th Grade General Music Classroom. In addition to Tracy and Joe, Dr. Hoge (HS Principal), Mrs. Tina Greig (MS Guidance Councilor), and Gail Habbyshaw (a reporter from the Record Argus) were present to see the session.
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