So thanks to Dr. Jay Dorfman’s (while he was still at Kent)class this past summer, I created an interdisciplinary unit on the Trail of Tears to enrich my ensemble’s studying of two pieces of music, “The Trail of Tears” by James Barnes and “Etowah” by Brian Balmages. For those of you unfamiliar with the piece by Barnes, I highly recommend it. It is not incredibly difficult music – but it is uplifting, dramatic, great music that has been crafted by one of the greatest band writers of the past 50 years. Etowah is a new piece from FJH this year about the Hightower Trail that once connected Cherokee and Creek lands in the south.
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Categories: Advocacy, Compositions, Concerts/Performances, Creativity, Heritage of Wind Bands, Interdisciplinary Unit, leadership, Music, Music & Society, Music Education, Music Technology, National Standards, Professional Responsibility, Wind Band Literature Tags: Ensemble Projects, Heritage of American Wind Band, Instrumental Music, Interdisciplinary Unit, Music Education, Music Technology, RCampus, The Trail of Tears
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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At the urging of several friends, and a desire to provide some extra help for my students I have completed my first podcast at Wildvoice. The first podcast is a review/remediation session of cut-time and 6/8 rhythms that the middle school band has been working on during rehearsals and that are found in one of their selections for the Holiday Concert. It is simply titled “Mercer MS Band Rhythm Tutoring Session”. Though I consider myself a “techno-infant”, I am eager to use this in the future. There is a lot of upside to utilizing this technology to improve music education (please refer to a great article over at Mustech.net dealing with this very idea!) in our everyday instruction. It took me about 15-20 minutes tonight to record and post, and it was done while planning tomorrow’s rehearsals for the concert bands and wind ensemble. I welcome any critiques and suggestions from those who are a bit more advanced than yours truly. My thanks and appreciation to Dr. Joseph Pisano for his continual advice and encouragement!
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