Personal Failures

This is a bit personal for me, so here goes nothing....

But first, a reason why this blog post came to mind. Tonight, I went to a beautiful choir concert given by our district's 5th grade auditioned honor choir. I have three very talented students in the group this year and due to a crazy personal schedule, I had missed the previous concerts. I'm so glad I made it tonight because it was lovely! I am always impressed by the teachers who put in the extra hours to work with these students. Thank you to Virginia, Christie, Corey and Robyn for all your hard work!

One of the songs they sang tonight brought back a lot of memories for me. The children sang John Rutter's arrangement of For the Beauty of the Earth. When I was in the 7th grade (which was the first year of middle school in my home district), this piece (along with another called Jubilate Deo - sorry, I don't remember the arrangement because I know there are a million out there) was an audition piece for our All-District choir competition. Being so passionate for music, I signed up to audition. Looking back, I'm quite surprised I did this, because I've always been terrified to sing by myself! But I did, maybe because I loved the audition music so much!

Long story short, I practiced at all the rehearsals, learned my part (Soprano I back then), practiced with my tape (yes, tape) and headed out on the bus early on a Saturday with all my friends. I was definitely nervous, but I remember making it through, not missing my entrance, and not messing up.

But, after many years of great scores at piano festivals, concerts and such.....my first choir audition was not as successful. Most of my friend's names were posted or called -- I can't remember how they announced it -- but not me. Truthfully, I was devastated. I didn't feel like I was robbed or scored unfairly....it was just my first major fail in music. (Certainly not my last though....)

When my 5th graders told me they were singing For the Beauty of the Earth at this concert, I shared this story with them. Yes, I failed at a singing audition when I was a kid, but I went back to choir that next Monday and sang more and went back the next year and the next and the next. Now I'm a music teacher encouraging my students not to give up either. I wanted them to see that one failure doesn't have to define us. This is something I'm struggling with currently (on other levels), so perhaps I'm trying to convince myself in the meantime. (Why is it so hard to follow our own words?)

I love that music can bring back memories and transport us back in time. It may sound like painful memories, but in the end, failing at that audition was just part of the journey to where I am now.

One Lovely Blog Award

Wow! I have been away for a long time so I definitely don't deserve this recognition! A special thanks to my sweet friend and colleague Melanie of Confessions of a Kodaly Music Teacher for the nomination of One Lovely Blog Award! I'm flattered that she follows my blog.

I'm still fairly new to this blogging thing and definitely haven't been exposed to any awards, link parties, etc. so let's see if I do this right! I think I'm supposed to give some rules for this award:

1. Thank and link back to the awesome person who nominated you.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Nominate 15 other bloggers and comment on their blogs to let them know.

Number one, check! Thanks again, Melanie! You are the best!

Now, for seven things about myself...

• I have an almost 10 year old son who knows 36 (or more?) digits of Pi. He's obsessed and I love him!
• I have a phobia of reptiles in general, but I am now the proud "mommy" of a spoiled bearded dragon named Waffle. He's like my second baby.
• I love to craft in my spare time and would rather DIY than buy.
• I love the imagery of birds....the fact that they sing, fly....my classroom is decorated in birds.
• My iPad Mini and I are pretty much attached at the hip. I can't remember life before it.
• I have a hard time passing up good deals on washi tape and yet I hardly ever use it because it looks pretty on display in my craft room. Same thing with fabric. I love how pretty fabrics look on my shelf so I have a hard time actually using it for projects.
• I was terrified to sing by myself in school (all the way up until I began teaching, actually) and once broke out into hives singing with my ensemble at a required high school competition. I empathize with my shy students while trying very hard to normalize solo singing in my classroom! (Oh, and you still won't catch me doing karaoke.)

Now to nominate 15 other bloggers! I didn't actually know 15 music people with blogs (until now!) so I'm going to list some of the music bloggers that I have met and followed through Twitter. I tend to follow more craft blogs because I get a lot of ideas and inspiration for classroom manipulatives, materials and even simple DIY organizational furniture! 

• Marisa at The Wren's Nest
• Catie at A Day in the Life of a Backwards Musical Mind
• Malinda at My Musical Menagerie
• Jennifer at The Yellow Brick Road
• Melissa at Mrs. Stouffer's Music Room
• Jennifer at Educational Musings of a Music Educator
• Joanna at Joanna's Music Blog
• Eric at Orffing Around

I'm a believer: Take Two

My title refers to this original post found here. This is an update!

I recently mentioned this post to my supervisor because things have really exploded (on Twitter) lately....in a really, really good way! When I last wrote about getting involved in Twitter chats and such, I feel like I was just barely scratching the surface. I am now an active member of several more chats and even moderating a new chat weekly. If only this all counted towards real professional development hours! (Does it?! Hmmmmm.....)

My district is now really involved with chats and in such a short amount of time, I've learned so much from participating in them. All are welcome and I guarantee you'll enjoy them if you stop by. Here's an infographic to tell you more:

I am active on #PISDedchat and #PISDartchat and I am moderating #PISDmusic. (Though I'm sure we will be having other moderators step in at times!) All of these are informative chats full of supportive, helpful, knowledgeable educators who really know their stuff. As the lone music teacher on my campus, it has been invaluable to reach out to others and get to know what they're doing at other schools. This large district doesn't feel so big anymore as I've gotten to "know" several others around me through this great network.

As for outside of these chats, I try to join #elmused on Tuesdays at 8 CST (when I'm not totally exhausted and can keep my eyes open!) and there is still #musedchat on Mondays at 7 CST and there is a new #slowchatmus that posts a question each day to answer at your leisure.

With all these options, it's so much fun to participate. Hop onto Tweetdeck if you want to organize all of this separately, too.

If you want to participate but don't know where to start, leave me a comment! Let me know how I can help you. I hope to see you on a chat or just conversing on Twitter. Simply put, it's just a great way to connect with others.

String Family Tech Hunt

My students are headed to the symphony after Spring Break so we are focusing in on the four families of the orchestra. We have covered facts and characteristics here and there over the years, but I definitely want to do a little more in-depth study before we get on that bus!

I'm very excited to integrate more technology into this year's orchestra study. To just tiptoe into the string family, I used a recording of a string piece with something familiar (the voice), yet a bit deceiving (the voice). I know....that sounds a bit strange, but if you know the piece, you'll know what I mean. I chose Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma's recording of J.S. Bach's Musette.

I love this recording because the cello is just beautiful and it's just a fun, playful short piece. The vocals can be a bit distracting (whose voice is that anyway?! they all ask), but I do ask the kids ahead of time to be sure to listen carefully to all the sounds because there will be quiz about what they heard.

This takes us into a Plickers quiz. If you've never used Plickers, download those little code cards and print them now (or splurge on a set from Amazon.com like I did!). It is such a great app! All you need is one device and you can give quizzes with immediate feedback and recorded answers! (Here's the actual quiz that I gave, if you're interested in seeing or using it.)

Once that Plickers quiz was done (which I assured them was just a "see what we know" type deal; not a major test grade! though I do look forward to comparing their knowledge after we study our instruments a lot more in-depth), we split up into groups to start our tech hunt. Each group received a clipboard with their scavenger list of questions and a device. I had several QR codes taped up around the room, plus three permanent stations set up. The QRs were repeated just in case the groups were crowding around a certain one. The list is as follows:

• QR leading to information about pizzicato technique (text only)
• QR leading to a Thinglink about string quartets
• QR leading to a string instrument labeled with Skitch (major parts labeled)
• QR leading to information about how many strings in a harp (text only)
• QR leading to information about bows and the type of hair used to make them
• my personal Macbook in guest mode (yes, I'm brave!) with Artopia.com set up to listen and compare the four main instruments of the string family; they can do the matching game as well (if time)
• iPad mini with MSOLearn app to view interactive orchestra seating chart information
• teacher computer set up with a headphone splitter set to this YouTube video so one group at a time can view a short video about the string family which also introduces the harp

Edited to include Google Doc with QR codes <here>. I added labels to show which QR was which, but I don't have labels for the kids....that way it is a surprise when they open the QR, of course!

I wish I had some pictures of the kids working on their hunt....but every device I have was being used! These days I don't have a separate camera that I keep handy in my classroom.

In case you're wondering, I don't have a class set of iPads! (I wish!) I borrowed a couple from the 4th grade teachers (since they are planning, they aren't using them for teaching), used my class iPad and used a couple of my own personal devices. Unfortunately, that meant that the groups had to be slightly larger than I would have liked (4-5) but it worked out fine. The kids worked well together overall. The tech hunt will continue for 1-1.5 more lessons or so until they get the questions answered.

After this, we'll certainly explore some more string repertoire....what are your favorite recordings? Any great suggestions? Leave me a comment!! Also, any other suggestions or ideas to incorporate some more technology in my tech hunt? I'd love some feedback!