Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Make A Mark
Happy International Dot Day!
Have you seen Emily Arrow's new song based on Peter Reynolds' book ISH yet?
Isn't she just precious-ish?
I'll admit it; I went all fan girl when she Tweeted me that she's working on the sheet music for the ukulele.
I'm on it!
And there's another ukulele sensation on the scene;
have you seen this little singer songwriter?
Amazing Grace.
I admire how she's making her mark,
one original song at a time, big time!
The ukulele really is a magical little instrument,
especially when you have these little rays of sunshine
singing and clapping along. So many blessings.
It has been a busy few weeks as we get another school year way under way. This past week at Parent Night I tried something new, a seed that grew from a collaboration with Susan, a counseling colleague in PA. This ...
became THIS!
There are so many sweet sentiments on this wall of fame,
our caregivers' hopes, goals, and dreams for their children,
many of which have nothing to do with academics.
One of my favorites?
You can ... be a rainbow of joy.
So touching.
We also celebrated our grandparents with a breakfast ...
and car hopped through Happy Hour at Sonic!
A FUNdraising end to a terrific week.
How have you been making your mark?
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Inspiring Collaboration Guest Post
Today I'm overjoyed because one of my cyberspace counseling colleagues has agreed to tell us about a strong cross-curricular collaboration that resulted in an assembly idea that I predict will be music to your ears. Please give a warm Corner welcome to School Psychologist (and my friend!) Julie Gordon-Buccitti.
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Hello from Overbrook Elementary!
We were so delighted to be invited by Barbara to share with you about our special whole-school collaborative project that we initiated this year. Our collaboration is a unique one, since we�re not aware of any other school psychologist and music teacher collaboratives in our area. Bringing our disciplines together made sense though, as music is a wonderful therapeutic medium and avenue for self-expression!
Overbrook is a kindergarten through grade 2 school, that has been distinguished as a PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) Model Demonstration School. It was one of just two schools in the state of Connecticut last year to receive this honor!
With the support of our amazing principal, Diane MacKinnon, and our wonderful staff at Overbrook, we were able to create such excitement throughout our school. We began with a series of co-taught lessons that took place during our music classes and focused on the work of Carol McCloud, author of Have You Filled a BucketToday? We included read-alouds, hands-on interactive tasks, written activities, songs, and instrumental music. My friend and colleague, Denise Martino, even wrote an original song that was perfect for our bucket-filling endeavor. With the help of some local businesses, who were kind enough to donate buckets to our project, the children used buckets as drums as they sang Denise�s beautiful and very catchy tune. We even caught children singing this tune at various times and locations throughout the day!
I also purchased the book in Spanish, as we have a large population of bilingual students at our school, and, with the help of our kind ELL Aide, Miss Claudia, I was able to co-teach a lesson in Spanish. I was so touched as our bilingual students helpedme, as I was attempting to read and communicate! This was a good empathy lesson for me as I took on the challenges of using a language that I am not as familiar with.
In our school, there have been many social-emotional learning initiatives. Some of these initiatives have included whole group and small group lessons in classrooms and centers, whole group lunch lessons in the cafeteria, and co-teaching in our music classes. In addition, there are now plans underway for bringing social-emotional learning into gym class. It was my hope that by bringing social-emotional learning to our students across a variety of settings, that we would see carry-over of the skills taught into multiple settings throughout the school. Based on feedback I have received from students, staff, and parents, this is exactly what is happening.
Recently, Denise and I had the pleasure of putting together a Bucket-Filling assembly. This assembly was attended by our entire school, as well as community stakeholders like our Superintendent of Schools, Pupil Services Staff, and our local newspaper, The New Haven Register. During our assembly, we incorporated a number of activities, making sure to include variety and opportunities for movement, in order to keep our little ones actively engaged. Our students performed Denise�s original song, there was a read-aloud, we all took a bucket-filling pledge together, and acted out some skits and asked our students to identify whether we were bucket filling or bucket dipping. Our students have become quite the bucket filling experts! We also made some special edition bucket filling PBIS tickets, to tie in bucket filling with our Model PBIS program already in place.
At the end of our assembly, we wrapped up with a bucket filling music video and our students and staff had so much fun singing and dancing. Both music teacher and school psychologist are being asked when the next bucket filling lesson will be taking place. I wonder if our littles know how much they fill our buckets each day.
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| Click to download these special-edition tickets. |
At the end of our assembly, we wrapped up with a bucket filling music video and our students and staff had so much fun singing and dancing. Both music teacher and school psychologist are being asked when the next bucket filling lesson will be taking place. I wonder if our littles know how much they fill our buckets each day.
Our assembly was also written up in our support staff and specialists� newsletters to parents, so now our parents can use similar bucket filling terminology, and together we can reinforce the importance of being a bucket filler at school and at home.
It was truly heartwarming working together to make this project a success. So many staff members helped in so many ways. I owe a huge thank you to my wonderful collaborating partner Denise, too; our buckets are overflowing!
Thank you for allowing us to share our story and our excitement about this project with you. We look forward to continuing with our bucket filling work, and encouraging kindness throughout our school and community!
Denise Martino, Music Teacher
Overbrook Elementary School
A K-2 PBIS Model Demonstration School
East Haven, CT
East Haven, CT
Thank you, Julie & Denise, for sharing your heartbeat with us;
we are positively inspired by your bucket-filling collaboration.
we are positively inspired by your bucket-filling collaboration.
Sunday, January 17, 2016
Joyfully Enough
Today I'm thinking about my 2016 one little word:
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| Paper design by Barbara Leyne |
What if every day we remembered to recite this mantra?
What if we felt it, believed it, embraced it?
What if we taught it to our children?
What if they lived it?
Yesterday Joshua spent the day at an All-Region band rehearsal
with a Director named Preston Hazzard from Frisco ISD. I immediately admired how he connected with our teenagers and was moved to tears when he expressed gratitude to them as they were about to take the stage. He has an obviously happy personality, and their time together resulted in a phenomenal performance of five beautiful pieces, most notably a mashup of Beethoven's Ode to Joy and John Adams' A Short Ride In A Fast Machine called
joyRIDE by Michael Markowski (shared with his permission).
The cool part for the musicians on stage that day is that this piece was written when the composer was just a senior in high school. It's incredible what kids can accomplish, when inspiration and passion meet dedication, determination and drive.
And here's the connection: Like Mr. Markowski's musical masterpiece,
life is a joy ride.
It takes us all over the place.
It can be fun and adventuresome.
But it can also be riddled with unsettling obstacles.
Sometimes it's played out in a major key, sometimes in a minor one.
Sometimes it's big, sometimes it's small.
Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down.
And what an unbelievable difference it makes
when who we are, what we've done, and what we have is
enough.
Sufficient.
Plenty.
As we exited the concert, we were treated to this
gorgeously-colorful layered cloud canvas.
And I left there hoping that our children always know that when they give their personal best,
that it is enough.
Whether they've earned a spot in the All-Region band or not.
Whether they've made all As or not.
Whether their life is on a high note right now or not.
That who they are,
what they have,
what they're doing,
that it's all enough.
And when it doesn't seem like enough to them,
that they know whom they can turn to and trust
to remind them that they are joyfully more than enough.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Minor Alterations
Every so often, a song really speaks to me. When I first heard David Lovrien's Minor Alterations four years ago, however, it didn't necessarily grab me. But last week when Joshua's band played it, it did. And it doesn't want to let go.
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| Click for purchasing information |
I think it's because I hear it now as kind of a metaphor. For life. Just as Mr. Lovrien twisted all of the notes in these popular holiday tunes from a major key to a minor one, so our journey sometimes detours from a pleasantly paved road to a bitterly bumpy one, from a comfortable cruise to a tempestuous trek.
And then, like this medley, it feels just a little off.
But, with the help of your family and friends and a little bit a lot of faith,
you make it work. And in the end, it resolves.
You find harmony again.
Life ebbs and flows like that,
so sometimes we have to make minor alterations.
Grab some coffee, hot chocolate or tea, turn it up an enjoy the Friendswood High School Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Gregory Dick, performing
David Lovrien's holiday masterpiece . . .
. . . while you ponder the metaphor and reflect upon
the twists and turns that your life took this year.
Friday, April 24, 2015
PPBF: Clothesline Clues
It's that time of year again,
time to talk with our littles about the end goal of school,
to find out what they want to do when they grow up,
to find out what they dream about for their future.
Time also, to get out the tissues you'll want as you listen to a group of my littlest superheroes singing that signature kindergarten graduation song
Big Big Dreams!
Doesn't that dreaminess just bring happy tears to your heart?
So today I'm delighted that my friend Tanya Kirschman, 2014 Montana School Counselor of the Year, selected our PPBF and offered to share a lesson she created with this career-clues treasure.
Title: Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do
Authors: Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook
Illustrator: Andy Robert Davies
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Date: July 2012
Suitable for: ages 3-7
Non-fiction
Themes: careers, jobs, professions
Brief synopsis: Readers look at what's hanging on and surrounding the clothesline and guess which career they would complement.
Opening page:
Look at this clothesline and see every clue.
Who uses these things for the jobs that they do?
Resources:
Make a word search bulletin board; hide the word careers
and related words like profession, job, work, and calling.
Christy Grisson has a comprehensive Career Collection {here}.
Read a review and find extension activities at book's webpage {here}.
Enjoy an interactive game of From Crayons To College {here}. Make a word search bulletin board; hide the word careers
and related words like profession, job, work, and calling.
Why I like this book ~ Hung Up On Careers by Tanya Kirschman
Who doesn�t love a good surprise? In this engaging lesson, you're sure to be amused as young students practice their detective skills and likely keep you in suspense as well. Begin the lesson by asking students to clap once if they know someone who has a job. Then, ask if they know reasons why people work and, if time permits, what they want to be when they grow up. I've had kids who want to be the tooth fairy, the president, a Maurice's worker, a professional wrestler.
Who doesn�t love a good surprise? In this engaging lesson, you're sure to be amused as young students practice their detective skills and likely keep you in suspense as well. Begin the lesson by asking students to clap once if they know someone who has a job. Then, ask if they know reasons why people work and, if time permits, what they want to be when they grow up. I've had kids who want to be the tooth fairy, the president, a Maurice's worker, a professional wrestler.
After listening to their answers, confirm or clarify that people choose jobs that interest them so they can do something they're passionate about or think is exciting and important. Students may want to talk about salaries, too, because people get paid money for their work and money helps to buy things they need.
Explain that each page of the book contains a mystery with clues, clues your students will have to figure out, clues that will lead your students to a certain career. Challenge students to use their detective skills to make smart guesses about the jobs in the book. While reading, make reference to the featured clothing, as well as different tools and the workplace shown.
Discussion Questions:
* This book only mentions seven jobs; what are some other jobs you know about?
* Why do you think specific clothing might be required for a job?
* How tools are important to a job? What if someone didn�t have the tools they needed to do their job?
Worksheet can be downloaded by clicking on the image.
Fonts from Lettering Delights.
Worksheet Activity
Encourage students to close their eyes and think about a job that they want to do someday, and have them imagine getting ready for their first day of work. They�ll need to get their clothes washed and ready. Ask, �What clothes would YOU be hanging on your clothesline for your first day of work? What tools will you need to do your job?� Read the worksheet and instruct students to draw and color the clothing they would wear hanging from the clothespins. Encourage them to draw related tools near the bottom of the page.
Then say, �Now you get to create your own mystery! Don�t tell anyone what your job is. If someone tries to guess or ask, tell them it's a surprise. When we�re done drawing, we�ll sit in a circle and you�ll each get to share your clues while others guess what your job is.�
If students are struggling to identify tools, I allow them to whisper their job to me and I whisper back tools used in that career.
When students have completed their drawings and the circle is formed, allow each child a turn sharing their picture. Encourage them to describe their tools and clothing. In the interest of time, one classmate takes a guess before revealing the job and moving on. Encourage your students to keep their surprise and challenge their parents to guess their job, too. Or, for an eye-catching bulletin board, display students� work on a makeshift clothesline with clothespins.
Extension: Bring clothing (i.e. Halloween costumes) of different job apparel in a laundry basket and have students identify the job that goes with each clothing item.
Enrichment: Use Lakeshore Community Block Play People to review the jobs represented in the book. Figurines also give students additional ideas for career clothing and tools.
Another reason I like this book is that it avoids gender stereotypes. For example, the text features females as a mail carrier, carpenter, fire fighter, astronaut. Males work as a farmer, a chef and an artist. Students will probably notice that the mail carrier delivers something to each person as the book goes on culminating with a launch party for the astronaut. Ask what the mail carrier was delivering. {Answer: Party Invitations!}
Another reason I like this book is that it avoids gender stereotypes. For example, the text features females as a mail carrier, carpenter, fire fighter, astronaut. Males work as a farmer, a chef and an artist. Students will probably notice that the mail carrier delivers something to each person as the book goes on culminating with a launch party for the astronaut. Ask what the mail carrier was delivering. {Answer: Party Invitations!}
Thank you, Tanya, for sharing your inspiration and expertise.
For today's other PPBF picks, visit Susanna's blog.
Monday, April 6, 2009
This Song Rocks: Ulduar!
Listen (and watch) this incredibly good WoW/Parody song (nothing parody in the quality, let me tell you)
EDIT: The song is now available as mp3! get it from Cranius.
I'm back!
It's been a while since I wrote anything about WoW, and that's because I didn't play any. Played a whole lot after WotLK launch for several months and maybe got bit burned out or something.
But gonna play a bit again, but maybe little less hardcore this time around, so keeping playtime under control or something like that.
EDIT: The song is now available as mp3! get it from Cranius.
I'm back!
It's been a while since I wrote anything about WoW, and that's because I didn't play any. Played a whole lot after WotLK launch for several months and maybe got bit burned out or something.
But gonna play a bit again, but maybe little less hardcore this time around, so keeping playtime under control or something like that.
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