Concert Recap, More Technology, Life in General

Last night was the Holiday Concert for my 6th grade band, my Wind Ensemble (fancy name for the 7th and 8th grade band), and the Community Band that I also direct. It was a great concert, even if it had a rocky start because the bleachers didn't get pulled out, which meant that my musicians had nowhere to sit when they weren't performing! Thank goodness both the principal and assistant principal were there, and they helped track down a custodian to get the bleachers opened up. The audience was very patient, thankfully!!

The best thing? One of my high school students was babysitting the boys for me while the concert was going on, and she must have worked some voodoo magic on Soccer Boy, because he SAT STILL and watched most of the concert!! Cuddle Bug adores music, and in fact only fussed in between songs. But I was so excited to look over and see my little boy being so well behaved! Wow! He is actually growing up!!

My students know that the last days before a concert are a scary time known as "pre-concert freak out mode." They are extra patient with me (usually) and bear with me as I ramble and prattle about dynamics, and fingerings, and FOR THE LAST time will you PLEASE play an A NATURAL there? Overall though, I was pretty pleased with the way things were shaping up for the concert. Most of the groups were prepared. But there was this ONE PIECE that all joking aside gave me NIGHTMARES. I couldn't pull it from the program. We had invested too much time into it. (Too bad it didn't sound like it!) But in the performance of it we stayed together and got through the tricky section, and sounded great on the other parts of the song. A big, huge, sigh of relief was had by all. :)

Now to get ready for my high school band concert, which is on Monday night. Oh. That reminds me, I need to find a babysitter, since my miracle worker will be PLAYING in that one. That is the serious bummer about using my wonderful students as babysitters. They are always IN MY CONCERTS! LOL

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Here in Maine we have the MLTI -- The Maine Learning Technology Initiative. Or something like that. What it basically means is that 7th and 8th graders have these amazing MacBooks loaded with really cool software to use. Being a music/band teacher, I have had very little reason to try out some of the software, with the exception of GarageBand-- which is SO MUCH FUN!!!

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But this year I am so excited to be using a program called NoteShare. It is amazing. It is completely interactive. I have created my ENTIRE guitar class notebook in NoteShare. The kids will learn the song, record themselves, and then share the song with me, ALL USING THIS PROGRAM!! Sweet! We tried it out a little bit today. That was kind of cool! It takes a long time to teach the technology, but when everyone gets it, it is awesome!!

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On Sunday, my Soccer Boy has his preschool Christmas Concert! I am so excited! He has been singing Christmas carols (you should hear him sing O Little Town of Bethlehem!! ) all the time. It makes my heart melt!!