Merry Happy ChristmaHanuKwanzicaa! And a Teachers Pay Teachers sale. Hooray!

Last night I had the second of my two December concerts.  I say December because they are not generally holiday concerts as I do them, though I have been known to do the odd Chrstimas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa performance.  This was my 2nd and 3rd grade performance.  The kids did great, though things got a bit hairy a few times, as they are wont to do.  The best part was my third grade student with Autism, who had a fantastic time.  He spent a fair amount of time dancing around while we sang, but stayed within the realm of what was fine with me, and clearly enjoyed his experience very much.  That really made my night, seeing the joy on his face.

The downside of the night was definitely the parent who cornered me and wanted to know (because her son asked, or so she said - way to use your kid as an excuse) why we sang a Hanukkah song and no Christmas songs.  I explained to her (just as I had announced to the audience during the performance) that with yesterday being the beginning of Hanukkah (or maybe the 2nd day, I had conflicting dates on that one), it seemed very fitting to perform a Hanukkah song.  In addition, I talked about the cultural piece of the music curriculum and the other holidays that I incorporated into this time of year to give the students a broader view of holiday practices from around the world.  She didn't seem impressed, and pretty much implied that it made her angry.  It took a lot of self-control to not tell her where she could go with her Christmas-centric view of a December performance.  Now, don't get me wrong, I celebrate Christmas, and like to view it as intended, with it being a celebration of the birth of Christ, a focus on family time, and being together and enjoying the company of both family and friends.  I do not, however, for one moment believe that a concert in December has to be Christmas related.  Beyond that, I also reject the expectation that I do a concert based on a parent's view of what music I should do.  But that's another topic altogether.

So I am extremely thankful that my two December concerts are finished, I am pleased with how well the kids performed, and I am very much looking forward to Winter Break.  Those happen to be two of my three favorite words in all of the English language (the third being Summer).


Now the other purpose of this post - a sale!  I am going to be throwing a sale in my TeachersPayTeachers store from now until Christmas.  If you are a music teacher and want to buy yourself a little something, or know a music teacher who could use a little something, or are just interested in a little music education sort of activity, everything in my store is 20% off!  My store can be found at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Nathan-Earley.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a Happy New Year!

What have we been working on?

Veterans' Day!

On Wednesday, November 13th the 4th and 5th grade students performed for our Veterans' Day Program.  The students sang the Star Spangled Banner to open, and followed with 7 selections from Music K-8 Magazine.  They did a fantastic job overall, the principal and fourth grade teachers even gave them a standing ovation!  The best part for me was to get the kids to sound good on songs they didn't particularly like.
That said, as with any performance there were plenty of things I wish we had done differently.  There were some problems with rushing, some problems with over-anticipating a few entrances, enunciation, etc.  My personal favorite is that it seemed that my two kids who have the hardest time matching pitch are also some of the shortest students, guaranteeing that they were right down front.  Of course that means their voices are some of the most prominent - thought this is also because they took my instructions to heart - don't sing scared!  We spent a fair amount of time talking about proper performance practice and how to sell their performance.  We talked about breath support and all of those fundamental singing techniques.  Most of all I told them that if they were going to make a mistake they needed to do it "loud and proud" so even though it was a wrong note it wouldn't sound unsure or scared.

Now if only I can figure out what happens to kids between fourth and fifth grade that makes them go from wonderful singers to wimpy singers!

Program order from our concert:

Star Spangled Banner - Key
America The Beautiful - Ward/Bates, arr. Jennings
We Will Not Forget - Riggio
Those Who Served - Jennings
Proud of Our Veterans - Jennings
Thank a Vet - Wilson
A Time for Peace - Jennings
We Celebrate America -  Jennings

I will continue adding tracks as they get edited - this is my first attempt at using SoundCloud!


Have a great week, and if I don't get a chance to post again before then, have a Happy Thanksgiving!