Theme for the New School Year

I always get excited at the beginning of a school year. Last year I was all gung-ho for learning every student's name, and I did okay, but this year I am going to do it better. I've already blogged about seating charts. I think I am going to go old-school on this one and have use post-its on paper inside folders.

Anyway, I think my theme for this year is IMPROVISATION. While I think it is important for kids to have note-reading basics, I really want them to work on creating their own music and feeling comfortable with it.

AOSA has a newly revamped website with a great little video on the homepage for anyone to see. (They also have videos online for AOSA members only.) This one is called "Scat, Sing, Ring-a-ding" with a great lesson for learning scat singing. I already have ideas about how to use this with recorders....

Recorder Haiku

A week ago the Village Pipers performed the recorder haiku that I composed at the North America Haiku Conference. Although I have videos of the six pieces, we will be performing them again this coming Sunday in Claremont, and I would like to have another chance to record them to choose the best of each. Then I plan to make a little movie (or several movies) and put them on youtube.

Stay tuned.