What a week for the healing power of classical music! Okay, maybe not literally, but I was suffering from a bit of a chest cold last week and after two wonderful orchestra performances in the last 4 days, I am starting to mend. It could have been the extra rest and the chicken noodle soup, yes; or, it could have been the sounds of Rhapsody in Blue or the (fast version) of the Shostakovich 5 finale that rid my lungs of this hostage taking cold.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Did you miss me?
Something interesting happened today; on my drive down to Owatonna (part of many interesting events from the past three months) I found myself listening to a piece that I have always dreamed of conducting. I have spent literally hours listening to this piece; daydreaming about the future I know to be attainable, yet distant... I turned it off. I turned it off and realized that for the first time in a very long time, I am more excited about my present than my future.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Glowstick Symphony
The signs that summer vacation is looming are quickly becoming more obvious than those for the failed rapture. I had my final band concert of the year last week and the students (and their teacher) are having a hard time trading their daydreams of golfing and bicycling for reappearing concerns over the intonation issues at m9 of Pomp and Circumstance or the Star Spangled Banner; and who could blame them? The students have been hard at work over the last few weeks and I'm pleased to say that their hard work paid off with their last concert.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Another Brick in the Wall
It’s hot, sticky, perspiring, and fantastic! Even though my colleagues and I are sweltering away in our classrooms (our high temperatures over the weekend clocked in around 65 degrees, while three days later we skipped past our first 80 degree day and hit 92 degrees), I can’t help but enjoy this heat. I had a romanticized conversation with my fiancée last night about waking up on my own terms, going for a long bike ride, reading a good book, napping, and then practicing my chip shot in the back yard with an ice cold… lemonade and the smell of burning charcoal. Pair this with the occasional vacation, teaching symposium, or bachelor weekend in Las Vegas and you’ve got the makings of a great summer vacation.
There has been a lot of talk lately about the need (or lack of need) for summer vacation. Many of the articles that I’ve read touch on the same overall principals:
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Engaged and Still Having Fun
You know that look, that look of confusion beyond the realm of current consciousness; that look, which’s only condolence is, “someday they’ll figure it out…” We’ve all seen that look; but seeing our students “figure it out” years down the line is not quite as satisfying as when we “figure it out” and look back to the days of our own obliviousness.
This isn’t a story about someone placing a ten dollar bill on the rail of a pool table and my brain, a la Homer Simpson, thinking “Doh! I wish I had paid more attention in high school geometry!” No, this story is much more subtle; this isn’t a slap-in-the-face epiphany, this is a realization based on years of personal and professional growth.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Building a Community
Several random sources have led to today’s blog - news of several orchestras closing their doors, my favorite left-wing comedian/pundit hypocritically picking on the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts), my friends being jerked around by arts-cutting administrators, and Dim Sum (Chinese dumplings). Yes, these doughy white dumplings helped tie everything together for me and had it not been for finishing a large dinner before writing this, I would be running to the local Chinese market to buy ingredients for my own dumplings.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Embracing the Dark Side...
(Technology and Music in the 21st century)
It has been a busy week (month?) around the Triton High School band room; this past Wednesday was our conference’s Large Group Music Festival. For those less familiar with the instrumental music realm; “Large Group” is typically the pinnacle point of an ensemble’s yearly performances. Several of my music colleagues and peers may disagree with this on the surface, but underneath it all, we know that this is the one chance many of us get to bring our ensembles into a competition ala football or baseball (excluding any broken bones). Following our competition, I found myself waking on Thursday swearing that it was truly Friday and the rest of the world had it wrong!
Unfortunately, majority still ruled and it was indeed a Thursday.
So today, Friday, looked to be a daunting task; that is, until a little technological fate chimed in…
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The $125,000 Answer
“…because they’re worth it. Because teachers are the key, and if we can pay them this with the existing dollars, then why aren’t we doing it?” (Zeke Vanderhoek, principal and founder, TEP Charter School)
That quote silenced the conversations at my apartment for 15 minutes this past Sunday; my mother had come down for the weekend to settle in to her spring break and also recover from the hardships of being a high-quality Wisconsin educator. Following a fantastic meal, we were getting ready to watch one of my favorite guilty pleasures, when we heard the above quote from a 60 Minutes story on the TEP Charter School in New York.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Knowledge is Power (or Kryptonite?)
With the help a few deep breaths and some quality coffee I sat down to watch “Waiting For Superman” this past weekend. This was a complex task, on one hand, a number of the points raised in this movie were correct, relevant, and detrimental to public education. On the other side of this coin were contradictions, flawed logic, and structured logic that was not followed through to find a concrete solution to our problems in education.
Out of all of the thoughts and ideas running through my head, one has stuck out the most. Here’s what the movie had to say:
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Christmas in March
In celebration of today's new blanket of snow. Enjoy!
I may need to try the old Volume Knob decrescendo technique in the future.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Trapped in a Box
I (briefly) mentioned my mid-winter refresher in my last entry but I’m afraid that was quickly squelched this past Monday thanks to 50 8th graders with brass noisemakers. (or was it?) For my 8th grade band, this past Monday was particularly… Monday; their sound was poor and their preparedness was even poorer, and I had to be the bad guy and tell them this. So needless to say, today’s rehearsal was not one that I was looking forward to, until my drive to work today…
Friday, February 25, 2011
A Pedagogical Manifesto
This has certainly been an interesting two weeks in the world of education; the “job-saving” Wisconsin budget bill, aimed at cutting the state’s 3.6 billion dollar deficit passed the Wisconsin House last night, in response to this, the New Richmond, WI school district handed out pink slips to all of their 207 employees this morning claiming uncertainty over who would and would not be rehired for the 2011-2012 school year. Meanwhile, amongst the downtrodden news of my home state, I have found myself in the grasp of Mid-Winter inspiration for the 3rd year in a row.
The MMEA (Minnesota Music Educators Association) Mid-Winter Conference was held last week at the Minneapolis Convention Center; through lectures, performances, and networking with the best and brightest in my field, I have been refreshed and re-inspired in my classroom. Upon my return to the rehearsal room this week, I witnessed a fantastic school assembly in regards to internet safety. This is an extremely valuable lesson for our students and I was very pleased with the presenter. In the era of Facebook and smartphones, our students are treading dangerous waters; however, it wasn’t the threat of employers discovering pictures of my hidden karaoke talent that got me thinking about today’s blog, it was this.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Appeasing the Public
To quote Linus VanPelt (of Peanuts fame), "There are three things I've learned to never discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin". I'm going to try to abandon my own political beliefs on this blog, but it only seems fitting to start this journey with an explanation of one of my favorite hobbies.
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