Fulton Elementary Music News
The December Edition
News!
MLC / PLC:
All MLC & PLC Days are listed below. Mark you calendars.1/5 - PLC - @Centennial HS (Personalized Learning AM / Emmy from Quaver on Choral Curriculum PM)
1/25-1/27 - GMEA
2/7 - MLC - (Riser and Choral choreography - Award-winning professional Allison Polaski)
3/12 - PLC - Movement
4/10 - MLC @Lake Forest ES (Drumming with Melissa Delman)
SPLOST:
SPLOST orders should have be submitted last Monday. Thank you for your diligence and quick turn around with those orders.
Quaver News:
To earn 100 free Quaver bucks, enter FrostyWeather in the Quaver Code box. Also, don't forget to get your present from Quaver Headquarters. Log in, click on your avatar, click on change avatar, click on instruments, then select a present. The present will sit by your avatar until Christmas when it opens to reveal your gift. Happy holidays!
Seesaw:
For all of my Seesaw users, or folks who are looking for a great option for an authentic, global audience, we are working on drafting directions for your media specialists/school administrators on the account to create your very own classes. Stay tuned as I should have that all ready for you in January!
Personalized Learning Corner
Reminders & Survey
This year, we are focusing on Choice in Demonstrating Learning and Varied Strategies. We have been documenting areas of strengths and weaknesses across the district on our observation forms. We would like to see how you are feeling now that we are halfway through the year.
Survey
Please complete this survey prior to our January 5th PD so that your Vanguard Coaches have some data to review to aid in properly preparing for our session on January 5th. The form will be linked below.
Coaches
Not sure who your coach is????
Megan Endicott - District
Craig Gendreau - NELC
Ariel Robins - NWLC
Annelise Evans - CLC
Casey Hall - SLC
Vanessa Bradley - AZ
The Fast Forward
Check out some amazing ideas you could implement in your classroom! Reach out to these individuals for more details!
Sharon Raines - Ocee ES - Sharon is a talented teacher who is great at infusing children literature and story telling into music to make learning more relevant. Check out her resource on Hot Cross Buns with rhythms, melody, and changes in timbre and style! Her kids had a blast!
Bianca Hancock - Bethune ES - "For melody stations students were required to complete various tasks on a variety of DOK levels. Some stations required just identification, while others required performance and creating products. Before sending students to stations I find students who have mastered most of the standards to be grouped with students of intermediate and beginning ability. The centers are created to assess a variety of skills in a short amount of time. The students at creating stations where asked to record themselves so the students could later assess their product. For identification groups students recorded themselves identifying solfege hand signs with the pitches placed in a rhythmic pattern. After classes I reviewed the video to assess students understanding. I make sure to put together at least 6 groups to keep group sizes small and better monitor behavior. Here is a list of the groups:
- Conference 1-on-1
- Reading Center
- Solfege Flash Cards: Student will record themselves responding to solfege cards using correct pitch and hand signs
- Boomwhackers-Students will use the boomwhackers to play melodies and tell which measures have upward/downward melodic direction.
- My melody-Students will create two 4 beat rhythm patterns and use notes C,D,E and G to play them on the glockenspiels. Students will record themselves playing.
- Solfege Bell Songs- Students will match music song cards to the solfege syllable cards. Students will then arrange the song cards in any order they choose and play the songs on bells.
- Rudiments- Students will practice the single stroke roll on bucket drums."
Vanessa Bradley - Stonewell Tell ES - "At the beginning of the school year I have each student create individual Quaver accounts. The students in grades 2 through 5 are 1:1 with the computers which allows the students to work on creating original works in Quaver independently or in groups. The students after downloading their songs to their devices are then directed and enabled to upload their creations to SeeSaw in which they can also create individual digital portfolios."
Allison Kummerfedt - Lake Windward ES (Home school) -
"I wanted to do a PBL that has students creating their own melody and song lyrics. At my last school, my students LOVED writing and singing me their own original songs, so I thought they would enjoy creating original melodies. After bouncing around a lot of ideas about the best way to get the children writing a song, I decided that involving a non-profit organization would be a great way to get the kids involved in something meaningful! A representative (my grandmother) from Canine Assistants came to my schools and brought a service dog. She did a presentation on the organization and the students got to meet the service dog. Below is the problem the students needed to solve and I have attached a few pictures.
The Problem the Kids need to Solve:
Canine Assistants, located in Milton Georgia, is a non-profit organization that teaches and provides service dogs to people with physical disabilities. When the dogs and new owners complete their learning together, they hold a graduation ceremony for the recipients and their dogs. They always show a presentation during the graduation that shows the bonds that the dogs have formed with their new owners. In the slide show, there is always music in the background. Canine Assistants is so nervous about their next graduation ceremony, because they have run out of music to play! We need to create original music that they can feature at their next graduation ceremony.
Expectations: Students will create two phrases (one complete chorus) of a song that will be played at a Canine Assistants Graduation ceremony. They will use technology to accomplish this. The computers were used for researching Canine Assistants, to compose their melodies and to play their background tracks, as well as to record their songs. Here is the technology used for this project:
Website with all of the links for the kids to use: www.greatdaymrsk.weebly.com
Composing Website: http://www.sfskids.org/compose/
Canine Assistants Website: www.canineassistants.org
Presentation: Final presentations will be either in audio track format or video format, and will be submitted to Canine Assistants."
Karen Bower - Karen has a fun way of teaching her students about melodic direction and pitch. Check out the adorable pictures below. Take it away Karen!
"Activity Focus: Vocal Play, High and Low vocal sounds
I am always looking for ways to "hook" my students attention at the beginning of class. When I am introducing high/low sounds to Kindergarten I use a story about a man made of bubble gum. I tell them to pretend they have a wrapped piece of gum and to open it and put in their mouth (its actually quiet for a half a second!). Now that the bubble gum is like playdoh, let's form him into a little man.
Story:
One day bubble gum man decided to take a walk (model high vocal sounds and walking fingers on your hand). He comes to an elevator of a tall building..."ding". The elevator goes up (low to high vocal model) and now we are at the top of the building "ding". Bubble gum man walks to the edge of the building. "Oh no Bubble Gum man, don't jump" -but he jumps anyway because he's not very smart! (model high to low vocal sounds as he jumps off the building). "SPLAT" oh, well, good thing he's made of bubble gum. Let's put him back together and this time give him a brain to make him smarter! We repeat the story without me saying anything, just modeling. When he gets to where he's going to jump off the building we decide because he has a brain now he has a smarter plan. This time he will use a bungee chord and instead of a splat he goes up and down and up and down and comes to safe landing!"
Bianca's station rotation video:
Sharon Raines' Hot Cross Buns Story and Music
Karen Bower's Bubble Gum Man
Candyss Fleming's Daily Log
Allison Kummerfeldt PBL Pictures
Shout Outs!
GMEA - Congratulations are in order for all presenters: Susan Ahmad, Vanessa Bradley, David DeStafano, Megan Endicott, Casey Hall, and Ariel Robins. Make sure to stop by these sessions at GMEA this January.
- Susan, Megan, & Ariel - PBL 2.0 - Project-Based Learning for the Music Classroom Follow-up Presentation - Olympia, Friday, 10:00 - 11:00.
- Vanessa Bradley - Hip-Hop Hooray: A Journey through Current Genres and its Application in the Classroom.
- Casey, Ariel, & Megan - Near, Far, Where Ever You Are: Using Nearpod in the Music Classroom - Friday, 8:45am-9:45am Athena C
- David DeStefano - Old Text, New Tricks: Finding Resources Inside Those Outdated Textbooks (2:45-3:45 Thursday)
- Megan Endicott & Charles Laux - Engage Your Students With a Personalized Learning Environment
New Teacher Feature
Allison Kummerfeldt
Allison is a musician, educator, and arts and animal advocate. Originally from Marietta, Georgia, she attended Lassiter High School and found her love for teaching and music there. She completed her Bachelors of Music Education degree at Louisiana State University in December of 2012. Following college in Louisiana, she stayed in Baton Rouge and taught general music for 5 years. Throughout her time in Baton Rouge, she developed her skills as an educator in a very diverse environment. Also while in Louisiana, she met her husband and they adopted their two dogs and cat. After moving back to Georgia this summer, she is now teaching Elementary General and Vocal Music at Lake Windward Elementary and Roswell North Elementary Schools. Her primary instruments are Oboe and English Horn, and she currently plays with the Cobb Wind Symphony. She has received awards including the LMEA Outstanding Young Educator Award, and was a finalist for the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra Teacher of the Year Award.
Arnessa Woods
Arneesa R. Woods is a middle daughter of three – April and Adrienne. She is a 4th Generation Atlanta Native both paternal and maternal. She has one son, Aidan. To reduce stress, Arnessa enjoys cooking on the grill, playing basketball with her son and working out. She belongs to a family of singers and musicians.
Arnessa directs the children’s choir, church Christmas musicals and is on the sing on praise team. She is a member of Kept By Grace, a local gospel group. She has sang and recorded with gospel greats – Pace Sisters, Kim Burrell, Twinkie Clark of The Clark Sisters, Pastor Shirley Caesar.
Arnessa is the Music Director of “Evolution”, which is a small jazz combo that erupted from the Inman Jazz All Stars. Her group recorded and produced a CD to benefit adults with disabilities.
She spent 16 years as the Director of Bands at S. M. Inman Middle School in Atlanta. She established a high profile wind program that had 197 students enrolled at the close of her final year. Arnessa's six full ensembles were a result of tireless recruiting, building relationships and constant efforts to provide artistic leadership at the highest level.
Arnessa is a member of Sigma Alpha Iota, Inc. International Women’s Music Fraternity, NAfME, IJE, GMEA and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She is a product of Fulton County schools and its fabulous music programs.
Experience:
›Westlake High School – Class of 1994
›University of TN @ Chattanooga – B. S. Instrumental Music Educ. 2001
›Reinhardt University – Masters Music Education 2017
›Director of Bands – S. M. Inman Middle 2001 – 2017
General Music Teacher – Asa G. Hilliard 2017 – present
Upcoming Events
Kodaly
KEGA workshop with Tiffany English 2/10/2018 at Sugar Hill Elementary
National Conference
March 22-25 in Oklahoma City, OK
(From Tracy Liu)
About Me:
Email: endicott@fultonschools.org
Website: www.dolvinmusicendicott.blogspot.com
Phone: 0
Twitter: @EndicottSpot