The Pine Road Backstage Pass
The Quarterly Newsletter for Pine Road Band and Orchestra
February 2019
A Message from Mr. DeGeorge
In addition to preparing literature for our upcoming concerts, students spent the month of January focusing on exercises based around mid-year music checkpoint reviews. These mid-year activities are meant to be a snap-shot into areas of strength and areas of growth within our studies. These activities also help inform how students will spend the spring semester improving areas they have identified as potential for growth. We hope this helps ignite conversation of individual practice goals between students, teachers, and parents and guardians.
For more immediate updates and a look into our day-to-day operations in the instrumental music department, feel free to follow me on Twitter at @glendegeorge. I actively post throughout the week with interesting things we are doing in our classroom. As always, please reach out to me at any point throughout the year with any comments or questions you may have.
Musically,
Mr. DeGeorge
All Band Night Concert
Strings POPS Concert
5th Grade Field Trip
LMTSD Music Dept. Strings Pops Concert
Thursday, Feb 14, 2019, 07:00 PM
Lower Moreland High School, Red Lion Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA, USA
LMTSD Music Dept. All Band Night
Monday, Mar 11, 2019, 07:00 PM
Lower Moreland High School, Red Lion Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA, USA
3rd Grade Highlights:
At this point in the year, students should be extremely comfortable and confident with their instruments. Much of November and December was spent developing coordination between our right hand and left hand as we learn to put fingers down on the strings. To help with that, students learned a special song called "The Monkey Song." It also has special lyrics and dance moves that students learned to help them feel the rhythm and beat. In addition, we have a special guided video that students have access to on Google Classroom that provides a backing track for their practice.
Upon our return in January, students used the skills they learned in "Monkey Songs" to put together everyone's favorite "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." We are still working on much of this song to perfect our bowing technique and development of tone. As you work with your child, you might notice some color coded tapes on their instrument. This helps to reinforce left hand finger placement and is leading the way to eventual music note reading.
As part of our development of technique, third grade students are participating in a mid-year self reflection activity that has them evaluating their own performance of Twinkle. Since this activity is based in Google Classroom, I am able to provided immediate feedback to their performance in conjunction with their self-reflection. We have really enjoyed taking a few moments during our lessons to talk with students, on an individual level, about their progress and goals!
Cool tools we use to help us learn...
Music Tech
Breath Builders
Strings Workshop
4th and 5th Grade Highlights
The culminating activity of these checkpoints is a self-reflection activity where students record and evaluate their own performance of a song. These performances and evaluations are a collaborative process between the student and the teacher within the Google Classroom environment. We also provide feedback to student self evaluations to help guide their future progress.
Mid-year music activities and scores are viewable in Google Classroom. You can have your student log in at home using the app or by visiting classroom.google.com. Please be advised that these "grades" are not reported out on report cards and are not meant to be punitive or diminish enthusiasm! They simply represent areas of strength and areas for potential growth. If you have questions regarding these activities please feel free to reach out to me.
We will also complete similar activities throughout the second half of the year where students will be able to demonstrate their proficiency and improvement in different content areas!
Practice Journals and the Importance of at Home Practice
The Practice Assignment and Practice Log:
The first section is a practice log where students write down their assigned music for the week and keep track of the number of minutes they practice each day. We suggest that students aim for about 4 days a week of practice for approximately 20 minutes. There is no penalty for students not completing a practice session and students are welcome to format their sessions to fit their schedule and needs. We simply ask that you use this journal as a guide for developing good practice routines at home.
As part of the practice log, we ask for journals to be signed by parents and guardians as a way for you to participate and converse with your student about their musical growth. If a practice journal is returned to music class with a signature, students receive a stamp on their journal that recognizes its completion!
The "3 Step Recipe" for a Good Practice Session
Students should use this three step guide for working through their practice session. As part of Step 3, students are asked to identify an improvement goal and a practice strategy they will use to help them improve throughout the week.
We hope you participate in our practice journal initiative and we look forward to seeing our students' progress as we embark on this project.
About Mr. DeGeorge
Mr. DeGeorge is an active music educator and performer throughout the Philadelphia area. His teaching career, enriched by his performance experience, has included positions in public and private institutions teaching at the elementary and secondary level. Mr. DeGeorge oversees the instrumental music program at Pine Road Elementary School which includes daily band and orchestra lessons and performing ensembles for third through fifth grade students. Mr. DeGeorge serves as the director for the 3rd Grade Orchestra, 4th and 5th Grade Orchestra, 4th Grade Band, 5th Grade Band and Lower Moreland High School Jazz Lab Band.
Email: gdegeorge@lmtsd.org
Website: prmusic.lmtsd.org
Location: 3737 Pine Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA, USA
Phone: 215-938-0290 (6061)
Twitter: @glendegeorge
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