New Things This Year!

This year has brought tons of changes for the choir/drama departments here in Tenino!  

I start the day at the HS for the first time in 7 years

which means I end at the MS

In between I'm at the elementary school!

Its been a great experience--I'm getting to teach drama to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders!  We've done a name game and made posters about things relating to drama.  In our next class we'll be reading an introduction to drama in play form.

Another new thing this year is that the two HS choirs are now one--which means we have over 20 kids in choir!  All the choirs are getting ready for the first concert, coming up on October 21, 2009 at 7pm at TMS.  Your students and I would love to see you all there!  

The last new thing is that there is no HS fall play this year.  The THS drama class will be putting together a show in class and be traveling to TES and Parkside to perform during the school day!

I'll be writing more about this as it gets closer, but the THS choir will be starting a candle fundraiser in mid-October.  We want to make sure we can afford to go on our trips we have planned this year, so we're starting early!

I'm really excited about all the new things that are happening this year!  Hope to see you all at a performance or two!

The first fall blog!

The choir department of TMS and the choir/drama departments of THS are off and running! 

The MS 7/8th grade choir is a great, boisterous group of kids!  We've started singing and working in groups and everybody's working toward the first concert Oct. 21.  The concert will be at the Middle School.  The sixth grade choir has 49 students signed up and we're working towards being a group.  We've worked on some rhythm in small groups, started singing a welcoming song and the kids just received a song called "My Principal's a Pirate"!  

We've done "clappy duets", where with a partner each student claps a written rhythm, while their partner is clapping another rhythm.  We've worked on note names and note values and we've started to put together singing sections in both classes.  

I have a wonderful HS TA for my 6th grade class, Dachelle Knutter.  She's helpful in reminding students of the classroom rules and has been in my program since she was in 6th grade, so she has a knowledge of music as well.

The music room is a busy place both 7th and 8th periods!