Birthday week

This past week was my Birthday week in Orlando.  My students were extremely kind and giving on my Birthday providing me with more than enough cupcakes, cakes, cookies, candy bars, balloons and well-wishes.  It was certainly a great way to head into Spring break which officially started yesterday, Friday, and will continue until April 2nd.

Besides it being my Birthday week, this week was full of new ideas and new opportunities.  On Thursday, my co-op announced that we will be doing a workshop and concert next Friday with the Florida State University Chamber Choir under the direction of Dr. Andre Thomas.  Dr. Thomas is a phenomenal conductor, music educator, composer and philosopher of choral music who not only teaches full time at FSU but also takes part in clinics and honor choirs all across the world on a regular basis.  He is one of the most sought after clinicians in the country.  It just so happens that Dr. Thomas heard about the choral program at Freedom high school and decided he wanted to do a collaborative activity with our students, so thus we have a workshop.  Next Friday, all of our students will combine with the FSU chamber choir at the Cathedral in downtown Orlando to share our choral music, combine on a couple of songs, give a final concert and complete a professional recording of our works.  Not only is this a huge experience and opportunity for the students, it is a huge excitement for me.  I have heard so much about Dr. Thomas during my stay in Orlando and am beyond excited to see him work and hear his ensemble.  It is the unexpected opportunities like these that make coming to Florida even more worth it and enjoyable than I ever expected it to be.

In my piano class, my students have finally discovered that the electronic keyboards they use everyday have greater functions than just a standard keyboard.  They have figured out how to make different noises, sounds, instruments and beats using the keyboard settings and have decided we should do some sort of project employing these features.  My response?  Why not?!  What better way to encourage individual creative practices while at the same time explore features of the keyboard?  When they return from break, we will begin a project where they will have to use the settings on the keyboard and the application Garageband that is available on their Mac computers (the keyboards are all hooked up to the Macs) to create tracks that we will then record and compile in a class mix tape.  While there will be some restrictions like duration and timeline, most of this assignment will be left up to the imagination of the students.  I am very eager to see what they come up with musically with their tracks as well as technologically with the software and keyboard.  Hopefully I will have some awesome tracks to share with you all by the end of the project!