Christmas Concert

The Christmas Concert today was so much fun! It was great to see that once again our cohort pulled together to create such a great event. It looked like everyone had a great time. There was an abundance of food and smiles on every ones face, which is always a good indication. Linda, Leisbet, Sara and I played Jingle Bells on our recorders and it was a great experience to play in front of an audience ... we all worked really hard and spent a great deal of time practicing (perhaps driving some students and staff members crazy with all of the noise) before the event. I think that introducing students to recorders is a great way to integrate music into the classroom and is affordable for many parents to purchase given that they can be bought for one dollar at the dollar store or the class could always do some fundraising and purchase the recorders themselves. Recorders may even be provided by the school so that students would not have to purchase their own. Recorders are easy to store in students desks and would only require that students change positions in their chairs to play the music. If I were to teach students how to play the recorder I would choose music that was relevant to the topics/themes that I was teaching in other subjects so that it would become more relevant and meaningful to them. I think that it would also be great to have students put on a variety of performances throughout the year as a way to showcase what they have been working on in class. An evening performance for parents and family members would be a great way to create connections between home and school. Performing for other classes during the school day or during a school assembly would also be great opportunities for students to showcase their talent.