We set up for parent/teacher interview evening and met our goal of making enough to pay for our concert lights rental. “Thank you for supporting our Music program!”

When students need a challenge in ensembles I get out our ubass and the tattered cheat sheet I made when the school opened. I teach them what I know and tell them that I’ll plug them in when they feel ready. It never takes long.

Every year I dream up different ways for my students to share their favourite songs with me and others. This year a bulletin poster paper is filled…with Kpop Demon Hunters. Secretly my 45 (!) piece Towers School Band learned “Golden” for our first all school assembly and the  kids (and some teachers) screamed with glee (and high As)!

The TDSB’s Community Music Program circulates Instrument Kits to multiple schools each year-and they include some time with an Instructor/Specialist. We have the Indian Percussion Kit for this fall and Dhaivat Jani taught my seven Gr. 5-8 classes, and me, all about the Dholaks. Now these classes and I are using these drums in our concert preparation while my younger students are using them to compose. “Ta” “Ge” and “Dha” are used to communicate rhyth

I just finished listening intently to each of my 400 students play a riff and 3 chord progression of choice and challenge – their musician hands got stronger (with only a few strumming blisters)!

This poster got my students and their families chatting and laughing with me at Curriculum Night. In September I teach similar lessons to all 400 of my students so that siblings, friends, and families bond over Music classes…our music community builds.

https://cmea.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=835b572e7acd38137f8a36cb1&id=444289fb14&e=cf263e6881

Go to page 18!!!

Once again I teach Western European Notation – required by the Ontario Music Curriculum- while attempting to decolonize our music program. “Why is this one way of notating sound taught here more than all others?” my students and I discuss. Further context: I take my graduating Music Council members out for a sushi lunch and ask them to email me the following year about their Gr. 9 Music class experiences. This year many wrote that they felt musically competent, creative, and confident but for high school band classes, my grads need to be better at reading Western European Music. And so my JLPS students studied, practiced reading and playing, and composed with notes on the staff. It is an uphill battle for many because they lack any previous exposure and many see no future use, but we battled together and won. Empty Garage Before Dad Freaks will be remembered!

JLPS’s Steel Pan group gets gigs! I worked with their conductor, Roshane Wright, to put together a school show in March where my Grade 2s and 3s performed with the Pans players. Our finale was Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” with the pans, Towers School Singers, Towers School Band, and all my primary kids – so much passion! JLPS Pans also rocked their performance at TDSB’s Panfest.

As a child I always had to carry my own violin case and now I make sure my own children carry their instruments. It instils a sense of ownership, responsibility, and pride. My JLPS students, even the littles, know how to get out and put away all of the instruments they learn to play in our music room.

One day I sang, “Pack it up, pack it up” to signal the end of class and now it’s a school-wide thing. They all sing it with me and are incredulous if I just say that it’s time to pack up. Weird how traditions start. I wish I’d chosen a more inspired tune…