My Grade 2s and I wrote accompaniment chords and melody notes to our favourite words in this amazing story book. Amanda Gorman writes of hope and the need for change…it sings itself. I love how my students chose both minor and major chords.

Forest fire smoke?! I plan concerts very carefully but didn’t see this coming. We had very little time to pivot our set up from outside to the upper gym, but Ms Goggin, the kids, and I pulled it off! Gr 6/7 showed off our original Korean Drumming group composition, Gr 2s warmed our hearts with songs, 12 solo performers wowed us with their skills, and the School Band and School Singers? Well, there’s “Nobody Like You.”

Air time before the downbeat! I feel very grateful for our borrowed TDSB Community Korean Drumming Kit and instructor Charles Hong. We all jammed and composed with the janggos, sogos, and buks. Kamsahamnida!

are my favourite parts of music education. My students continue to astound me with their creativity and willingness to take musical leaps of faith. Their favourite listening games are “Clap/Double clap,” “Shoe Songs,” and “Pass the Paper in Silence.” Gr. 2-6s have also composed their own music using some “Western European Notation” – making sure we discuss that this is one way, and not the only or best way, to write down our music creations.FullSizeRender

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2dQPwVNHU0YM7qDnsozJ1w

Check it out! After our “Internet Famous” concert, JLPS Gr. 4-8s used a cool program called Soundtrap to each create music that they thought would go viral. Next students voted in anonymous class competitions. There were so many great pieces! The 9 winning pieces (two ties) are up on my brand new YouTube channel and the one that gets the most likes+views=the winner. It’s fun to hear and feel the excitement spread throughout our school community. We’re listening to each other.

Honestly, these kids deserve to be famous! This fall we made a long list of songs that have gone viral and each class chose two songs to learn. Students helped me figure out the melodies and accompaniment parts and chose their instruments. We arranged and re-arranged our pieces…and rehearsed! I don’t think I’ve ever had so many instruments playing in one class ensemble: drums, bass ukulele, ukuleles, guitars, keyboards, bass xylophones, metallophones, xylophones, glockenspiels, vocals, violins, violas, and cello! Our 7-class grande finale was with the 15-year-old singer/songwriter, BoluSings, all performing her famous piece, “Just Breathe.” Ahhhhh

I feel lucky when I’m asked to present about my passion for creative and student-centred music education. Working with Doug Friesen is always the best.

JLPS’s first full onstage concert…ever! I can’t even. During this fall’s music classes my primary students and I made magic happen. We walked to our local Toronto Music Gardens and learned about the music of J.S. Bach. Then each of the 7 classes chose a different Bach melody and took it on a rollercoaster ride. We remixed it. We added body percussion, lyrics to notes, mallet/ukulele/percussion parts, and arranged our new pieces. Students chose their performance instruments. Then we rehearsed, discussed, and rehearsed some more. Students’ voices made all of our musical and concert decisions. We set performance goals and, dear audience, we met them! What a show! When we reflected together on our concert each class told me that they can’t wait to perform again – they’re begging for a concert this spring! They loved being celebrated. Thank you JLPS community!

Introducing…JLPS School Singers! Our Gr. 2-5 choir is such a fun ensemble! They were excited to be “hired” to sing at our Dec. assembly and even did a spur of the moment 2nd tune. Something I noticed about them and our School Band…no sheet music. We take the music stands off the keyboards. We make up our own songs and arrangements so it’s all in our magical music minds!

My oldest students often pair up with JLPS’s youngest students for reading buddies and this year I added the idea of Strumming Buddies. The big and littles sing and strum together and it’s all kinds of magic.