Choral Panorama 2013

I have just returned from a 2.5 day whirlwind trip to Choral Panorama and the Florida Vocal Association's Summer Conference (affectionately dubbed "pre-school").  The first half of this conference is sponsored by Head's House of Music (Tampa, FL) which has been hosting this event for 43 years.  Head's is a family-owned and operated music retailer who specializes in vocal music (as opposed to band/orchestra music).

Panorama is basically a choral educator's reading session "on steroids."  I attended all TEN reading sessions which covered all genres of vocal music for both middle and high school choirs. This means that in the past few days, I have read through 127 pieces of music from 14 different publishers. 38,100 pieces of music were collated and stuffed into 2700 teacher packets which were used during the sessions.  I sat and read through music for approximately SIXTEEN hours from 9:00 a.m. on Thursday to noon on Saturday! My brain is absolutely fried.  My voice held up fairly well, for which I was extremely grateful.  I am also very grateful for 127 reading copies of newly published music from which I can build my choral library.  Heads House of Music hosts this free event each summer and sends us home with bags of free music.  We love Heads!!

Late night session with Dr. David Childs from New Zealand

Our clinicians this year included Laura Farnell, Mary Goetze, Mac Huff and David Childs.  Dr. Jeffery Redding shared his insights as a choral educator in a fabulous interest session Thursday night.  He was awesome and is someone I could only hope to emulate in my classroom at some point in my career.

At noon on Friday, the Florida Vocal Association began their portion of the conference with interest sessions on the All-State audition process, the "End of Course" exam project for "hard to assess" content areas (Race-to-the-Top) and, yes, more music reading - middle and high school All-State music for the FMEA conference in January, 2014.

Did I mention that it was a whirlwind of a weekend? I do believe that my summer break has come to a crashing halt.  If you're looking for me next week, you will find me in the chorus room at Fletcher doing my best to be ready for students on August 19th.

Until next time...

Cleaning My Classroom

Anyone who knows me knows that I have respiratory issues and cannot survive long around dust and dust mites.  My former classroom was spit-spot.  I "swiffered" and vacuumed everything in my classroom several times a year.  I tackled dust like it was my worst enemy.  You could have eaten off of my floors!

When I walked into my new classroom several weeks ago, an invisible hand grabbed me by the throat and I knew I had entered a space that was occupied by high concentrations of dust.  It was unbearable and I began to hack and cough.  My throat closed off and I knew I was in trouble.  Upon further inspection, I realized that the room had not been adequately cleaned or dusted in at least a decade.  I also knew that I would need reinforcements.  There was no way I would be able to tackle this project alone.  Thank God for my family who was willing to put their own health at risk to assist me.  I owe each of you a huge debt of gratitude.

Last week, my sister (who is on vacation from New York, my husband and I) armed ourselves with Zyrtec, masks and cleaning supplies to enter the "Dust Mite Zone."  We worked in there for four hours.  I paid the ultimate sacrifice and am still sick because of it.  That was "Operation Deep Clean - Phase 1."

Denise scrubbing away in my office

Steve vacuuming the carpet on the walls

This is me, knowing I would pay dearly for this later

"Operation Deep Clean - Phase 2" happened yesterday.  My sister returned for Round 2 along with my son (we needed his brawn to move furniture and filing cabinets).  We spent two more hours in the "Dust Mite Zone" trying to finish what we started last week.

This was the room before we began.

That gray stuff on the walls is not the light reflecting on the carpet.

IT IS DUST!!

Every photo collage on the wall was removed and wiped down.  Every chair was wiped down.  Risers were swept and mopped.  Filing cabinets were moved and wiped down.  Equipment was rearranged and wiped down.  Furniture was moved and wiped down.  My office was vacuumed and baseboards were wiped down.  Never had I seen so much dust in one room before.

It is hard to believe, but there are still areas that need to be wiped down in this classroom.  However, Phase 3 will have to wait...  My respiratory system needs time to recover from Phase 1 and 2.  

Until next time...

The Week After...

Although teachers ended their school year on Tuesday, June 11th, I spent the next three days packing up my classroom.  By 1:00 p.m. on Friday, June 14th, nine years of memories had been removed, boxed up and loaded into my 1997 station wagon I have lovingly dubbed, "The Big Red Whale."  I never realized just how much of a person's personality hangs on the walls of their classroom.  When I was finally finished, it was stark, drab and extremely sterile-looking.  It was also painfully empty.  I cried as I ate my lunch out in the hallway.  The A/C had been shut off to conserve electricity.  The only place I could breathe was out in the hallway.

Once the car was loaded, it was time for me to turn in my classroom key.  My principal happened to be covering the front desk when it was time for me to leave.  I had bagged my key in a plastic sandwich bag (I use sandwich bags to collect teeth from my little guys when they drop out of their mouths in class.  The Tooth Fairy is still rather important at this age.)  I had written my room number and name on a bright green piece of paper and stuffed it into the bag with the key.  As I handed the bag to my principal, her bottom lip drooped and she said, "This all seems so final."

Yes.  I guess it is.

I'm still debating whether or not to begin a new blog that chronicle's my life as a high school chorus teacher or continue what I began here four years ago.  I guess I still have some time to think about it.

Until next time...

Time to say "Goodbye"

This post is going to be a tough one.

For the past nine years, I have served as the lead music teacher at Chets Creek Elementary.  During that time, I grew as an educator, became Board-Certified in the process, taught thousands of children, was blessed to have students in the All-State Chorus, LaVilla Side-by-Side and the First Coast Honors Chorus, established a Recorder Club that performed all over the city, developed budding musicians many of whom are still singing in choirs and playing in bands throughout the district, etc. The list could go on and on.  I recently found myself at a place in my career where I could have chosen to coast until retirement or finish what was started many years ago.  I chose the latter.

As a child, I grew up in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.  I attended Seabreeze Elementary, was bussed to a 6th Grade Center located in a part of town we rarely frequented during the height of integration, attended 7th-9th grades at Fletcher Junior High (now Fletcher Middle School) and 10th-12th grades at Fletcher Senior High School.  Thirty-seven years ago, I entered the chorus room at FHS and the rest is history.  While at Fletcher, I sang in the Varsity Chorus, the Madrigal Ensemble, the Pop Ensemble and was the official Student Conductor.  I was the only person at that time to have made the cut for the All-State Mixed Chorus every year that I was eligible (8th through 12th grades).  Sweet memories....

Five years ago, I was made aware by the current choral director at Fletcher that she would be retiring at the end of the 2012-13 school year.  For the next five years, I shadowed her all over the state of Florida trying to get a handle on what life is like as a choral educator at the high school level.  For the past two years, I have paid professional dues for both the Florida Elementary Music Educators' Association AND the Florida Vocal Association so I could follow their e-mails and track with them throughout the course of the school year.  I did everything I could think of to be well-prepared when the time arrived for her to retire after 35 years of service in music education.

I have no idea how many applicants applied for her position, but God chose me to take her place.  I am humbled and grateful to her for having more faith in me than I could ever have in myself.  I am thankful to my music teachers who invested time and talent into helping me become the very best I could be.  Many of them have passed on, but my heart tells me that somehow they know.  I must trust that my Daddy knows too.  He would be extremely proud of me.

I will spend the summer practicing the piano and running scales with my voice so I will be ready.  I am registered for Choral Panorama and have met with the chorus officers for next year.  I have asked a very capable high school chorus director in our county to mentor me as I walk through this first year, and he has graciously agreed to do so.  It isn't often one gets to return to their roots nearly 40 years later and relive the experience from the other side.

It's a brand new work with a new principal, a new performing arts team, a new group of students and a new teacher tool kit.  The mission is the same; the mission field has dramatically changed. As I told my current principal, "I love living on the edge!"  She smiled.  She lives on the edge much of the time herself.

I will dearly miss my principal, my team members and my colleagues at Chets Creek Elementary.  I promised at our faculty luncheon last week that I would open a FaceBook account so that we can keep in touch.  I received word today that there is a Resource Team meeting scheduled tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. and I will not be present.  I'm having a difficult time wrapping my brain around that one...

I leave you with a quote from a rather famous children's author.  "Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened."  (Dr. Seuss).  As I move from one season of life into another, I would like to say "thank you" to those of you who loved, supported and encouraged me over the past nine years.  I could not have done it without you!!

Until next time....

Flag Retirement 2013

On Friday, May 31, Chets Creek Elementary retired all three flags that had been flying over our school for the past 10 months.  Our flag-retirement ceremony is a solemn occasion.  The principal addresses the audience each year and explains what is about to happen.  The patrols share pertinent information regarding the flag of the United States of America - what it symbolizes, what it represents and why we give it this kind of honor once it has been tattered and torn from the elements outside.  It is a great educational experience for everyone.

My job is to audition singers who will honor our flag by singing the "Star Spangled Banner" during the ceremony and locate a trumpet player who can navigate "TAPS" without issue.  Ordinarily, I go for the "cute factor" and choose little guys (first through third graders) to handle the singing and borrow a trumpet player from one of our high schools to handle the trumpet part.  This year, however, I was fortunate enough to use all of my own students (both past and present).

Ashlei, Conor and Lily - my trio who sang the National Anthem

Tori - a former student, now a 6th grader at my feeder school

I was extremely proud of my students who practiced hard and performed well.  They had been preparing for this ceremony for many weeks and I know their parents were proud of them also.  The weather was fabulous and everything came off without a hitch.  That's a really great day in my world!!

Until next time...

Blast From My Past

Today I visited my elementary school.  Seabreeze Elementary School in Jacksonville Beach, Florida is celebrating its 50th birthday.

Although I did not spend my entire elementary career there (I started in the 2nd grade and both of my boys attended 2nd grade there), I felt compelled to stroll down memory lane with fellow "Seabreeze Seahorses" wearing my school colors (blue and white).  Seabreeze is one of the last true "neighborhood schools" left in our district.  Scores of children have passed through its doors since it opened in the early 60's and I am proud to be one of them.  Enjoy the photos from my visit today.

Dee Dee Abdullah Tamburrino

My lunchbox

John is third from the left on the bottom 

(Second Grade, 2002-03)

Zac is the snaggle-toothed, curly headed one in the middle

(Second Grade, 2006-07)

Until next time...

Peas, Porridge Hot

This one absolutely blew me away!

A parent sent me this picture today.  The smile says it all.  The text in the e-mail stated, "Bella is teaching me music."  That was it.  THAT WAS HUGE!!!

Bella is one of my precocious little second graders who is mesmerized by everything we do in music. As of late, we've been working with poems - counting syllables, determining how the "rhythm of the words" align with the rhythmic notation, when to use a "tah" and when to use a "ti-ti," patting the steady beat with both hands, playing the rhythm of the words using alternating hands, etc.

Apparently, she has been showing her mother what we've been working on in class.  She correctly wrote out the poem and added the rhythmic notation above the words in the poem - just like we did in class.  It is a perfect rendition - even with quarter rests in all the right places!! I am beaming with pride.  My own children never did anything like this and I am absolutely flabbergasted.  What a special gift from a very special little girl!

Bella - I had a rather stinky day today at school, but your work has brought a HUGE smile to my face and to my heart!  Thanks for sharing your love of music with your mom.  Joy - thanks for capturing the moment and sharing it with me.

Addendum...I was told in a separate e-mail that she also used shish-kabob skewers on the floor to lay out rhythm patterns for her mom to practice.  (I used rhythm sticks in class!)  I am still laughing a day later.

Until next time...