THE LAST FRIDAY of 2021/22 School Year!

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TALBOT Lion King- The Musical- Watch this!!!!!

Happy last Friday to the best team on the planet.  I think we have learned a LOT this year.. 

  • The impact of 2020/21 school year on students: We found that many students who were remote last year had a hard time staying focused, staying in class, and behaviors were tough.  This year gave a WHOLE NEW MEANING to "back to school" for students, and we felt it!  Next year, we will start (as we always do) with solid routines and expectations so our students don't miss a beat.
  • Returning to planning for ALL the kids in person, and no Google Meets!  We learned a lot about technology last year, and will always have memories of "turn your camera on, Joey" moments.. With full classes back this year, we planned some really awesome plans for kids K-12.  Mapping was on FIRE at the middle school level- thank you Abby and the music team for getting a 6-8 curriculum together for next year!  These courses will be super engaging for our middles, and I am so excited to see the team use these three maps!
  • We learned that it's cool to take a look at books that kids are reading in ELA time and use some of the vocab that they are learning as it pertains to our content!  The Literacy cohort worked a bit this year on this- looking at the Scope and Sequence for ELA, reviewing texts, and adding 3 words to their art lesson that would be reinforced during art/music time.  So cool to see this work!  Let's keep at that for next year..
  • We learned that a love for Theater can be fostered in middle school!  With two of our three middle schools this year performing in AMAZING MUSICALS- Morton with Addams Family and Talbot with Lion King, it was so great to see our kids come alive on stage.  Kudos to all who made this happen for our kids.
  • We learned that if you make a HUGE ARTS EXPO, you get a HUGE COMMUNITY coming together for our kids!  I am STILL in awe of the people who came out to see your students work.  Heartwarming to see our kids explaining their processes... all because of YOU, and you need to know that.
  • We learned that our Band, Chorus and Orchestra ensembles can come back from a pandemic!  We lost 50% of our numbers during COVID.  It's so great to see kids re-joining these music families.. Band Mini Camp was this week, and we had over 30 kids!  Yessss!  Let's keep going and keep GROWING!
  • We learned that our Durfee Performing Arts kids are something else.  They went to METGs and ROCKED IT.  Practicing while still under COVID masking restrictions.. think about that: have you ever tried to act while wearing a mask?  Challenging!  
To sum it up, we have always been a department that does well, through good times AND bad.  We rise to the top in times of struggle, and we will continue to do so.  Our kids love you and need you in their world, to inspire them, to teach them, and to provide them with structure and creative space.  That's the work, and you accomplished another year of it!  Congrats.

New Staff:
Next year, we will be welcoming the following new Arts Fam Members:
  • Sydney Jordan- Talbot Music
  • Owen Flanagan- Talbot Music
  • Abby Casey- (transfer) Durfee Music
  • Chrissy Winsor- (already with us) Stone/HLCS/SB Art Therapy
The following positions are open and I am in the interview process:
  • Kuss Music
  • Orchestra Itinerant
  • Music Technology Itinerant
  • Music Itinerant- HLCS/Stone/SB
We have a few retirees we want to congratulate! 
  • Gary Bigelow
  • Robert Beauregard
  • William Brown
And I know, it's not even summer vacation yet and I am already planning for next year, but I will be running a PD in August here- Here is the information- any questions, ask!  We will be looking at Daniel Pink's "Drive" and Neurodevelopmental Differentiation- Optimizing Brain Systems to Maximize Learning.. and also going on some arts field trips (Troy City Yoga, The Narrows, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum).


Thank you, everyone!
Happy Summer!
Jackie

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