Friday, May 26, 2023- Memorial Day Weekend Blog

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It's Concert Month here in Fall River!  Check out our Doran scholars at the Link Up Recorder Concert at the Vets in Providence.  So great to see our kids traveling and learning how to prepare to perform and be a part of an audience.  Here's Christina Lucini's reflection on the trip:

...Doran 5th graders had a wonderful time at the Vets Theater participating in the LinkUp program this past Wednesday! Some of them took their first-ever bus ride and took great joy in getting big trucks to honk for them. The Vets staff ushered us in quickly and the show started almost immediately. Our fifth graders were nervous but enjoyed learning about the various instrument families in the orchestra and rehearsing their part with each family before performing the entire piece together. We didn't have time to learn the "recorder star" part for Ode To Joy and so they loved hearing the melody over the harmony we had learned. 
I asked a few students how they felt and they said that playing their recorder with the orchestra made the recorder feel so much cooler because they were a part of a larger group. It was incredible to see my frequent "play loudly just because I can" friends playing with a gentle tone because they wanted to hear not only themselves but how their parts fit with the entire orchestra. I think this opportunity gave them the understanding of how instruments work together to create something much bigger.
The LinkUp program has become more organized since COVID and it was a worthwhile trip. Their concert was streamlined in a way that the kids never lost focus, even on pieces they didn't perform with them. They worked in a "movement break" and allowed the students to get up and dance during one of the pieces about halfway through, and the dismissal process was also extremely quick. I'm looking forward to bringing my kids back next year!

This week, middle school spring concerts also happened- so proud to see our Band, Chorus and Orchestra students performing on stage for their families and friends.  Congratulations go out to all of our musicians/performers and SPECIAL PROPS to Nicole Turgeon, Caroline Ollivierre, Itsva Hernandez, Jodie Laprise, Julia Klingner, Jay Treloar, Donna Murray and Matt Mac Mullen.  It takes a lot of work to teach our students not only to perform but also to be courageous enough to get up onstage and shine.  They did it!

In the News This Week:
Mapping Out the Rest of the Year:
  • 5/26- Last day of school for the class of 2023, prom
  • 5/29- Memorial Day- No School
  • 5/31- Orchestra Small FRY Concert- Durfee 7PM
  • 6/1- Band Small FRY Concert- Kuss 7PM
  • 6/2- Graduation
  • 6/6 and 6/7- Durfee Science MCAS- Periods will run 1, 2, 3 on Tue and 4, 5, 6 on Wed
  • See MCAS schedules for other schools
  • 6/15 and 6/16- Last two days of school- there will be PD time in the afternoon.  Here are things I am thinking about for that time: 
    • K-8 Art/Music- Using Tech and Google Tools for SLG/Assessment
    • K-12 Band/Orchestra/Chorus- Save The Date Meeting- planning for events/adjudication/assessment
    • 9-12 Fine/Perf Arts- Revision of Syllabi to reflect DWI
Eval Wrap Up:
Summatives continue through the next weeks- 2 year plan teachers, please have your collection of evidence forms up and shared in TeachPoint, and let me know if you have any questions.  Thank you for being thoughtful in this process, it is means a lot to me to see artifacts of the work you do every day.

PLC/CPT:
As we wrapped up Expo and Concert prep, we will resume meeting for PLC/CPT time.  See you next week. 

Have a great, long weekend.  Memorial Day is for me not only a time to remember those we have lost, but also is a "landmark" reminding me that we have made it to the last mile of the marathon.  So, let's keep running strong to the finish!

Jackie


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