June 15, 2018 Wrappin' Up the Wrap Up

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What did WE do?

I wanted to share out one last Blog for the end of the 2017/18 school year, before you all get to cleaning up, wrapping up the year and saying farewell to your students...  This year, we...


  • Received almost $10,000 in grants to support art and music projects and programs
  • Engaged in Learning Walks to identify where we are in lesson planning and use of content vocabulary
  • Engaged in Professional Development in content specific groups including:
    • Blended Learning- Using Blendspace and Video Tutorials
    • Accountable Talk in Art and Music
    • Close Reading in Art and Music
    • NAfMe Music Webinars
    • Engaging Students in Music Through Movement
    • Using the Google Classroom
    • Station Rotation
    • All City Performance Planning
    • Curriculum Mapping with Live Links
    • UMD Assessment in Music
    • And More!
  • Taught over 1,000 students to play an instrument
  • Performed at Parades and Performances, both in our schools and in the community
  • Held Amazing Musicals!
  • Had students win Scholastic Art Awards!
  • Had an Art Ap 2D Student granted full tuition for 4 years at Mass College of Art!
  • Organized several weekly practice nights for Band and Orchsetra students to practice for Cll City, as well as Chorus!
  • Competed in METG Theatre Competition
  • Sent students to perform in SEMSBA Festivals
  • Sent Band, Orchestra, Chorus and Theatre students to Disney 
  • Had hundreds of parents and community members at the Annual K-12 Arts Expo- Thousands of pieces of art were presented for the community to see
  • Had the first Festival of the Arts night in conjunction with the Durfee Spring Concert- what a success!
  • Art teachers participated in school based events by sharing art work in Multi-cultural Nights, Parent Nights or Shows
  • Art teachers participated in fund raisers for schools
  • Music teachers helped in making graduations a success by prepping students for songs/performances
  • AP 2D Art and Music Theory Students worked soooo hard- fingers crossed for high scores!
  • I've probably forgotten tons!
And most recently, the Durfee Alumni Concert was held in the Nagle Auditorium, and the Jazz Band did an AWESOME JOB playing and premiering a MARY ZEMA ORIGINAL called "Fuego."   Mary said that the students were amazing to work with and Matt MacMullen was gracious enough to take on this challenging piece with his students!  Ms. Zema even got to play along with the band!  Such a great tradition and event... Thank you to all who worked so hard to make it a success...  Lara Beth Terry, Gary Bigelow, Nicole Laprise, Jay Treloar, and the whole team!  What a great night!

All of this work would not have happened without you, directly or indirectly- whether you are an elementary, middle or high school teacher, you had an impact on Our Kids and Our Programs.  Thank you, thank you!  

Planning for Next Year:
  • I am looking at all recommendations in evaluations to build next year's PD menu.  This way, teachers can draft their professional practice goals to identify areas of need, and I can support those needs through PD time.
  • In addition, I am noticing a few teachers would like to refresh their memories on the use of Blendspace and FlipGrid, so we will revisit those on a needs only basis.
  • I will continue to provide time for mapping the curriculum as needed, so that teachers can update the living shared documents with live links to all lessons in Blendspace.
  • I have submitted all supply orders- you should see those soon.  Please clean out storage areas and make room for new supplies for the first half of the school year
  • Buildings are sharing their Master Schedules with us, so as soon as I have all of the elementary schedules, I will hand them over to Band and Orchestra teachers so they can build their schedules.  As soon as they have these, they will reach out to building principals to let them know when they will serve the 4th and 5th grades.
  • Next year's calendar of events will be shared with all staff in an email by the last week of the year, so teachers can plan.  The K-12 Arts Expo is set for Thursday, April 25th, with Durfee Concert (part I), and the Durfee Festival of the Arts is the Thursday May 2nd with DHS Concert (part II).  We will be dividing up the Durfee Concert next year into two evenings, so that Chorus, Band, Jazz Band, Orchestra don't have to condense repertoire.   They will perform on the consecutive Thursday evenings right after the Art Shows.
I decided to have some fun with this end of the year Blog thing...  here goes.  

End of the Year Fine and Performing Arts Teacher Superlatives

  • Most likely to have one million friends- Nicole Laprise, Linda Cabral
  • Most likely to be found enjoying nature- Katie Grinnell, Mark Carvalho
  • Most likely to bring a pet to school- Heather Pereira, Karen Souza
  • Most likely to be seen on the big screen- Gary Bigelow, Lara Beth Terry
  • Most likely to win Jeopardy- Don Smith, Jayson Newell
  • Most likely to travel the world- Valerie Martin, Stephan Hettinger
  • Most likely to throw it down in a rap battle- Kelsey Raposa, Bill Brown
  • Best advice and artsy wisdom- Ana Arsenio, Brenda Gaudette
  • Most friendly- Caroline Herrero, Emily Plunkett
  • Most enthusiastic- Alex Ollivierre, Jenn Mattei
  • Most likely to create world peace- Rochelle Petttenatti, Bob Beauregard
  • Best musical wizards- Zack Roberts, Jodie Laprise
  • Most likely to pull a Thelma and Louise- Barbara Mullen, Christine Mandeville
  • Most distinguishable voice- Sondra Arnold, Gary Bigelow 
  • Most school spirit- Matt MacMullen, Becky Jontos
  • Most Likely to break out in song in an elevator- Michela Gardner, Mary Zema (wouldn't THAT be a duet?)
  • Most likely to be found in an art store throwing down $$- Steph Pereira, Sharon Arruda
  • Best Mona Lisa Smile- Karen Graca, Steph Tierno
  • Most able to shift teaching gears from K to 5 in .6 seconds- Deb DaCosta, Beth Laginess
  • Best teacher poker face, regardless of how silly the students get- Deb Cabral, Teresa Moniz
  • Best wardrobe (including necklace made by a student)- Kerin McGillicudy
  • Scariest teacher/death glare- Victoria Arons, Jay Treloar 
  • Most likely to be mistaken for a student- Victoria Arons and Chelsea Valois hahahhah
  • Most likely to scold you for eating food near the computers (and not sharing)- James Barron
Most likely to be eating food near the computers- Fitz Lamarre  ;)

  • Most Likely to Be Accidentally Called Mom/Dad- Donna Murray, David Arruda
  • Most likely to catch a student texting in class- Linda Cabral, Sandra Tavares
So, I am excited to end another year with you all, and even more excited to start it all up again in August!  Have a wonderful vacation- get some rest, have some fun, try new things and see you on Tuesday, August 28th at the FRPS Orientation Day!

Jackie

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