Art Happens

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From the Fine Arts Director...

Welcome to our newest version of “The Fine Arts Focus” via our new blog! Teachers, parents, students, school officials, and community members are invited to follow and enjoy keeping up with district fine arts events, celebrations, and accomplishments of our students and faculty.

We want to especially welcome our new fine arts faculty members to RRISD! We are blessed with 261 talented and dedicated teachers in Art, Music, Theatre, and Dance, all of whom share a passion for the importance of the arts in the education of the whole child. Throughout the school year, we will collaborate on department goals related to campus and district objectives, as well as enhancing individual learning and collective student success in campus fine arts programs. We will continue to study, and act on, data relative to the impact of a continuous and sequential participation in fine arts on our students in all population groups. And although we continually advocate for the value of the arts in and of themselves, we will seek innovative methods of integrating our instruction across the total curriculum. And of course, we invite your suggestions as we continue to update and refine all of our processes.

I wishto express our appreciation to all of our teachers who participated in our second annual Fine Arts Customer Satisfaction Survey this past spring. We have already begun to evaluate and results and will utilize the valuable input in our efforts to support students and teachers.

Our department is supported by an outstanding team, including:

Lead Curriculum Specialist Lisa Roebuck – Although Lisa is involved with all aspects of our department, she takes the lead role in supporting Choral Music and Elementary Music, and will be working with our new Theatre Liaison, who will be selected very shortly.
Visual Arts Curriculum Specialist Tim Lowke – Tim is also involved with all aspects of our department, but takes the lead in supporting Visual Art at all levels. Tim is also on the art faculty and is fine arts chair at Cedar Ridge High School
Dance Curriculum Specialist Denise Cochran – Denise also assists in all areas of fine arts, but primarily facilitates curriculum and activities related to high school Dance and middle school PE-Dance.
Theatre Liaison - TBA - This person will be a full time teacher, but will serve an important role in professional development in Theatre and in facilitating district theatre initiatives.
Performing Arts Center Manager BettyJo Byrne – BettyJo manages the entire mechanism of the PAC operations.Performing Arts Center Technical Production Coordinator Brad Distelhorst – Brad is the “hands on” person for technical operations for events.
Department Budget Specialist/Administrative Associate Barbara Brown – Barbara is the most efficient, skilled, pleasant, and crucial associate that we could hope for. She deals with all financial and budgetary issues, assists with events, creates documents, and continues to work with our website

Finally, a huge THANK YOU to teachers in advance for all you do for our students! Please do not hesitate to contact me or any of our administrative team if we might be of assistance in any way. Have a great fall!

Jim

Cultivating the Technology Culture in RRISD Fine Arts

Greetings and welcome back to the start of another great year in Round Rock ISD Fine Arts!


It was great to see all of our faculty united together at the start of our Job Alike sessions. Mr. VanZandt's opening comments and video illustration about collaboration amongst all strands of the fine arts was an affirmation of what we all do on a daily basis. Our passion for each of our art forms inspires our students each and every day, and when we work together as a team, it is simply amazing what we can accomplish together. Here is a link to the "OK Go" video we all watched at the start of today's session:






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w



Today's Job Alike session for Band and Orchestra directors at Cedar Ridge HS proved to be exciting, eye-opening, and even reaffirming for many of us. Presenter Bingiee Shiu (Director of Orchestras, Memorial HS, Spring Branch ISD) brought forward a fanstastic presentation that focused on three areas that we all strive to master in each of our programs: Organization, Motivation, and Activation.


I found the segment on organization to be especially useful. Mr. Shiu discussed several practical habits that can lead to ease in set up for rehearsal. For example, the use of notecards with information on each student (i.e. name, class period, instrument, groupings) can be used to arrange and vary up ensemble seating on a regular basis. Another topic of discussion was limiting the "paper trail" that we all encounter as a result of handouts and forms. By installing a drop box mounted to the floor, students in our programs can have a consistent place to turn in forms, fees, and permission slips; in turn, we as directors can control the security of intake and also monitor the deadlines required for return of such items.


Technology was another major area of focus in regard to organizing life around the orhcestra or band hall. As someone who considers himself somewhat technologically savvy, I was absolutely blown away by the amount of technology integration that the Memorial HS Orchestra students achieve. The importance of utilizing technology to the advantage of our programs is imperative. Why not make our lives easier by creating a "one-stop shop" for parent and student information through the use of a creative website for our program? One of my personal goals for this year is to establish said website (utlizing student and parent help) and keep it up to date with useful information on a regular basis. Mr. Shiu also emphasized that, while Charms is a fantastic program, most parents prefer the ease of a user friendly website when searching for answers to questions or researching information about our programs.


His next segment on motivation centered around the idea that many successful programs rely on a sense of community to create motivation from within the student population. The idea of student ownership and leadership is fostered by a spirit of belonging. In order to spark this fire and keep it burning, we must have a "buy in" for our students. Yes, music should certainly inspire our students to keep coming back into our halls every day. However, many of our students rely on our program as a social outlet. Realizing and embracing this fact can become a powerful tool that can be used to encourage participation and continuation in our programs.


We wrapped up our day by forming the "Round Rock Faculty Philharmonic," an ensemble that this horn player certainly looks forward to playing in again soon. It is truly impressive the amount of talent among our ranks, and I hope everyone was as excited about the possibilities of such a performing group as I was. Mr. Shiu spent time during his "Activation" session discussing the exploration of expressive conducting, as well as the benefit of establishing conducting warmups that will challenge us and our ensembles on a daily basis. Our brave conducting candidates did a great job adapting to challenges on the podium, and I think we all took away at least one concept that we can try with our ensembles (regardless of grade level).


All in all, today was a fantastic sampling of what great teaching is all about: making the logistical, paper-pushing side of our job as efficient and non-time consuming as possible, while constantly evaluating the effectiveness and quality of music making that we are so fortunate to do each and every day with our students.


I'd like to thank Mr. Shiu for his time, preparation, and innovative ideas that contributed to a great Job Alike Day for us all. Additionally, thanks to the Fine Arts faculty at Cedar Ridge HS for hosting us in their facilities today.


Best wishes to all of you as we start what I know will be a fantastic year for Fine Arts in Round Rock ISD.


Thomas Turpin
Westwood HS Band

Rod Caspers refines our theatre teaching skills

Rod Caspers is a very well known and respected teacher and director in the Austin area. The RRISD theatre teachers had the privilege of working with him this afternoon, and even more beneficially, watching him work with our students.

I have been to several workshops now by Rod, and he does the mirror exercise in every single one! What is he trying to tell us?! He constantly reminds us that there is very important (even vital) reasons for theatre fundamentals. He also reminds us that there are dozens of variations of the exercise in order to keep it interesting. He is patiently reiterating that quality theatre comes from a well developed set of skills that can transfer to any profession or academic endeavor.

He spent a great deal of time on warm up work which I think has very important implications for the classroom. He used the following activities: stretching, walking, mirrors, heartbeat, composition, and cross game. The exercises offered practical ways to explore composition, intentnion, and subtext with students.

After a short break, he is going to do some creative writing acitivites with us. Looking forward to it!

Elementary Music: Rhona Brink - Growing Up With Great Songs

1:00 - 3:30 pm

We met to learn great songs appropriate for all ages. Many of these songs are traditional folk songs that we have just forgotten by the side of the road.

Rhona Brink gave us a great handout with many concept teaching ideas for many grade level extensions for older students.

Did You Feed My Cow
She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain

Here Comes a Bluebird

Kintergarden

• action game
• melodic phrases of different length
• always mirror the actions for students so that you are doing the actions backwards, correctly for the students
• use clapping motions for short and long sounds [K]

First Grade

• movement does engage and oxygenate the brain and makes the vocalizations better
• always sing and hand sign first and have students copy your motions - use the melodic phrases to transition into another song.
• when playing the "Bluebird" game - have the "old" bluebirds sit down after "hopping in the garden" and it is an easy visual clue to who has not had a turn yet- only standees have not been chosen to hop yet.
• Write all beat lines on the board, then, in small [4beat] phrases teacher sings melody and students sing back rhythm names on correct pitches.

Second Grade

• Teacher:"What do you do if you have two pieces of string and you want one long piece of string?

Students: "Tie them together." (intro into half note)

Whose Head {show heads of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln}

• Presidents Day
• Social studies
• Part Work
• using the basis of the song, pick out more presidents and have students improvise or write

new verses for the new presidents. Good writing experience.

• Using this song in Pre-K and Kintergarden it will introduce the presidents and give them two names for presidents. also a good penny/quarter/dollar money tie in to math.

Car Song

Fast/Slow

• Action song, adds motions
• Maybe taking a car trip out into the country to see "Aunt Rhody"

Rhythmic Content

• good way to change the tempo of the car trip [and the musical temps} is to get off the paved road and drive on a slow, bumpy road.
• slower paced tempo can be used to introduce ta-dimi
• draw 4 beat lines and have students find which beat line has the ta-dimi as you sing the phrases of the Car Song

Question/Answer

• Using the first phrase Car Song as a question, have students improvise the answer.

Map of United States

• when you stop on blue states you can sing "Old Blue"
• When you stop on Colorado, sing "Rocky Mountain:
• When you stop on Alabama, sing Alabama Gal
• When you stop in Louisiana, sing Great Big House in New Orleans

I've Got a Car
Old Blue

• m-d-m r r d transition into Dinah from tone set
• text is A A'AB refrain
• using the form, have students improvise different
• Every day I eat too much - so my toes I cannot touch

Riding in a Buggy

• have students improvise different rides for Miss Mary Jane [K]
• improvise text - Riding in a car . . . truck . . .plane . . .
• First Grade: verse only; tuneful singing, limited-range sone; sing last phrase on neutral syllables,
• Second grade using m r m d. lead into m r d then m m r d d {go tell Aunt Rhody}
• Take words away and sing on neutral symbols
• discern d-r-m tone set; read from tone ladder; transition to to other d-r-m songs
• Teacher: "When I give you a number, put it on your shoulder [with your fingers]"
• Game:

Form two circles, one inner, one outer. Partners take right hand and shake, other left

hands hold crossed over right hands. During verse partners promenade in circle to right.

During refrain, turn toward partner and pat, clap own hands, push-clap partners

hands, clap own hands on four beat pattern throughout refrain. at end of refrain, outer

circle moves one partner to right and have new partner. repeat all actions with next verse.

Great Big House in New Orleans

Pre K and K

• Use {Oh My- no more pie} as a lead into Great Big House
• use a slide of a house shape with 6 boxes and 6 pies in it. Sing every verse
• Lemon pie, lemon pie, how I love my lemon pie as a vocal chant in between verses
• Pat lap keeping a steady beat.
• text improvizations with kinds of pies

First Grade

• rhythm reading
• rhythmic phrase form
• Instruments: sticks/drums [beat v. rhythm]
• Using a flipchart or powerpoint - subtract phrases and have students fill in the blanks
• Bu the time the rhythms are being subtracted students should be able to read the whole song from memory.
• Teacher can click in the answer as a check to see if rhythms are correct as students are singing the song rhythm syllables.

Second Grade

• for the magnetic colored line/space work you can use unifix cubes and strip tape magnets

get the unifix cubes from your first grade teachers and the magnetic tape from Jo-Ann

Fabrics

• put the rhythmic stick notation on the overhead and the melodic magnets on the staff on your white board. Teacher writes the solfege under the staff and students put the pitches on the staff.
• Point to students and assign each student a certain melodic pitch and have students construct the melody on the whiteboard.

Third Grade

• Transposition [move staff position]
• Ledger lines [in C-do]
• Play the game!
• Instruments

Fourth Grade

• Part work, ostinato; augmentation (2nd part] diminution [ 3rd part]

Fifth Grade

• Part work; canon; partner songs
• Great Big House In New Orleans, Alabama Gal, Lil Liza Jane, Rocky Mountain, Dinah
• Form abac pick four students, let students pick rhythms
• Improvisation' creativity; composition
• Curriculum integration, American history, social studies, weather
• Using If You Dance, sing "a" sections on du du du and "b" sections on "Baa" Delightful

To sum it up in a few words, stretch the songs you teach to bring them back for spiraled concepts as students grow.

Three reasons for choosing Songs in Our Curriculum:
1. Occasional/Seasonal
2. Pedagogical [make sure that they are quality songs- passing the test to provide enjoyment
and/or aesthetic experience.
3. Songs for Fun [emotional/musical value, rich in cultural tradition]

Job Alike -Theatre portion of Austin Ballet Company Presentation

-TEKS included for language arts in theatre are also on the Website
-lesson about trying to encourage students to take a risk and that there is not a right or wrong in the creative process.
-re hearsal (emphasis on re because we do it again and again) if we didn't need to redo it, it would be called a hearsal!
-Evaluating and replaying and that needs to be okay for your students.
-Telling a story through movement and drama
- 1. Divide into partnerships (it's okay to stack the deck for success) when determining who should and should not work with each other.
2. Supply them with written synopsis (on the website)
3. Define Synopsis-Story line or plot of what is written down in a script
4. Students may not know what a play looks like in written form. Pairs of kids will read script in partners together. Have dictionaries available for reference.
5. Have them make a prediction about something they might observe at their upcoming trip to the theatre based on what they now know about the story. (May be intimidating for some) Tell them there is no right or wrong way to predict what they will see on stage because each play is different.
6. Explain perspective and point of view with directors' differences, dancers from different training styles, etc.
7. Might want to give groups that need more direction in the above activity, a question to focus on to direct their thoughts...7 questions online.
Ex. Who do you think the main character will be?
Ex. How will clouds be used in the production?
Ex. How will the theatre show the family traveling down the river?
Ex. What will...

7. Post show: Look at how Mozart mastered instrments so quickly (keyboard vs. piano ex.)
8. Word of mouth and its credibility and how it plays into Mozart's career.
9. How would they define what is genius or amazing for one's age or time?
10. Review scene where he meets the three maestros (styles of playing and personalities)
11. Discuss how they fit their musical names. (8 questions online)
Ex. How did maestro staccato speak?
Ex. What volume level did maestro Fortissimo use?
Ex. What personality type reminds you of maestro legato?
Ex. What does the volume of a character or how a character moves tell us about what their thinking or feeling?
12. Ask students to think about how they move in sounds?
13. Ask if we all move and think the same way?
14. Have students make a list of 5 or 6 adjetives that describes your voice and/or personality...
15. On the back of paper, list of adverbs of how you usually move through space
16. Have partner's share and give them a maestro label
17. Might want to model for the students first
18. Have them write a paragraph including new words and at least one maestro character.

Welcome back to the 2010-2011 school year

We are excited to be back for the 2010-2011 school year! Cedar Ridge kicked off the RRISD fine arts staff in style this morning as eager teachers, new and old, embarked on the annual "job-alike" staff development day.

Cedar Ridge is a beautiful new school where the natural light pouring in through the abundant windows is sure to inspire students.

We are excited to celebrate the founding of the Round Rock Area Arts Council, and look forward to the involvement opportunities that it will provide.

This morning, the theatre teachers got to work with Monica Michell, the Head of Teacher Education/Certification, Dept. of Theatre and Dance at Texas State University-San Marcos. We were given a plethora of activities to use with our students with regards to addressing bullying. Bullying in schools has received more and more attention in the press, but it remains a difficult problem to confront with secondary age students. The activities Ms. Michell offered can be used in a variety of ways and empower students to solve problem for themselves.

The morning session ended with a staged reading of the script Billies and Bullies by Michell. It was lots of fun to watch our theatre teachers assume the roles of actors. We all learned a lot and will be using Ms. Michell's materials in our upcoming school year.

We look forward to our afternoon session with Rod Caspers!

Job Alike 8/18/10-music events/Art and Music Collaboration

Professional development study groups

ABC focus groups - 4 groups (West and East location for Smart and Promethean board)
-Banner question
-Meet September 4th?

May 2nd - PAC Blue Shoe Project is coming for fifth grade
Payment needed for bus transportation only!! Otherwise it is free!! (Email Lisa if school is interested)

May 19th or 24th- Austin Symphony- $3/person

Austin Lyric Opera

Austin Jazz Workshop

Art and Music Collaboration Presentation:

-Yo, Leonardo Musical, Mark Burrows, Heritage Music Press
-"Specials Showcase" held each April on a PTA meeting night. (P.E., Art, Music)
-Go Galileo Muiscal
-Fourth grade performed musical and studied artwork to go along with it.
-Fifth grade did a contemporary "Mona Lisa" with headphones and music or sports stuff
-Refer to hand out for specific artist use and projects in conjunction with songs.

Pollyanna Theatre Company:

Multi-Arts program information and sign-up sheet

-Symphony of Clouds Excerpts- A dance drama introducing kids to Mozart's childhood and his developing musical gifts.
($7 per person or free for title 1 campuses)
-Cross curriculum themes for teachrs of 3-5.
-Show times: Jan. 24th-Feb, 2011-on school campuses TBD by school
Feb. 8-10th - Ballet Austin Shows-10am and 12pm

Good Morning

We are in the midst of introductions here at this beautiful new school. I'm excited to see all the friendship and fellowship that the Fine Arts staff in RRISD is showing. I am very excited to become a part of this energetic and upbeat group.

Elementary Music Job Alike 8-16-10 nuts and bolts

1. To access information from primary/secondary music staff, visit

-Round Rock ISD website
-Departments
-Fine Arts link
-Fine Arts staff

2. Promethean update for assessment (Lindsay Nelson)

3. Sept. 2- Sommer Elementary 3:30-5
Sept. 15- 1:45-4 half day staff devel.
***Oct. 25th - Festival of bands
January 25th- Faculty Music Recital (attend or perform?)
January 6th- 4-6pm- band, choir, orchestra teachers visit with us concerning transitioning of kids.
March 5th- Music Festival
May 4th- Staff Devel. half day

So excited to "blog" tomorrow at the Job Alike.. See everyone for Breakfast at 7:45 eeewwww, thats early

Round Rock Music

Hi there,
This is Joanie Marshall and I will be your On-The-Spot reporter for our Back To School staff development day at Cedar Valley. This is my first reporting assignment, we'll see how it goes. See you all tomorrow!

Welcome!

Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year!  Join the fine arts faculty and fine arts leadership within Round Rock ISD as we share information via this blog during the course of the year.  We hope you will subscribe and become a regular reader.