orchestra Dear Principal...
Connecting, Reinforcing, Requesting Carrie Gruselle, WMEA State Chair, Orchestra
With every cubic inch of education being scrutinized, evaluated and labeled with degrees of necessity and merit, it becomes more and more evident that the arts must keep a high profile with our administrators, our staff and our community. Here is a letter to the principal (the names have been changed for the purposes of privacy), which is meant to inform, encourage, nudge, support and otherwise let him/her know that what we do in class makes a difference to the students and for everyone in the school community.
Dear Principal Robbins,
Carrie Gruselle teaches elementary and high school orchestra in Appleton.
Email:
grusellecarrie@
aasd.k12.wi.us
This is proving to be a great year at Leonard P. Bernstein’s West Side K-12 School for the Extraordinarily Ordinary, and I would like to take this opportunity to touch base with you regarding several topics.
The first is our upcoming Fine Arts Evening. I believe that that Mrs. Laurents is ready to start filling time slots for the concert showcase and I am excited to be able to feature our orchestras. Before I speak with her, the students and I would like to ask for your help at this event:
anniversary of our school this year. There are several students on track to reach this goal by this first public presentation, and I would love to have you acknowledge them.
After the elementary students perform their final selection, we would be honored if you would present the “I Practiced 54 Days” certificates. This incentive activity is obviously in honor of the 54th
The middle level students will be performing the composition “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” which requires a narrator. All of the narration occurs during pauses in the music, so it would require a minimal amount of rehearsal on your part. Would you be willing to narrate? The kids suggested you do it.
We hope you will be supportive of this adjustment: the high school students have requested that they perform in several smaller ensembles at different parts of the school, e.g. the foyer and other common areas, and near the art displays. They want to log some playing time in individual student-led groups. We will hear the high school orchestra en masse at the February concert.
Thanks for considering these requests. We know how exciting the Fine Arts Night is at LPB W-S K-12 SEO, and want to help make it a huge success (go Jets!).
Next, I would like to follow up on our last week’s in-service, where we discussed how to better integrate the disciplines and to otherwise reinforce our membership in the school community. Our music department is using several strategies to connect with the rest of the school.
The elementary students routinely piggyback on to the fourth and fifth grade social studies curriculum with the music of the Wisconsin pioneers and Civil War. And of course there is division and fractions. Reading and deciphering rhythmic notation in music reinforces many of the students’ math skills. Social skills are addressed with activities such as our Orchestra Birthday Club. You may have noticed when Associate Principal Moreno was serenaded on her birthday last week by viola- and violin-wielding youngsters.
14
January 2011
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