HS Observation Day 7

HS Observation Day 7

Katrina Fisher

May 28, 2014

Julie Oliver, Choir

• As a note, tonight is the Music Depatment's Spring Concert.
  The concert went incredibly well, especially considering the time that was lost due to their Music Department trip, Ms. Oliver being out, etc.
• She started off the concert with a Philadelphia set, which included the pieces they performed on their Music Deparment trip. Many of these had a patriotic theme, such as “We Hold These Truths” and the spiritual “Walk The Streets of Gold”, which included a melody that originated in Philadelphia.
• After her Philadelphia set, each of her three choirs performed two additional pieces. Her freshmen choir of about 40 performed “Bellas Finals”, a Pitch Perfect medley, and “If You Can Walk You Can Talk”, and after those pieces all of her choir men sang “ I Feel Fine” by the Beatles.
• Next was her non-auditioned mixed group, Chorale. They sang “Tres Cantos Nativos”, a Spanish piece, and an arrangement of Leonard Cohen's “Hallelujah”.
  • And finally, Honors Choir performed Rhianna's “Please Don't Stop the Music” and an arrangement of “Over the Rainbow” from the movie The Wizard of Oz.
    • Ms. Oliver had a nice balance of both popular songs, and pieces more from the traditoinal choral canon.
• There was a brief intermission, after which the Jazz Band performed two pieces, and the Concert Band performed three. There was also a Senior Recognition Ceremony, as it was their last concert of the year before they graduate.

HS Observation Day 6

HS Observation Day 6

Katrina Fisher

May 27, 2014

Julie Oliver, Choir

• As a note, today there is a Memorial Day Celebration Service during second block today, in which the choir will be singing and the band will be playing. Ms. Oliver asked me to sing the National Anthem.

Block 1- History of Rock and Roll

•   Ms. Oliver begins her unit on Motown today. She asks students to take out their notebooks, which she periodically takes and checks to see if the students are taking notes etc. She begins with Aretha Franklin, whom she explains began singing in church and that's where her musical career took off. Ms. Oliver reminds them to write down as many musical characterstics as they can while they listen to the first song, “Chain of Fools”. She talks to the students about the melody, and asks them if her main line is beautiful and long and flowing, or more choppy and conversational. She explains that the converstional style is what separated Motown/Soul from other musical styles that came before it. Motown's roots are derived from Gospel(religious), but that they have many similarities- driven by the bass, expressive, etc. Ms. Oliver talks about Barry Gordy, how he started Motown Records, and how he influenced music in 1960's America.

HS Observation Day 5

HS Obervation Day 5

Katrina Fisher

May 23, 2014

Julie Oliver, Choir

• So, the department just got back from their trip on Thursday! They had a wonderful time, and said that it was a really nice combination of historical and artistic parts, and that the students were incredibly well-behaved and represented Nashua North's Music Department well.
• Also, as a side note, today is “Senior Skip Day”. However, it's not anything official, and teachers are still taking attendance, regardless of the sheer lack of students in class today.

Block 1- History of Rock and Roll

Although Ms. Oliver only has four students in this particular block today, she still continues with her lesson. Her first song profiled is War(What Is it Good For?), written in 1970. She asks the students about the musical style, and if it evokes a feeling of war and sadness/anger....The students say that it definitely has a funk style, due to the “disco” style and use of brass. They say that it might have been popular because the style was upbeat and fun- that in current music they listen to, there are some songs that have a sad mesasge but the style is upbeat, and therefore they like it.

Unforunately, “Senior Skip Day” did have a rather large impact on the day and what Ms. Oliver was able to accomplish. She had a productive rehearsal with her Concert Choir considering, but she only had half of her members present. She was able to get good work done with the students that she had there, but because there were only 13 or so students there, she was worried about how the group will sound when they all come together for the concert, as they only have one more rehearsal on the day of before the concert.

HS Observation Day 4

HS Observation Day 4

Katrina Fisher

May 16, 2014

Julie Oliver, Choir

Today was a crazy busy day, as it was the final day beore the music department leaves for their trip to Philadelphia/New York City. There was a lot of getting ready with the logistics, in terms of permission forms, medical forms, etc. In addition to all of the logistical things that needed to be done, Ms. Oliver still had to teach her classes, and especially make sure that her choirs were ready to go for the trip. Although she stopped briefly to fix some trouble spots, most of her time was spent running the pieces in the order they would perform them on the trip, and letting the students understand transitions and how the pieces work together in a set. I will certainly be interested to hear how their trip goes- it is a considerable amount of work to put together, not even factoring in that they have to teach through all of this!

HS Observation Day 3

HS Observation Day 3

Katrina Fisher

May 15 2014

Julie Oliver, Choir

Block 1- History of Rock and Roll Music

• This class was newly installed just last year, and is what it sounds like- the history of rock and roll.
• Ms. Oliver said that today they'll be looking at a song by John Phillips, of the Mamas and the Papas. It's called “San Francisco(Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)”.
  • It was released in 1967 to promote the Monterey Pop Festival.
    • After they watch a video montage of the song, Ms. Oliver asks them what themes they think the song/video evoke. The kids talk of freedom, love, peace, etc. They also look at the lyrics and talk about what they think they mean.
  • The Summer of Love- 1967
    • She splits them into groups of two/three and gives them different questions about the festival to answer. She goes around to each group to check in and see how they're doing.
      • Once she has them present, she asks each of the groups to make sure they start with an overview, and then go into details after.
        • Encourages them to look at a particular paragraph to help them along to say what kind of information she wants them to know(Congratulates them for pulling out important information).
  Block 2- Plan Period
• Ms. Oliver and I spent her plan period getting documents ready for their music department trip to Philadelphia/New York City. There is still a lot to do and both Ms. Oliver/Ms. Olsen have had to stay at school late the past few weeks to get everything together.

Block 3- Freshman Choir

•   Today Ms. Oliver ran through their trip/concert pieces in order, without stopping, just to get a feel for where they were since she had been out. Between each piece, she would have the students quickly assess what they did, and to remember what they said, so once they were done running them all they could back and find parts to work on/make better.
  • Ms. Oliver had a sectional with the boys of Freshman Choir and asked me to work with the girls on one of their pieces, “Landslide”. I had worked on that piece with these girls on Tuesday, but it had greatly improved since I had last heard them. Ms. Oliver came in and asked if she could hear them, and I played for them. The girls sounded great and Ms. Oliver was very proud of them.

HS Observation Day 2

HS Observation Day 2

Katrina Fisher

May 14 2014

Julie Oliver, Choir(Kristin Olsen, Bands)

- I would normally be observing Julie Oliver, the Director of Choirs at North, but she is out again today due to a family emergency. I am observing Kristin Olsen, Director of Bands at North.

Block 1- Music Theory

• Ms. Olsen had them work on their minor scales, as they're having a playing exam on it tomorrow. Once they came back together, she explained what would be on the test. In addition, she began introducing inversions. It's an Early Release today, so periods are shortened and she wasn't really able to get into triads very much, but told the class to not worry and that they'd go into it in more detail tomorrow.

Block 3- Freshman Choir

• This is the other section of freshmen choir students, today with about 20 or so girls. Contrary to yesterday, they were a lot better behaved, and much more receptive to the work I wanted to do. My plan was(and I stuck to this mostly) to run all of their pieces for the trip/upcoming concert. After doing each piece, I would go back to some problem spots and work out some passages that were troubling them. The kids were energetic and relatively focused, and made some good progress with all of the pieces we worked on.

Block 4- Chorale

• This group was about 35 strong, and is an unauditioned group from grades 10-12. I have to admit, it was a lot more difficult in this group to maintain focus and a sense of productivity. They were extremely talkative, and I felt like I hadn't gained a lot of their respect. However, with both groups, I felt as though there was definitely improvement in each of the pieces we worked on and I was glad about that. 

HS Observation Day One

Nashua High School North- Day 1

Katrina Fisher

Julie Oliver- Choir(Kristin Olsen- Band)

05/13/14

- I would normally be observing Julie Oliver, the Director of Choirs at North, but she is out today due to a family emergency. I am observing Kristen Olsen, Director of Bands at North.

Block 1- Music Theory

• Ms. Olsen started off the class by having students go into the Keyboard Lab and practice their melodic minor scales for about fifteen minutes.
• After this, she introduced melodic dictation for the first time to the students, and played two dictation exercises.
• Afterwards, she spoke to the students about the importance of music theory, and how the concepts they are learning and grasping are different than any other class they will take in high school.
  • Because it's so different than anything else they are learning, it's okay that it might not be as easy for them as they'd like it to be. Dictation is a concept that truly only gets better with doing it more often, and that is what she plans to do with them.

Block 2- Freshmen Band

Because there is such a large freshman class, they are split up into two groups, each having band every other day. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors have Concert Band fourth block every other day. They work on the same music, and perform together in all concerts
• She starts off by having them run their parade music, which is for the Memorial Day Parade on May 26^th.
• They try running the piece, and Ms. Olsen stops them and works with the trumpet section, and then the flutes to fix some particularly difficult/fast sections. She slows down the runs until all of the notes are played (mostly) accurately.
• She has the drumline run their cadence numerous times, as this is what they will play between the medley for the Parade. There is one particular portion that is giving them trouble, and while trying to break it down realizes that the snares simply don't know their part as well as they should, as opposed to it being a group issue. She tells them to go home and practice that one section until it is engrained in their heads, because they lead the band with that cadence and it needs to be strong.
• She then begins to work on their music that they will perform on their trip to Philadelphia next week, and will play in a workshop at Temple University.
  • Their first piece is American Flourish, by Robert W. Smith. It features portions of numerous patriotic songs.
• One of the best qualities of Ms. Olsen is her balance in temperament with the students- she is strict, but has such faith in her students. She pushes them because she knows what they are capable of.

Third Block- Freshman Choir

•   Last night, Ms. Oliver texted me and asked if I could lead her Freshman Choir because she already knew she would not be in school.
• They have a Spring Concert coming up, so after I warmed them up we immediately started working on the pieces they'll be performing.
• I gave them little breaks in between each one, because an hour and a half working on all concert music is a long period of time, in my opinion.
• They are doing a piece from "Pitch Perfect", so I took that opportunity to speak to them about singing a cappella in college, and just about the experience as a whole.

Fourth Block-Honors Choir

• I also ran Honors Choir. After warming them up, we also worked on some concert pieces, and really fine-tuned some particular sections in some more difficult pieces. I didn't work too much on expression/dynamics etc, because I didn't really want to step on anyone's toes. However, I think it was definitely productive.