While many of you have likely seen this, I also wanted to share this truly fabulous assignment that Doreen Fryling is using with her high school choral ensembles. In short, it is a collection of brilliantly conceived projects. Students can select whichever project they want– things like compose a piece, perform a work and record it, harmonize a piece using the A capella! app, do a comparative analysis of two recordings of the same piece– and present it. I love it because it makes the best of our current situation and I get to learn new things about my students. My students love it because they can pick assignments that align with their interests. I have been truly inspired by the things I’ve seen. This is a very cool resource, and I highly recommend it!
Before I close, let me tell you about the “lifetime purchase” ($14.95!) I recently made. BingoBaker.com. What fun! I created a MUSIC THEORY review board and explained to the class that they would earn their box if they demonstrated an understanding of the term I called. For example, if I called “major”, they could answer, C-E-G and get the box! They received the URL in Google Classroom as an assignment. You click on the board to “x” the box. They raise their hand on the screen if multiple kids have the term and I go around and verify their answers. It changed up the lesson and reviewed material at the same time. I just created another with the names on the roster of all my girls in Chorale – adding their Spring Concert song titles and other concepts learned in class. We’ll play BINGO on the “A” Friday we return.
I don’t know. I hope it breaks up their routine. I know it’s helping mine.
Okay, enough writing. Back to grading projects so I can ultimately finish episodes 4-5-6-7 of Tiger King. (Don’t judge me…)
Here’s to the kids who were supposed to get their braces off after two long years, and now have to wait a few more months.
Here’s to the kids who couldn’t wait to get their driver’s license, and now they check daily to see when the DMV will open.
Here’s to the kids who are wondering if there will be any sort of graduation ceremony culminating 13 years of school, or if they will get to attend freshman orientation over the summer at their selected college–or if there will even be a fall semester.
Here’s to the kids who are wondering if they will miss their first time as a camp counselor or employee at the Froyo stand or the internship they worked so hard to get.
Here’s to the kids who were hoping to get their first kiss at the prom.
Here’s to the kids who dreamed of going to States in track or baseball or show choir.
Here’s to the kids who wanted to put themselves out there and try something new this spring.
Here’s to the kids who worked hard all year to come back from an injury.
Here’s to the kids who found their tribe in the band or CHOIR or drama department and now feel lost without their people.
Here’s to the shy boy who was working up the courage to ask the new girl out for a movie. Here’s to the lonely girl who was just starting to make friends in her art class.
Here’s to the kids who have studied all year for their AP’s and now sit anxiously wanting to get it over and done with.
Here’s to the kids who have worked hard all year to build up their GPA and now are unsure if their grades count.
And here’s to the kids who miss school because it was their safe place, where they were fed, where someone showed they were valued and loved.
Here’s to the kids whose lives are forever changed, forever branded with the mark of a virus that they do not fear but impacts them greatly.
We talk about big events like proms and graduations and college tours, but it’s not the big things they are missing. It’s the moments woven into these milestones, the imprints of these rites of passage.
We won’t know the long-term effect this will have on our kids for years, so let’s lift them up while we can.
Their grief is real, even if it seems small to us.
Their sadness is justified.
Their lives are changed.
May we remember their perspective is small and their feelings are big.
We can’t give you back the moments, the experience, the time, but we can acknowledge it hurts.
Here’s to the kids. ♥♥♥
Be well and stay safe and healthy.
As always, thanks for reading.
Barbara
https://njacda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/njacda2-300x83.png00BRetzkohttps://njacda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/njacda2-300x83.pngBRetzko2020-04-11 09:12:032020-04-20 09:15:10Here’s to the kids (Reflective)
We have one week until Spring break – yes, later than most. So the assignment for everyone in the department this coming week was to create a Photo Essay – An assignment I completed first; so that they would know my responses as well. See below and use if you’d like.
I am still sharing practice tracks of music with my singers. One more Spring Concert piece for two choirs in the unlikely event we are returning. My request so far is that “we have to be ready at a moment’s notice IF we are permitted to return and perform”. I think, at this point, they would settle for a parking lot performance. Social distancing, of course.
As teachers, we watched the internet become FLOODED with a bazillion “great” ideas for distance teaching…of course, the biggest question circled around virtual choirs, with folks thinking that you just need to gather the kids on the screen and “POOF”, it’s a well-balanced, beautifully blended choral sound. (It doesn’t happen quite that way…)
https://njacda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/njacda2-300x83.png00BRetzkohttps://njacda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/njacda2-300x83.pngBRetzko2020-04-02 12:49:482020-04-20 08:53:17Because choir is greater than the sum of its parts (Reflective)
So, as I have in the past, I’ll post some of what I have assigned and some of what I have done and if you can use it, please do. The most fun I’ve had with the kids was this past Monday when my A Cappella Choir “met” at 7p on ZOOM and after we all caught up with one another, I scheduled and IN-HOUSE SCAVENGER HUNT. 4 slides – Simple Rules – Keep the ZOOM on and I heard giggles and laughter and kids being kids again – even if it only lasted about 20 minutes…
I discovered Doreen Fryling’s blog and fashioned the next few weeks of assignments from it for my Concert Choir – thanking her a million times for this generosity.
So my friends, stay safe. Wash your hands. Keep your social distance. Stay at home. Drink wine. Play board games. Binge watch TV. ZOOM with your family and friends. Do what you can to flatten the curve ’cause We’re all in this together… (cue choreo and song).
As always, thanks for reading.
Barbara
https://njacda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/njacda2-300x83.png00BRetzkohttps://njacda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/njacda2-300x83.pngBRetzko2020-04-02 10:32:002020-04-20 08:41:47Fabulous Assignment Ideas (Doreen Fryling with examples)
https://njacda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/njacda2-300x83.png00BRetzkohttps://njacda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/njacda2-300x83.pngBRetzko2020-04-02 09:42:202021-08-09 06:43:28Music in times of crisis (videos)
We’re all trying. Exploring and sharing in a new frontier. I told all my classes, early in the week, that I think we needed to think about all of this through the lens of the Five Stages of Grief since I felt as though we had all lost something of magnitude in our lives, however that was defined. Today I received this in an email…which continues to define and redefine what we are feeling. It’s a great read.
And we’ve got to be grateful for the humor – the memes – the photos and videos that folks are creating and posting and sharing to do their best to remain connected. It’s affected everyone for sure.
So my friends, stay safe. Wash your hands. Keep your social distance. Stay at home. Drink wine. Play board games. Binge watch TV. ZOOM with your family and friends. Do what you can to flatten the curve ’cause We’re all in this together… (cue choreo and song).
As always, thanks for reading.
Barbara
https://njacda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/njacda2-300x83.png00BRetzkohttps://njacda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/njacda2-300x83.pngBRetzko2020-04-02 08:21:542020-04-20 08:42:15Dealing with Grief (Harvard Business Review)
Dr. Rosephanye Dunn Powell has been hailed as one of America’s premier women composers of choral music. She has an impressive catalogue of works published by some of the nation’s leading publishers, including the Hal Leonard Corporation, the Fred Bock Music Company/Gentry Publications, Oxford University Press, Alliance Music Publications, and Shawnee. Dr. Powell is commissioned yearly to compose for university choruses, professional, community and church choirs, as well as secondary school choruses. Dr. Powell’s works have been conducted and premiered by nationally-renowned choral conductors, including, but not limited to, Anton Armstrong, Philip Brunelle, Bob Chilcott, Rodney Eichenberger, Tom Hall, Albert McNeil, Tim Seelig, and André Thomas. Her work has been auctioned by Chorus America and her compositions are in great demand at choral festivals around the country, frequently appearing on the regional and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, as well as Honor Choir festivals. Dr. Powell’s compositions include sacred and secular works for mixed chorus, women’s chorus, men’s chorus, and children’s voices. Dr. Powell serves as Professor of Voice at Auburn University. She holds degrees from The Florida State University (D.M. in vocal performance, University Fellow), Westminster Choir College (M.M. in vocal performance and pedagogy, with distinction), and Alabama State University (B.M.E., summa cum laude). Dr. Powell served on the faculties of Philander Smith College (AR) and Georgia Southern University prior to her arrival at Auburn University in 2001.
Recent commission and premiere highlights include: With What Shall I Come (SATB), composed for the St. Olaf Choir 2015 Winter Tour in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Dr. Anton Armstrong, conductor, and premiered at Carnegie Hall; Why We Sing (TTBB), composed for the 2014-2015 touring season of Cantus Vocal Ensemble; Bright is the Ring of Words (TTBB), composed in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the University of Pittsburgh Men’s Glee Club, (March, 2015); The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation (SATB), composed for the NCMEA High School Choral Section for the 2014 North Carolina Honors Chorus; The Cry of Jeremiah, a four-movement sacred work for narrator, chorus, organ and orchestra, commissioned by the American Guild of Organists, premiered at the Lincoln Center, NY (May 2014); I Want to Die While You Love Me (SSAA), composed for the 2013 Women’s Choirs Commission Consortium of the American Choral Directors Association; Great is the Lord!, composed for the Downtown Minneapolis Churches for their February 2013 Choral Festival (MN); I Will Sing, commissioned and premiered by the Oxford Civic Chorale, Oxford, MS; Arise Beloved, commissioned by OurSong (Atlanta, GA) one of four works premiered as part of the group’s choral cycle “And Nature Smiled,” performed at the internationally-acclaimed Spivey Hall; Christmas Give, a suite of five songs for SATB and orchestra, composed for the Baltimore Choral Arts Society Christmas CD “Christmas at America’s First Cathedral” released by Gothic Records; and Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit, arranged for The Sofia Chamber Choir “Vassil Arnaudov”- Bulgaria, Southeastern Europe.
In 2011, Dr. Powell served as an arranger and co-editor, along with her husband Dr. William C. Powell, for the release of I’m Gonna Sing: Twelve Spirituals for Upper Voices published by Oxford University Press (London). Other recent commissions include, but are not limited to, Christmas Give, a suite of five songs for SATB, composed for the Baltimore Choral Arts Society Christmas CD “Christmas at America’s First Cathedral” released by Gothic Records (2010); Be Glad in the Lord composed for Philip Brunelle and Plymouth Congregational Church (2009); Hope Come True, a suite of five songs for SSAA and SATB composed and arranged for MUSE Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir (OH), and premiered by MUSE and Central State University Chorus; Rejoice!, for chorus, organ, trumpets, and timpani composed for the 50th Anniversary of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Auburn, Alabama; Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit, arranged for The Sofia Chamber Choir “Vassil Arnaudov”- Bulgaria, Southeastern Europe. Children of the Rainbow, an original work, composed for the Columbus (OH) Children’s Choir and the 2005 Children’s Choral Festival of African-American Music; Pete, Pete arranged for the Montgomery Academy Middle School Chorus for the 2005 Alabama Music Educators Association State Conference; Sicut Cervus composed for the 25th Anniversary of the Texas Collegiate Women’s Choral Festival; Still I Rise composed for Vox Femina, Los Angeles, CA; and Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child arranged for the 35th anniversary of VocalEssence (Minneapolis, MN, 2003).
An accomplished singer and voice professor, Dr. Powell’s research has focused on the art of the African-American spiritual, the art songs of William Grant Still (dean of African-American composers), and voice care concerns for voice professionals (specifically, music educators, choral directors, and choral singers). She travels the country and internationally presenting lectures, song demonstrations, and serving as a workshop clinician, conductor, and adjudicator for solo vocal competitions/auditions, honor choirs, choral workshops and festivals. Recent commitments include Melbourne International Singers Festival (AUS); the New York State School Music Association (Rochester); the Georgia Music Educators Association Conference (Savannah); Middle Tennessee Vocal Association Treble Honor Choir (Nashville); the World Choir Games (Cincinnati, OH); the Italian Feder Gospel Choirs Workshop (Milan, Italy); Alabama Music Educators Association High School Honor Choir (Montgomery); Samford University (Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts) (Birmingham, AL); South Carolina Music Educators Association State Conference (Charleston); AGO National Conference (Nashville, TN); Summer Sing Choral Workshop and Tuning at Tahoe Music Directors Workshop (Lake Tahoe, NV); and Capital Area Music Association (Harrisburg, PA).
As a researcher, Dr. Powell’s recent articles include Keeping the “Choir” in Showchoir published in the Amercan Choral Directors Journal; William Grant Still: His Life and His Songs and The African-American Spritual: Preparation and Performance Considerations both published in the prestigious NATS Journal of Singing. She served as the editor and wrote the introduction for William Grant Still: An Art Song Collection which is published by William Grant Still Music.
In 2009, Dr. Powell received the “Living Legend Award” presented by California State University African Diaspora Sacred Music Festival in Los Angeles. She was listed in the first edition of the international publication Who Is Who in Choral Music. And, she has been included in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers and Outstanding Young Women in America in recent years. Dr. Powell is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the College Music Society (CMS), the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and the Music Educators National Conference (MENC).
