Thursday, February 28, 2013

Chorus Sings All the Way to the Bank



Chorus Sings All the Way to the Bank
Thursday, February 28, 2013

The Gladiators recently paid a visit to Springdale Park Elementary to present the SPARK chorus program with a check for $676.80 for their participation in the Gwinnett Gladiators fundraising program. The SPARK advanced chorus under the direction of chorus teacher Brianne Turgeon performed the Canadian Anthem prior to the January 12th game vs. Kalamazoo. According to Turgeon, the funds raised were used to help fund the advanced chorus’ participation in Large Group Performance Evaluation (LGPE) and the Community Children’s Chorus Festival (CCCF). The money was also used to purchase sheet music and offset transportation costs to the chorus performances.

From a previous blog post:

Click here for a link to the Talk Up APS article about the AC's performance at the Gwinnett Gladiators game!

and some comments from the PRESIDENT of the Gwinnett Gladiators, Steve Chapman:

 "...I wanted to congratulate you and your chorus on your performance this past Saturday.  I have been involved in professional hockey for twenty years.  I have heard the Canadian National Anthem performed hundreds of times.  The [Springdale] Park Elementary Choir performance was truly one of the best renditions that I have ever heard.  It was excellent.

I am not Canadian, but having grown up with hockey, the song has a special place in my heart.  We have it performed or played at our games to honor our team members that are Canadian.  I can tell you that - to a man - each and every one of them was impressed with the performance.

I hope that you bring your choir back to join us in the future and, honestly, I hope that you continue to sing the Canadian anthem as it is a pleasure to listen to your choir perform it..."

My best,


1 

Steve Chapman
President
Gwinnett Gladiators Hockey


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Georgia Student Media Festival 2013

The SPARK submission deadline is Thursday, February 28th!

Media Release
Copyright Compliance
Envelope Label
Entry Form for Music projects
About My Project


In order for the projects to be evaluated for the GSMF please submit the following to Ms. Turgeon or Ms. Cofield by Thursday, February 28th:

In a manila envelope include the following:
1. Copy of the project on DVD or CD-ROM, or website URL (for websites only)
2. Entry Form
3. Entry Label: Affixed to the outside of the envelope with the (CD/DVD) enclosed
4. Signed Media Release Form
5. Copyright Compliance Form

Students in grades K-12 whose projects score 96 – 100 in the Georgia Student Media
Festival will be automatically entered into the International Student Media Festival

Please check out the GSMF website for more info on requirements, tips, and suggestions!

Tips for Great Projects!


  • Test your project on a variety of machines before submitting to GSMF (PC and Mac, if possible)
  • Save your project in a format that doesn't require specialized software to view
  • Be sure to embed your audio with the project - listen to your project on several different machines before sending
  • Include your Fair Use Statements, Credits, Bibliography near the beginning of your project (judges view the first 7 minutes of your project)
  • Use the best quality Audio and Video possible
  • Check for spelling and grammatical errors
  • Follow Digital Safety Guidelines by not including full names in the project
  • Include Media Release form for each student in the project packet
  • Follow copyright guidelines and include permission from copyright holder
  • Follow Digital Safety Guidelines


Your project may be selected as a sample for the web. Do not include the last names of students on the project itself, unless there is a media release form signed by an authorized parent or legal guardian of the minor student.

All of the FORMS listed under Project Packaging must be filled out by each registrant.

=========================================================================================
Also, if you're not sure how to embed audio check out these tips!
http://www.wikihow.com/Embed-Music-in-a-PowerPoint-Presentation

If you want to embed audio effectively you must convert MP3s and other formats to .wav files. There is a free converter called winff that you can download here.

Once you've converted your sound file you can edit your sound file to a shorter version (or fade in or out) using the free audio editor called Audacity. Sound clips of songs that are longer than 30 seconds are not allowed in the GSMF submissions, according to the "Fair Use" policy.

Friday, February 15, 2013

ASO Projects are Rolling In!



Project Performances



Videos/Live Action











Below are video files of PowerPoints that have been submitted--almost 60 in all! If you want to check out specific presentations click on "Playlist" and you can scroll to the next videos, or click on YouTube icon on the bottom of the frame and pop the window out so you can easily scroll to the presentation you'd like to see!
Please note, some PowerPoint animations/transitions/videos were not saved when I saved the files to video, and the timing for things may be a bit off, but you can still see the facts, some animations, and the layouts for presentations. This was the only way I could find to share the PowerPoints with a larger audience.

TUESDAY PowerPoints


THURSDAY PowerPoints



FRIDAY PowerPoints





Kids' websites and videos
Last year, Nikhel’s Reinhold Gliere website project won Excellence in Media Production and Judge’s Favorite at the International Student Media Festival. This year, just for fun, Nikhel did another project linked below (he an James worked on a site together, too). 

Nikhel's Mom says: Every detail - from font, layout, animation, color, even indentation of text was thought out by him. This was an incredibly difficult program to learn and he went to online tutorials to learn Flash. He also used Photoshop.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

LGPE Supexcellent

On Wednesday, February 13, 2013 GMEA Middle/Elementary LGPE Festival was held at Mays High School.

LGPE is an excellent opportunity for choirs, bands, and orchestras to have outside adjudicators rate their progress. Students perform two pieces, and each of three judge provides ratings and comments on their progress.

Springdale Park Elementary School’s Advanced Chorus performed the following selections, accompanied by Leanne Hermann on piano and Paige Mathis on flute.

“Manx Lullaby” arr. Lori Ann Doloff
“Hine Ma Tov” arr. Henry Leck

All judges, concert and sight-reading, provide comments and a score. The scores are:
1-Superior
2-Excellent
3-Good
4-Fair
5-Poor
These scores are then combined to give one overall rating using the same scale.

Ms. Turgeon is SUPER proud of the hard work of our SPARK kids. There are very few elementary choirs that participate in LGPE, and even fewer that attempt the sight-reading activity, so each singer should be commended for their dedication and focus.

Repertoire Rating:
3 judges= 2 Superior ratings + 1 Excellent rating=SUPERIOR OVERALL for Repertoire

Sight-singing rating: Excellent
 

so our outcome (according to the kids) was SUPEXCELLENT!














The obligatory post-LGPE bus-singing featured Taylor Swift songs, "The Wheels on the Bus" and a spontaneous rendition of the "SPARK Song" as we returned to school. :)


Huge THANKS to Mr. Witkowski, who provided the video below.



Monday, February 11, 2013

3rd Quarter Music Sheets



Part 3 (counts as a test grade for this quarter)--Informal Reflection
(due with the grading sheet at the end of the quarter =10 pts.)

Reflect/Summarize On a separate sheet of paper type/write about what you learned this quarter from the project and in Music. Use a minimum of (3rd=6, 4th=8, 5th=10) Music Vocabulary words from our list or use other musical terms. Be sure to use the words in a way that shows you know the meaning--don't just make a list of musical words.

Tuesday Classes: Due March 12th=Smiley & Riggins
Thursday Classes: Due March 7th=English, Windham/Nossokoff, Hall, Kaufman
Friday Classes: Due 7th or March 8th IN THE MORNING--March 8th is Early Release Day=Butler, Naman/Nossokoff, Lockwood & Redel

Sunday, February 10, 2013

CCCF--Community Children's Chorus Festival

PHOTOS

Saturday, February 9th was a long and joyful day of making music for the Music@SPARK Advanced Chorus.

The idea for CCCF (click HERE for the concert program) began when a group of music teachers (Ms. Turgeon and her friends--our Music Teachers' Support Group) decided it was time for our kids to meet and get to know each other. But then our "getting to know you event" event became "how can we get our kids together, have a ton of fun, AND create an exceptional day of music for our singers?" 

Many of the MTSG teachers work with Atlanta Young Singers, the professional children's choir that is based at Callanwolde, so AYS singers, parents, and volunteers became part of the plan to make sure that every chorister was having a great time and experience. We invited choirs from public and private schools, as well as AYS to round out the expereince.  MTSG member and Swift School Chorus Teacher, Caroline Goldstein, who is also an organizational master, sought out the best clinicians, judges, and accompanist to make the day a success.

The date for CCCF finally arrived. Singers arrived at Mary Lin  to meet and play games & perform for each other, get feedback and suggestions from Choral experts, participate in sight-reading workshop, percussion workshop, and they finally ended the day with a mass concert of all choruses, led by the Music Director for Atlanta Young Singers and nationally sought-after choral clinician, Paige Mathis.

Part of the day included two chances for the singers to perform their pieces for the upcoming LGPE (Large Group Performance Evaluation). Our judges were Dr. Susan Messer, Chorus Director at Ridgeview Charter School and Amy Hughley from Riverwood International Charter school. Ms. Hughley is also the president of the American Choral Directors' Association (ACDA) for the Georgia chapter.

Our Clinician Paige Mathis from Atlanta Young Singers
starting the CCCF day

Percussion with Mr. Jon Marvel
from Mary Lin

Sight-singing guru
Ms. Sue (moo, rim-ram-roo) Briss 
Judge Tune-up
with Dr. Susan Messer



Letting off steam. There is nothing more fun than taking jumping pictures!
the kid in the stripes
is Taylor, from Mary Lin









Ms. Meaghan Curry,
Music Teacher at Henderson Mill 
Ms. Turgeon is the Assistant Music Director with Atlanta Young Singers.

Ms. Caroline Goldstein and
The Swift School
Lower Division Chorus

The Swift School
Advanced Chorus

Ms. Paige Mathis with
Atlanta Young Singers
Training Chorus
Music@SPARK
Advanced Chorus
Reed Fazenbaker
on Flute
The Accompanist
for the entire day
Ms. Leanne Hermann
"Turn The World Around" featured
Mr. Marvel on guitar and Alex, Jessica, Taylor,
and Zoe on percussion

Full CCCF Chorus, including Atlanta Young Singers, Springdale Park's Advanced Chorus, The Swift School and Mary Lin.