Updates for all classes - April 17th

All Bands - Practice charts for April will be due by Friday, May 4th. You have 2 weeks to finish your practice minutes for full marks. Remember, 1 hour per week (60 minutes) is all you need to get full marks of 240 minutes for the month! We are also planning to create a mass band to play O Canada at the final concert, including all students from Levels 1 through 4. There will be about 100 students on stage for this performance! :o)

Senior Choir - We are starting to pick music for our final concert on June 6th. So far, it looks like Senior Choir will be performing Prayer of the Children, Shine on Me (?), Three Russian Folk Songs, and our newest addition - the New Zealand Maori love song Pokarekare Ana. Up in the air: Amazing Grace and Hotaru Koi. We handed in Say it With a Song, since we haven't looked at it yet and we have more than enough rep. We will team up with Jazz Choir to sing Seasons of Love from RENT.

Jazz Choir - Rep for final concert: Seasons of Love (with Senior Choir), Pop Bottle Hoedown, If I Were a Rich Man, and Can You Feel the Love Tonight? from The Lion King. We can make some decisions down the road if need be (for program length).

Drama 20 - We just finished our Open Scenes 1-6 today. If you missed today's class, you will need to catch up on Scenes 5 and 6 only. Coming down the pipes for the next project = Small cast 1-act plays. We will do some online research to choose our scripts, divvy up characters, etc. As I would like you to get experience working with a variety of actors, we may just draw names from a hat to choose groups. Stay tuned.

Computers 8 - Picnik is closing on Thursday. Please be sure that all of your assignments are done in time!

Computers 9I - News broadcasts are due on April 23rd. Don't leave it until the last minute please, because if you have any issues with importing your videos, editing your footage, etc. you will need time to iron the problems out/re-film if necessary. We will have a "movie night" when all assignments are handed in and compiled into an iDVD project (I will do this part).

IP 10 - We are in the advanced planning stages for our Music Video project. Your band poster is due tomorrow (Wednesday) at the end of the period. Once you have finished filling in your planning guide (band name/genre, props, costumes, camera angles, scene breakdown, etc.) please hand them in to me so I can see how your planning is progressing.

IP 20/30 - We will be finishing iDVD shortly and submitting our video competition entries. New project coming up TBA. We also need you to consistently be tracking down yearbook photos, especially class candids from all grades, 7-12.

Updates for March 28th

It's time for an update, to make sure that we're all on the same page with everything at school, in all classes, bands, choirs, etc. Here we go!

- All band practice charts for March are due BEFORE the Easter break. Please have them to me, with your minutes totalled at the top and a parent or guardian signature, by Wednesday, April 4th @ 3:30pm

- We have been joined by several of our Japanese students in senior music classes. In Senior Choir we have been working on the Japanese children's folk song, Hotaru Koi. I would like to look at Seasons of Love shortly in Senior Choir... stay tuned (no pun intended).

- Jazz Choir is working on Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King, in 4-part SSAA a cappella. It will be beautiful! And, for something completely different, get ready for a toe-tappin', knee slappin' good time with our newest piece, The Pop Bottle Hoedown. Yeehaw!

- IP 20/30 is submitting our Work2Live and SaskEnvironment video contest submissions before the Easter break. We will be putting them onto a DVD (using the iDVD program) next class so that we can mail them with the release forms, etc. before their respective deadlines (April 20th for Work2Live and April 29th for SaskEnvironment).

- IP 10 will be beginning a new project today.... the long-awaited MUSIC VIDEO! This will be a major project and will take several classes to complete. Given the time allotted to this assignment, it will also be worth a substantial portion of this term's grade. It's also going to be a lot of fun - and of course, there will be a "movie night" at the end of it all!

- Computers 9I are compiling the video footage for their news broadcast, which is due on Monday, April 23rd. We have had many class periods to plan, film, and edit this project, so no extensions will be permitted (unless extenuating circumstances require one, in which case, see me to make a plan).

- We have been doing some African drumming in Music classes this week. Rivier students have got rhythm! Our theory classes will turn into African drumming classes as we get closer to the end of the school year. That being said, those that have theory to do will need to use that time to complete all assignments and quizzes before the final June report card. Stay tuned for an African drumming ensemble sign-up sheet for the final concert!

- Rivier is in charge of putting together a choir for the Celebration of Life mass on Friday, April 20th (evening). I will be there to sing and play the piano, and I need as many of you with me as possible. It is a great opportunity to represent our school and our music program, and our talents are always so appreciated by everyone. There will also be a pizza party for all singers who are involved in this mass..... added bonus! I will be posting a sign-up sheet on my homeroom door asap.

- We (the IP 20/30 class and I) are looking for yearbook photos from ALL grade levels. We want candid shots of you and your friends and classmates, either on the outside school grounds or in the classroom, hallways at lunch, etc. If you want to be represented in the yearbook, please submit photos to us asap! We will do our best to represent everyone, but it is difficult to do without the help of the student body.

- Computers 8M is almost finished the photo editing unit. Soon it will be time to develop our photo editing e-portfolio by compiling our best work into an iMovie presentation, complete with titles, transitions, and background audio. When this assignment is complete we will be having a "movie night" class where we can see each other's work (maybe we'll even watch the iMovies that you made in Grade 7 Computers class that we ran out of time to watch!).

- Just a reminder that Parent-Teacher Interviews are tonight (Wednesday) from 4-7pm and tomorrow (Thursday) from 4-6pm. There are no interviews on Friday!

- Choral/Vocal Jazz 30 - there has been talk about doing a Grade 12 number for the final concert. At this point it is looking like "For Good" from Wicked. I may have a lead on an SSA version so that we can get a bit of extra harmony in there vs. the duet music that I have currently. We will work out a time to get together and learn it. It shouldn't take long at all.

- I will not be here on Friday, so Mrs. Moon is subbing for me. Choral 10/20/30, she will be teaching the music for Celebration of Life with you during your 3rd period rehearsal. Please consider signing up for the mass. I know it is a Friday evening which is a lot to ask, but your leadership and talents are so appreciated. (Plus, free pizza!) :o)

Whew! Lots to think about. I'm glad we are getting things organized. We only have a couple days left until Easter break! Time is really flying by. Before you know it, we'll be tightening up loose ends for our June concert, and then it will be Grad.... YIKES!

I'm thinking about an "Around the World" theme for our final concert. What do you think? So far we have:

- 3 Russian Folk Songs (Russia, of course!) - Senior Choir

- Pop Bottle Hoedown / Can You Feel the Love Tonight (USA) - Jazz Choir

- O'Leary's Ceili Band (Ireland) - Senior Band

- Walkabout (American swing jazz) - Level 3 Band

- Sakura, Sakura (?) (Japanese folk song) - Level 1 Band

- Cha Cha Del Sol (Spanish) - Level 2 Band

- African drums (Africa, of course!) - Various students

- Hotaru Koi (Japanese children's folk song) - Senior Choir

- Seasons of Love (American Broadway) - Senior/Jazz Choir

- The Steppes of Russia (Russian folk) - Senior Band

- The Happy Wanderer/Val-de-ree (USA) - Senior Band

- She's Like the Swallow (Canada) - Chandra, Quinn, Rebecca, Miss Campbell

- Prayer of the Norwegian Child (Norway) - Cassidy and Shea

This could be a lot of fun! Your thoughts? Any song suggestions?

*Edit* - I just thought of some more good ideas. O Canada for band (any level), plus possibly Pokarekare Ana (New Zealand) for any number of voices. It's easy, I've taught it to most of the senior students already (3-4 years ago, mind you), and it's a song near and dear to my heart, as I learned it when I was teaching on my internship in NZ in 2007. Also, when I was interning and singing with the Wellington Youth Choir, I did a really cool arrangement of O Canada with God Defend New Zealand, their national anthem. I arranged them as partner songs, meaning that they're both sung at the same time.... AND it would give us an opportunity to sing in the Maori language! That might be kind of cool for senior choir I'm thinking.

So many ideas! :o)

Welcome back!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Semester 2. I hope you had a great break during semester turnaround and that you're ready to get started with new and wonderful projects in Term 2.

On the music side of things, please remember to bring your instruments for band again as we will be back into rehearsals starting today. That being said, Level 1 and 2 bands will be singing instead of playing today (I'm teaching you the new settings of the music for the mass - Gloria, Memorial Acclamation, Amen, Lamb of God). Level 4 will be rehearsing in the dining hall.

Computers 9I, your first assignment is to complete either a timetable of your Semester 2 subjects or a Bathroom Reader (for any month, as this is a practice trial run of creating one in Microsoft Word or Pages). Our assigned months will be April and June.

Rivier is responsible for the music ministry at the 11:00am mass this Sunday, January 29th at Sacred Heart Cathedral. Please sign up to sing - it will take about an hour, and will be so appreciated by everyone (especially me). You can use this time as service hours too, which is an added bonus for your Christian Ethics classes! Rehearsals for this choir will be today, tomorrow, and Thursday (as needed) at 12:00pm in the music room. Instruments are welcome too - djembe, violin, etc.

Sound of Music rehearsals are getting very intensive now, so it's very important that every cast member is present at all rehearsals. If you must miss a rehearsal, it is your responsibility to inform one of the directors with as much advance notice as possible so that we are not wondering where you are when rehearsal time comes. Thank you for your understanding in this matter. We have 2 weeks until the show opens, and lots of work to be done between now and then! Time to pull up those knee-high forest green socks! :o)

Updates

I am back from the Saskatchewan Music Conference in Regina (thankfully I didn't get storm-stayed like some of my colleagues!), and it was just wonderful! I bought $600 worth of band music for $20, which was the deal of the century, to say the least! Gotta love Long & McQuade blowout sales. Get ready for some sight reading, bands! We've got lots of new material!

Just a reminder for everyone that there has been a change in Parent-Teacher Interview times for tomorrow. Instead of 4-7pm, we will be running interviews from 3:30-6:30. Don't forget to tell your parents!

October practice charts were due on Friday. Congratulations to Band 20, who was the first class to have a 100% record of handing in their charts. Next step: Make sure that all charts have a minimum of 240 minutes per month (60 minutes per week). Music 9(4) and 7(1) came very close as well - good work girls!

For those of you wondering about the cast list for The Sound of Music, here's the scoop: Jan Cash, our director, needs to have the final say in the casting. Sr. Mary and I have it mostly figured out now, after several callback auditions. Jan will need to put the final "seal of approval" on our list, and we will get started on rehearsals immediately after. Stay tuned for a schedule.

I hope everyone had a good weekend, and please drive safely out there.... it's beginning to look a lot like (slippery, snowy, icy) Christmas!

Post-IMC updates

Well, ladies and gents, it was a success! After a 9-hour journey through torrential rain (yes, the entire way!), we made it safely to IMC, and thankfully had a week full of glorious weather save for one rainy afternoon mid-week. What an awesome experience! Our snazzy bass player was part of the symphony orchestra, while our little miss violinist was a part of the concert orchestra as well as the fiddle school where she got to learn lots of cool tunes by ear. And of course, staying true to its name, the INTERNATIONAL Music Camp had students this week from Austria, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, Haiti, Domenica, and Honduras. Awesome!

I hope everyone's enjoying their summer! See you in almost another month yet! Yay for holidays! :o)

Music updates

Jr. Choir members needing to refresh memory work on "Early One Morning" and "Fare Thee Well, Love" please meet me in the music room at 12:15 today for a brief rehearsal.

Jazz Choir, if you need extra help with choreography before the concert (tomorrow at 7pm) I will be available after school for as long as we need. Remember that we also scheduled an extra rehearsal on Thursday at 11:40 to make sure the choreography is in place, especially for the 30s who missed 1-2 rehearsals due to retreat and other reasons. Also, please remember to track down your costumes for our first number, as we don't want any last-minute scrambles to get things in order.

Band students, practice charts are due by Friday. Online theory is due by June 17th at the very latest, and I have already spoken to some of you about how much is needing to be done. Many of you have completed the program with 100% or in the high 90s. Way to go!

The concert tomorrow is at 7pm, and the order is as follows:

Jazz Choir (be here by 6:30pm)
Level 1 Band (be here by 6:30pm)
Orchestra 10 (be here by 6:45pm)
Orchestra 20 (be here by 6:45pm)
Level 2 Band (be here by 7:00pm)
Jazz Choir (already here)
Orchestra 30 (be here by 7:15pm)
Junior Choir/Senior Choir (be here by 7:15pm)
Level 3 Band (be here by 7:30pm)
Level 4 Band (be here by 7:30pm)

The room assignments for each group are posted on all of the homeroom doors along with a copy of the program. Please be sure that your instruments and music are out of the storage rooms by 6:45pm on Thursday. If this means that you need to remove them on Wednesday or Thursday after school, please do so. You may store them in your classrooms temporarily and then return them after the concert.

The dress for the concert is full uniform (vest, tie, etc.) with BLACK PANTS. Kilts don't go over well when playing on a raised stage. Even if your group is standing, please wear black pants to stay consistent throughout each ensemble.

Thank you for all of your hard work this year! I'm excited for our concert, as we really have some nice rep prepared for our audience (I'm sure the twins will love it! Look for them in the front row!). Our performance year will round out with an afternoon entertaining at the Good Sam's International RV Club "Samboree" at the Exhibition Center on Friday. If you're a grade 10 student who is helping at track, you will be excused for the performance(s). If you're a junior student who is competing at track, you will remain at the track for the day to complete your events.

There are still a few of you who owe me singing/playing tests from earlier this semester. I will be tracking you down to make sure that they happen before final exams (or during that week if necessary). Choral 20 students, we may have to run singing tests over a lunch hour so that we can potentially use our final rehearsal times to sing at Pineview or Mont St. Joe's (although nothing of that sort has been arranged yet).

HW updates for Monday, Jan. 31st

Computers 8I/8M: Your first photo edit ("Public Market") is now due, as both classes have had a full period to work on the assignment, plus the first class in which we practiced the selective colouring technique. Just a reminder that you are welcome to experiment with additional photo effects, as long as the final product shows that you have changed the background to black and white, and that you have selectively coloured all of the lettering/clock hands and numbers back on.

Science 7: As we had 7 absences from our class this morning, we used our time to clean our desks and lockers, recycle old papers, tidy up our spaces, and work on homework from our other classes. We have just begun the Particle Theory of Matter, and it made sense to use our time for other projects rather than re-teaching the new concepts when the rest of you return.

IP 20/30: We are in the process of analyzing and editing our preliminary yearbook pages (class photos/individual portrait pages, staff photo page, etc.). We will be continuing with candid pages today. If you have any photos that need to be uploaded, from any grade level, please do so asap so that those pages can start to develop - there are several blank ones at this point.

Band (all levels): Your January practice charts are due by this Friday. Every month I have at least 1 or 2 people panicking on Friday, as they forgot their chart at home. Please hand yours in asap so that you do not have any last-minute panic moments! They can be handed in to me personally or to the basket on my desk starting today. I already have a few, so keep them coming!

Narnia: We are officially 1 week away from our first show! It's definitely "crunch time" but I have faith that we will pull it off. PLEASE memorize your songs if you have not already - we need to focus on our characters rather than our lines, lyrics, harmonies, etc. It's your show - let's present a performance that we are all proud of! :o)

IMC updates

Hey everyone! Here's an update from International Music Camp - I hope you are all enjoying your holidays so far! Quinn, Katie, Brenna and I are in North Dakota and loving it. The two older girls are playing in a band with students from Canada, the US, Ireland, Norway, Austria, Singapore, Barbados, and Grenada. The quality of instruction here is unparalleled, and it's absolutely amazing to hear all of the talent here. I will try to get a recording.

Today is Canada Day (happy b-day, Canada!) and we are all decked out in our red, white, and maple leaves. I bought the girls matching shirts for $6 each at Superstore in Yorkton while we were filling up with gas en route, so we're all matching now and representing Rivier (and Canada) in style. :oD

Happy summer!

Yay, June!

Check out the new template. What do you think? :o)

Well folks, we're almost at the end! Just a couple quick announcements from the music side of things:

- all school instruments need to be returned to the storage room asap for cleaning, inventory, and any potential repair/maintenance

- all music and method books must be handed in so that they can be put back into the inventory

- Senior Band is playing "Ipharadisi" on Friday at the final assembly

- Senior Choir will be singing "Hands" and "Don't Stop Believin'" at the final assembly as well

... and a couple non-music announcements:

- Grade 7s, we will be ON THE BUS by 8:30am on Thursday for our field trip to Waskesiu. Please be at the school by 8:15 so that you do not get left behind!

- 7C, please bring items for our final class potluck on Friday at noon

- please bring your "Mama Mia" forms back asap, as we need to know whether to reserve tickets for next October

Good luck with studying and final exams, everyone!

Welcome to Miss Webb!

Today we are welcoming Miss Webb, who is here as a student teacher from the U of S until Friday. Miss Webb will be hanging out with me in Science, Computers, IP 10, Band, Choir, Jazz Choir, and any other school events that may be happening this week. She plays the saxophone and is doing a minor in English (same as me!). We are very happy to have her here this week, and I'm sure that we will make her feel very welcome at Rivier.

Science 7 - today we continued our unit on the earth's crust. We took some notes on plates and three different kinds of boundaries (converging, diverging, and transform).

Vocal Jazz - Today's rehearsal is a blues improv catch-up lesson for the 20s who missed class due to the extended Europe trip. If you are in Vocal Jazz 10 or 30 and you need some extra help, please attend today's rehearsal.

Band - April practice charts are due by Friday. Please hand them in early in the week to avoid any last-minute panic moments!

Level 1 Band - we are in the computer lab for online theory today. Bring your instrument for private practice if you are finished the entire program.

Updates (Festival, homework, etc.)

Congratulations to the Senior Choir, the Gr. 7 and Gr. 8 French classes, and several individual students who represented our school at the PA Kiwanis Music Festival and received scholarships during the vocal/strings week. Congratulations also to the Level 2, 3, and 4 bands on their performances at the Festival on Thursday. I have just been informed that the Level 2 band is receiving a scholarship this year! Way to go, girls!

And now, some homework updates:

- Computers 8M: Your 2nd own choice assignment is due next class in addition to any overdue past assignments (subtlety, friendship, the first own choice assignment, nature quote, etc.)

- Career Ed 9: Please bring your agendas to the next class (which will be held in my classroom, not the computer lab). Also, bring your ideas of how you plan to complete the team paper flipping exercise! It was definitely interesting to watch in the last class. Remember that no feet, hands, etc. can touch the floor or anything surrounding the paper!

- Science 7: 7L, continue to work on the questions assigned last class (p. 151-152 #1, 2, 3 (a)(b)(c), 4, 6; p. 156 #1-4; p. 161 #1, 3). 7C, new assignment will come next class.

Have a great weekend!

Catching up after midterms/finals

Hi girls! Time for a fresh start in the new semester!

Sc 7L - Today we conducted most of the "Mix it Up" experiment on pg. 102-103 in our textbooks. If you were absent today, you must arrange to meet with me to go over the lab procedure on your own time. This is your responsibility, so please see to it.

IP 10 - We are continuing the process of converting our resumés to a Pages document (found in the iWork '08 folder). When you are finished you may start brainstorming and formulating ideas for a "Family and Friends" write-up that will eventually end up in your portfolio.

7C Homeroom - We have changed seating plans. Please ensure that your desks and lockers are clean and organized in your new spot in the classroom, as the "Clean Desk Turkey" will be making more regular visits to 7C to help encourage tidiness and organization. Also, if you need to retrieve anything from the Lost and Found bin, you must pay 25 cents (which we will donate to charity on a non-uniform day near the end of the year).