Dr Zipper's Orchestra

Sorry for the late post. I have to go to a funeral tomorrow in San Diego, and I was a little overwhelmed getting ready for the substitute.

Other than the endless meeting with the literacy "coach" after the children had left, I had a remarkably good time in school today, and I think the students did, too. I worked with a group during reading time to help them more with their HyperStudio stacks we started yesterday. Mrs. Gassman helped me out with reading conferences. Integrating technology into the curriculum this way is very exciting. It is time-consuming, however, and that sometimes makes us teachers shy away from it. Mr. Benitez helped the children review and correct their math homework. I worked with them on phonics with the long o sound. Then we rushed off to our new auditorium to hear Dr. Zipper's orchestra.

What a fabulous experience! Now the the Colburn School is offering conservatory level classes for university degrees, Dr. Zipper's orchestra is now filled with energetic talented young musicians. The ensemble was crisp and the playing energetic. The children seemed to instinctively know that this time it was good, and they sat back and absorbed a challenging program including Bartok and Shostakovich. Wow!

We did our videos of the Rhythmic Machines, and they were fantastic! They will definitely be included on the end-of-the-year DVD. We also read a little about desert environment. After lunch, we did another Second Step lesson which catches us up with where I wanted to be in this program. From now on, this will be a Thursday afternoon activity.

Homework: (1) Study spelling. (2) Do the "Boy who didn't Believe in Spring" study questions. (3) Finish the Algebra and Geometry review sheets. Tomorrow is the Quarter One math test.