Weekly Newsletters

 

Students at my schools have one 30-minute small group and one 30-minute full orchestra rehearsal each week, and I like to send a weekly newsletter to families to keep everyone up-to-date.  I include a summary of what we did that week, the practice assignment, the link to the small group schedule, and any concert info/reminders of important dates.

I used to just write an email each week (with lots of copy/pasting from the previous year's weekly email), but it was only text.  At some point I switched to Google Slides, and I like this format much better.  Each week fits on one slide, and I can include buttons with links to the schedule, concerts in the area, music advocacy resources, and more.  It's easy to add pictures and text boxes and to move things around to make it look just the way I want. (For any students who are flagged "No media release" on Infinite Campus, I do check in with those families to see if it's okay that I include pictures of their student in the newsletter and that has not been a problem.)  Families really like seeing pictures of their students in the newsletter, and I'm hoping that including more pictures makes it more likely for families to read the other information that I include as well :)  The document is set to "Anyone with the link can view," and then I include the link in the weekly email to families.

Instead of starting from scratch each week, I have a tab open with the previous year's newsletter and simply copy/paste the corresponding slide into the top of this year's document and update as needed.  Now the weekly newsletters are all contained in one document, and it's easy to scroll down to previous weeks.  I change the background color each week, so you see a nice rainbow effect as you scroll through the school year.  Any extra slides with concert info or Solo/Ensemble info etc. have a white background so they stand out.

My weekly email is basically:

Happy Tuesday orchestra families!

Please check out our weekly orchestra newsletter to find out what we did in orchestra this week!

(I highlight "weekly orchestra newsletter," hit "Control K," and then copy/paste the newsletter link to turn the text into a link.)

I'll also include concert into or other important info in the body of the email for those who don't click on the link.  I cc my administrators and bcc parent/guardian emails and then "schedule send" the email for the end of the school day.

Here are templates of an entire school year's worth of slides.  Feel free to make a copy and modify as you like!

Weekly newsletter template

• 5th grade orchestra (first-year players) (Google Slides)
• 6th grade orchestra (second-year players) (Google Slides)

Notes: Along the top where it says the week number, I also include the school and grade level, since I teach at multiple schools and want to keep it organized for myself.  I've also removed all the links but kept the text blue to see where I would generally include one.

100 Notes for the 100th Day of School

 

I teach at two elementary schools, and the 100th day of school is a pretty big deal, especially for the younger grades.  I'm always looking for ways to embed orchestra into the school culture, so I've made a tradition of playing 100 notes on my violin for the 100th day of school.  Depending on how much time I can spare that day, I'll pop into as many classrooms as I can to ask if students would like to hear 100 notes on my violin and then play what I've prepared.  I look for a piece with fast notes so it doesn't take long and then count 100 notes and write in a mark to stop there :)

Then, since COVID, I started recording a short video and sharing that with teachers.  That has worked our really well, as I can't be at both schools at the same time, and my schedule doesn't always allow me to visit all the classrooms in the school that I am at that day.  This way, teachers can share my video at a time that works best for them plus more students can get introduced to me and hear some violin music.

Some pieces I've played excerpts from in the past:

• Pachelbel Canon in D (the fast bit in the middle)
• Bach--E Major Preludio, G minor Presto, G Major Cello Suite Prelude
• Bohm Moto Perpetuo
• Rimsky-Korsakov Flight of the Bumblebee

My script is basically:

"Happy 100th day of school!  My name is ___ and I teach orchestra at [name of schools].  To help celebrate, I thought I would play 100 notes on my violin for you.  These 100 notes come from [name of piece] by [composer].

[play piece]

And that was 100 notes!  Have a wonderful day!"

The whole thing takes less than a minute.  There's one teacher at my school who likes to have her stopwatch going while I play to tell her students how long it took me to play those 100 notes--they're pretty impressed!  There are always students who I see in the hallway later who tell me they really enjoyed my 100 notes too :)

Music for Life Bulletin Board

 

In an effort to help with retention in orchestra between elementary and middle school, I created this "Music for Life" bulletin board.  I was hearing from students saying that they wanted to become engineers or something else that wasn't directly music-related, so they weren't sure there was room for music classes in their middle school schedules.  I want students to be able to visualize themselves as musicians--no matter what they may end up studying in college or choosing as a career--and to understand that music classes are for everyone--not just those who are planning to become professional musicians.  This bulletin board showcases highly accomplished individuals who didn't necessarily go into music as a career but still had musical backgrounds (or sometimes musicians who also studied other disciplines).

The text on the bulletin board says: 

Music for life!  You don’t have to become a professional musician to enjoy playing music—music is part of a well-rounded education and is for everyone!  Music is something you can take with you for the rest of your life :) 

Check out these individuals who are well-known in their own fields and are also musicians—or are famous musicians who studied other disciplines too!

Here are the 15 individuals included (feel free to add your own):

• Neil Armstrong: Astronaut/Pianist, Baritone Horn Player
• Louis Braille: Educator, Inventor of braille/Cellist and Organist
• Charles Dickens: Author/Accordion Player
• Albert Einstein: Physicist/Pianist and Violinist
• Mahatma Gandhi: Lawyer/Concertina Player
• Art Garfunkel: Singer, Poet, and Actor/Studied architecture; degrees in Art History and Mathematics Education
• Sarah Gillis: Astronaut/Violinist
• Donald Glaser: Physicist/Violinist, Violist, and Pianist
• Madeleine L'Engle: Author/Pianist, Choir Director
• Steve Martin: Comedian, Actor, Writer, Producer, Musician/Banjo Player
• Henri Matisse: Artist/Violinist
• Brian May: Musician, Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist of Queen/Doctorate in Physics and Mathematics
• Condoleezza Rice: Political Scientist, Diplomat/Pianist
• Oscar Robertson: Basketball Player/Flutist
• Fred Rogers: Television Host, Author, Producer, Minister/Pianist
• Molly Yeh: Cookbook Author, Blogger/Percussionist

Who else should I add to the list?  One idea for an extension would be to keep in touch with a school's graduating seniors from music classes and showcase their involvement in music and their field of study/career.

Music for Life bulletin board:

• Google doc

You could print these out on white paper, single-sided, as-is, or I put the text about each person by itself at the bottom of the document in case you'd like to cut out the picture and text and paste onto a colored background as I did.

I also added information about and pictures of community bands and orchestras in the area to show what kind of musical opportunities exist for community members.

Enjoy!

Music In Our Schools Month: Reflections

During March, students complete a short questionnaire where they respond to a couple of prompts.  I explain that March is Music In Our Schools Month where we get to celebrate all the musical opportunities we have at school and that the questionnaire is a chance to share our thoughts about music.

I type up the responses and include them in the weekly orchestra email and send them to staff and administrators, wishing them all a happy Music In Our Schools Month.  And then, of course, the responses also end up on the bulletin board.  I do these early in the month so students and staff get to enjoy reading them as they walk by the orchestra room for the rest of the month.  Orchestra students like to read what their classmates have written as well as spot their own responses from the lists.

• MIOSM questionnaire prompts (Word document)

• MIOSM questionnaire prompts (PDF)

Another week in March is our tour week where we perform our Solo/Ensemble pieces for a class.  Pictures from those performances get added to the bulletin board, and then the last week of March we get a request day during full orchestra.  The week before, the question of the week is to put in a request for full orchestra so that I have time to organize the requests and figure out the order of pieces to make the best use of our time together.

Check out this post for more bulletin board pictures from MIOSM.

Look at These STAR Musicians!

At each of my schools, I have a place in the classroom showcasing orchestra members.  I post pictures of all my students playing their instrument (either from their small groups or during full orchestra), which I update a couple times a year.  I also post their most recent compositions and the winning responses to the question of the week.  The mascot for one of my schools is "Stars," hence the "STAR Musicians" title.

I want the word "musician" to be a part of each of my students' self-image, and I like to think that seeing these images every time they walk out the door of the orchestra room helps my students with their own musical identity.

Concert Reflection Bulletin Board

After the winter concert, I typed up student concert reflection responses and posted them for all to see :)  It's so neat to read through what students are proud of with their work in orchestra and which pieces held the most meaning to them and why.  When reading through their responses, it is clear that music is making a positive impact on my students and that they hope they're having a positive impact on their audience members too!  Enjoy!

Winter Concert Reflection

After our first concert of the year, I have students share their thoughts about their experience through a concert reflection sheet (which I based off of what was already being used by our elementary band teacher).  During the first full orchestra after the concert, I have these reflection sheets plus pencils already on everyone's stand, and then after our warm-up, I turn on some background music while everyone is writing.  Depending on how long it takes for students to finish and the class atmosphere at the moment, I may have a couple of students verbally share some thoughts; otherwise musicians just turn these in when they're finished and start practicing the next piece while others are still working.

• Concert reflection (Word document)

• Concert reflection (PDF
• Concert reflection (Google Form)

These are so much fun to read though.  While we may talk a little bit after the concert or during small groups or when a student is dropping off his or her instrument in the morning, I learn so much more about what really made an impression on my students and how they view their learning in orchestra and how they see themselves as musicians by reading through their responses.

Then, since we music teachers are also advocates for music and music education and our students, I share these first-hand accounts of music making an impact on our students with as many people as I can think of :)

I type up many of the responses as a bulleted list after selected reflection questions and include that in the weekly email to orchestra families.  I also email the list of responses to the entire school staff and post it on a bulletin board for the whole school to see.

Not only is this a way for students to process their thoughts about what may have been their first experience performing on a stage in front of an audience, but it's also a way to use writing in a performance-based class and a fantastic advocacy too.  Concert reflections are definitely worth the few minutes it takes in class, and it can be nice to go through the questions each year change out a question or two for something that is more meaningful for this particular concert or group of students.

**Update: In recent years, I've started writing a reflection letter of my own as a sample and a way to share my thoughts with the orchestra.  I will have this on the screen as students come in to full orchestra that day, and as I read through the prompts/directions for their reflection, I will refer to my letter as an example of a possible response for the different questions.