Afternoon Ti

 Season Six Episode 131 Carol of the Bells We’re in our series on rhythm!  This episode is all about Carol of the Bells - you likely hear it as often at this time of year as we hear piano students playing Fur Elise the rest of the year.  This piece is simplistic and difficult at the same time.  The triple meter is awesome - a great way to emphasize strong-weak-weak with students, it’s usually fairly familiar for most students, they enjoy it and feel proud to be able to play a familiar piece.  Maintaining a steady tempo and not rushing can be a challenge with this song so it’s important to have students move to it, speak the text, find ways of doing things in the rests that supports movement through space so that they can feel the length of the rests and not rush.  It’s also a great piece to have students learn about motifs! In Episode 130 I shared about how the tech tool Pear Deck can be a great way for students to engage in learning.  One of the gr...

 Season Six Episode 130 Pear Deck and Rhythm Writing This short series of episodes is all about rhythm.  In episode 129 I shared four systems for counting and speaking rhythm.  One is not better than the other.  It just depends on which system works best for you in your teaching situation and then being consistent with it!  In this episode I’m going to be sharing how I’m using Pear Deck to engage students in rhythm writing.  In episode 114 I shared nine tech tools that I wanted to use this school year.  It’s taking me a bit of time to figure out each tech tool as I go, but with each one I’m building confidence and learning new ways to make learning engaging and creative in a technology kind of way.  As I’m learning how to use each tech tool, creating content and growing in confidence with what I’m seeing in my classroom I’m sharing with you! So what is Pear Deck?  Pear Deck is an add-on within google slides.  You can allow students to...

Season Two Episode 70 Hurry Up and Wait Hello friends and welcome to Sunday Sip on Afternoon Ti.  Each Sunday for the remainder of the year I plan to share a single idea, thought, or meaningful take-away in hopes that you'll be encouraged and inspired as you prepare to enter the next new week of teaching, or in this case a week off of teaching and hopefully a week of rest and time with family and friends. Our middle school theater students recently put on a play called Hurry Up and Wait.  It was a set of short skits where in every scenario someone is rushing to get to a certain outcome only to find that they have to wait and it never goes the way they hope.  This phrase "Hurry Up and Wait" is one that refers to a situation where you are forced to hurry in order to complete a certain task, or arrive at a certain destination, by a specified time only to find that nothing is happening - sometimes because other required tasks are still needed to be completed.  ...

Season Two Episode 69 Holiday Baking with Glenys Klem and Pam Salada This Christmas season I'm hoping to do some baking and one of the recipes I've been wanting to try is a chocolate cake that my Aunt Glenys has made for years.  It's my favorite one - fudge frosting, deliciously made, and always a winner.  My Aunt Pam bakes cookies and breads that I also want to try.  So rather than just getting the recipes from them and keeping them to myself, I asked if they'd share with us on the podcast about some of their favorite desserts to make.  Glenys Klem and Pam Salada are my dad's sisters and two of the most fun people to be around.  They're always joyful, best friends who make lots of memories together with their kids and grandkids - you'll hear about daughters Karlie and Megan, sons Trevor and Drew, and husbands Frank and Dave, as well as grandkids Leia, Landon, Kingston, and Cameron.  They're incredibly special to me.  Not only are the desserts ...

Season 2 Episode 68 Sunday Sip: Christmas Music I Love Hello friends and welcome to Sunday Sip on Afternoon Ti.  Each Sunday for the remainder of the year I plan to share a single idea, thought, or meaningful take-away in hopes that you’ll be encouraged and inspired as you prepare to enter the next new week of teaching.  I’m always on the lookout for new Christmas music.  The classics are great and I love all - or most- of the variations of these songs for sure.  Finding some new pieces that capture the season is always nice. I’m sharing ten Christmas albums that you should listen in to this season: 1- Nichole Nordeman’s album Fragile - love the opening track called Fragile/What Child is This… I love the way she integrates Sting with a classic carol and a little interlude of Mozart’s Requiem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aCpzNM6gaY 2- Phil Wickham’s album Christmas - favorite song “This Year for Christmas”: https://www.youtube.com/channel/U...

Season Two Episode 67 The Nutcracker When I was an elementary music educator I used Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker in every grade every year to some degree in December because it’s honestly my favorite.  I love the music, the dancing, the story, and the magic. It’s a great way to incorporate movement, singing, listening, creating, playing, reading, watching, comparing.  We always started with a short description of how to say Tchaikovsky’s name and reading the story to students. During my student teaching with Rob Koch, he presented Tchaikovsky’s name in a way that made it easy for even the youngest of students to speak.   Tchai (like hi) - wave Kov (like cough) Sky (like skiing down a hill) There are many versions of the story, but a few that I love in particular. Books: The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers … I love that there aren’t a lot of words on each page. Nutcracker Ballet by Vladimir Vagin The Nutcracker - based on the NYC Bal...