Afternoon Ti

Season Seven Episode 143 Book Series: The Language of Music with Michelle Margiotta Michelle's Website Michelle's Book The Language of Music Dr. Michelle Margiotta is a composer, arranger, and music educator.  Those who have worked alongside her give great acclaim to both her orchestrations and compositions, as well as to Michelle herself.  "...the most unique aspect of her gifts is her extraordinary ability to orchestrate.  When you hear one of her arrangements - your heart, mind and soul can't help but sour...", Kathy Troccoli, award-winning singer/songwriter.  Producer Sal Oliveri might sum it up best when he says, "Michelle is truly a gifted storyteller with a unique ability to take you on an emotional journey.  Her orchestrations are distinctly imaginative..." For the past year, Michelle has been orchestrating and arranging The God of the Other Side & The God of the How and When Oratorios, as well as The Shalom Reprise and Overture with Emmy ...

Season Seven Episode 142 Book Series: A Place in the Staff with Jen Rafferty Presenter and author, Jen Rafferty began her career as a middle school music teacher in Central New York. Jen brings her energy, humor, and expertise to all professional development workshops. She is known for her practical ideas and passion in her presentations while inspiring teachers to stay connected to their “ why .” Jen currently serves as the Co-chair of the New York State School Music Association’s (NYSSMA) Secondary Classroom Committee, member of the advocacy committee, and is the President of Cortland County Music Teachers Association. She earned a B.M. in music education and vocal performance, a M.M. in music education from Ithaca College and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in educational psychology. Jen is frequently invited to conduct elementary and middle school choirs throughout New York State. Additionally, in 2020 she founded Sing Together, a national virtual singing community of singers o...

 Season Seven Episode 141 Book Series:  Make a Note with Jessica Peresta Jessica Peresta is the creator and host of The Elementary Music Teacher Podcast.  She wrote the book "Make a Note: What you Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music."  You can find her e-book at F-Flat Books and the paperback at Amazon .  She does so much for the music education community and I encourage you to check out her work at the Domestic Musician website . The Afternoon Ti Guide to Teaching Music Book and Journal launched last week.  I am so grateful for your support and it was an exciting week for me as I shared my work.  If you haven’t picked up your copy of the book or journal, check out my Instagram @highafternoonti for more information about what’s inside them!  Then go to Fflat books for your e-book pdfs ( Book and Journal )  or Amazon for the paperback book and journal .  Can’t wait for you to read and discover new ideas for teaching ...

 Season Seven Episode 140 Book Launch! This episode is a Virtual Party that you’re invited to attend with me as a way to celebrate the launch of my first book - the Afternoon Ti Guide to Teaching Music: Strategies and Support for Becoming Your Best Teacher Self.  It’s been almost a year and a half into the making and I’m beyond excited and nervous to share it with you. WRITING PROCESS Started in September 2019 Read articles - Jeff Goins ... so much wisdom in his article about tips for writing a book Takeaways that kept me going: Work on one chapter at a time! Set a daily word count Write every day - doesn’t have to be a lot, but does need to happen often Don’t edit as you go. Would open a Google Doc and write about something that happened that day or a thought about teaching or various things that came into my head… repeat this over and over… then some of the thoughts began to flow together.  And an outline of what I felt was important for teachers to know began to for...

 Season Seven Episode 139 Books I'm Loving, Listing, and Launching Reading is one of my favorite things.  For this last week of January and throughout the month of February I’ll be focusing on books. Music education books that I believe you need to read.  There are several reasons I’m sharing about books for the next five weeks.  One in particular.  It’s something I’m beyond excited about.  Feeling vulnerable and nervous about and thrilled and all the things.  As Laura Tremaine tells Kendra Adachi - the Lazy Genius - “Let Good Things Happen to You.”  Really awesome talk of theirs on The Lazy Genius Podcast Episode 194 this past week that has really helped grow my confidence in sharing news about what I’m putting out into the world so here it is.  My goal in 2020 was to write a book for music educators.  And I did it.  I wrote the book.  My goal for 2021 has been to publish this book and it’s happening next week on Monday, Fe...

 Season Seven Episode 138 Composing with Students:  Lesson Processes and Ideas You Can Use Composition can be an intimidating word.  Where do you start?  How do you make the process meaningful for students, but not too difficult or so stressful that you want to pull your hair out in the process.  I’m going to share the process I used with my fifth graders this past week.  There are several ways you can go about the composition process with this lesson and the nice thing about it is that you can decide where your final product ends.  There are always ways to extend the process, but these steps are not always necessary.  The goal is that students create something that they are proud of, that demonstrates their musical skills, can be performed well, and that students can understand.  Here are process ideas as well as the specific process I used with my students. Before you begin teaching the composition process, figure out what music concept ...

 Season 7 Episode 137 Incremental Changes Make a Difference I’m recording this on Monday night after a full day of teaching and an afternoon involving hair, makeup, and photos.  I’ve got a big project that I’ve been working on and needed to get headshots done for it because I don’t have any and I’m not good at DIY pictures or selfies or anything related to visual arts.  Better to trust the experts with this.  I’m fortunate to know Cameron Spooner, an amazing photographer in Dallas, and booked a session with him to take headshots.  I’ll link his website so that you can contact him if you’re interested.  He’s truly phenomenal and wonderful to work with.  I was nervous, shy, excited, and ready to do the best I could so that he could get a few shots that would work. Cam suggested a makeup and hair stylist named Yvonne who worked her magic to help me look my best.  I felt so glamorous and it was a fun experience to get dolled up.  We went into ...

 Season Seven Episode 136 Soundtrap Rap Project Cheers to 2021!  I’m ready for a new year of new lesson ideas and thought I’d share one of the projects I’m doing with my students as we return back to school.  This project would be a really fun one to do at the beginning of the school year as well - it’d be a great way to get to know your students, what they like, and who they are.  Since I see my students in trimesters, sometimes I have to modify when I do lessons and introduce material so I decided to use this project to start off the new year with my fifth graders. I first saw the idea for this lesson in the Soundtrap Blog.  The original idea was created by Meredith Allen and inspired by Katie Wardrobe.  I took their amazing idea and expanded upon it.  You can find the links to both the Soundtrap Blog page - click on ‘That’s a Rap’ to see the lesson plan - as well as the Google Doc with the lesson idea from Meredith.  I highly recommend Mered...