Welcome Back!  If you are looking for the work of our lower-school students, please look for  the class tabs at the top of the page.  If you are looking for the work of our middle-school students, please look for their individual pages to the left.  Passwords are available either in the student reports or by contacting Margaret at msmith@unitedfriendsschool.org.  Feel free to post a comment!

Over the summer, I will “orphan” the blogs of the graduates.  That means that I will disconnect their page from the UFS page, but it will still exist.  IF you would like to keep this hard work, then make sure to sign in over the summer and change the email connected to your blog page.  This year’s graduates have four years worth of posts!

Because one of our focuses as a community this year was on developing a maker space, and because this year was a physics focus in science, I decided that it was high time for the middle school students to try making their own instruments.  This project expanded into not only the creation of an original instrument, but then recording the sounds of that instrument and, using Garage Band, creating a piece of music using the original instruments.  You should find a description of the instrument and the creation process on each student’s blog page, as well as the sound clip of the finished composition.

As a teacher, it is impossible to predict how such a large, open-ended assignment will turn out.  Suffice it to say, it was educational for me and I love the variety of the outcomes!

Welcome to the blog!  If you are looking for the work of our lower-school students, please look for  the class tabs at the top of the page.  If you are looking for the work of our middle-school students, please look for their individual pages to the left.  Passwords are available either in the student reports or by contacting Margaret at msmith@unitedfriendsschool.org.  Feel free to post a comment!

Most of us can recognize the types of music that we like.  But can we describe them to someone unfamiliar with that style?  I asked the middle school students to do this, and it turned out to be a bigger challenge than they expected.   They have researched their chosen music genre, and then, using a music vocabulary, they have described it and, in many cases, composed a short original work as an example.

As we wrap up this project, the students will also consider where and how their genre fits in the larger Music Family Tree:

If you look closely, this tree (courtesy of Jack Black and his School of Rock) is out of date.  This project was inspired by the question: What came next, after the tree ends?  It has been a long-term project, beginning with a discussion of what music genres are.  My goal was for the students to create an in-depth look at what makes their favorite music distinct.  I hope you enjoy their work!

Our Arts Night focus this year was on dance.  As the students wrote about in their own posts (find their pages to the left), they were designers, choreographers, and performers; the 7th and 8th graders were also composers, stage managers, sound and lighting technicians, costumes, and set designers.  One of the strengths of our program at UFS is how we try to have all of the students find work they can excel at.  I am really proud of this particular Arts Night because I think we managed to find a role for everyone in the middle school that they could really dig into and do work that made them all shine.

On the outside wall in the music classroom, there is a ribbon that stretches from Marian Anderson’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial all the way to present day.  Every other year (or so), we talk about songs that have made a impression or taught a lesson or have a powerful message about making the world a better place.  Over the time that we have been working on this, we have added songs by Pete Seeger, Bob Marley, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, and Macklemore, too name a few.  This year we added Stevie Wonder, Lupe Fiasco, Green Day, Metallica…and I’ll let you browse through the pages to the left to see the rest.

By this time, the 7th and 8th graders have talked about their favorite songs once or twice (scroll down or check their blog archives) and it is time for a new project.  Using a “genealogy” of rock music, I asked the students to find their favorite genre and then trace it backwards to figure out where that genre came from.  Next, I asked them to listen to samples from the “parent” and “grandparent” of their choice and see if they could figure out what the connections are between the genres.  We talked about rhythms, guitar styles, instrumentation, and vocal styles and how they can all be possible connections.  I always enjoy learning more about the music that the students choose and they always have lots to teach me about it.

After finishing their first post on music careers, the 5th and 6th graders practiced their new blog posting skills with a post focused on music they love to listen to.  For an added challenge, some of the students figured out how to add media to a blog post.

In the spirit of thinking about hopes and dreams for the new school year, the middle school students have taken a few steps beyond just this school year and researched possible music jobs.  If they chose to have a music-related career, what might it be?  What are the options if they don’t want to perform?  Their assignment was to choose a career and explain what they liked about it; also they were asked to talk about some of the other careers that they looked at and didn’t choose.  Some of their reasons are very enlightening!