Shocking! I was just looking over my posts and thinking about what I haven't written about yet! I haven't ever told about the visual journal project finale at the school board and how I missed it. I haven't reported on the Reel to Real Film Festival that we attended months ago! And I have an unfinished post on the professional books I bought at the International Reading Association Annual Convention. And now there is the musical and the flash mob and even the retirement party. And the one thing I really don't want to write about, the recent provincial election... Where do I begin?
And then I could talk about the young adult books I have been reading non stop lately. Well I will finish the post on the convention eventually. For the rest let's just try to begin.
Last year Clara and I took our classes to the
Reel to Real Film Festival at the Roundhouse Community
Centre and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. This year we wanted to go again and for once I signed up as soon as I got the information partly because I needed to go at the beginning of the week as I was off to San Antonio for the IRA convention on the Thursday. We also were able to get our first choice of a workshop doing digital film making. First they were able to see some great
international animated short films with a music theme and hear from a couple of the film makers. Then they learned how to do film tricks and make their own short films implementing these "tricks". Their instructor happened to be
Flick, who is also part of the
Something Collective who are the resident artists at Moberly Arts Centre. To say the kids had fun would be an understatement. They also loved Yaletown, checking out the various food options, and going for a walk along False Creek.
Needless to say, when they returned they had to draw and write about the experience. It was fun having the opportunity to show Flick their impressions when he was at school this week.
Then of course I was off to San Antonio, only planning to miss two days of school because we had a Profesional Day on the Friday. I was returning early Monday evening and then we were off to the Vancouver School Board Education building Tuesday morning. Everything was planned and organized. Unfortunately my plane was late arriving in San Antonio and as a result we left late then sat on a runway in Dallas for twenty minutes and then had to go to another terminal and missed our flight to Vancouver by ten minutes as they didn't wait for us even though they must have known why we were late! As a result I had to stay at the Dallas Airport Marriott and somehow my carry on bag had books but no extra clothes and I missed the event at the school board.
I was able to call my principal and make it possible that our teacher-librarian and the class' art teacher went with them and I e-mailed the others involved to tell them what had happened. When I finally
made it in the early afternoon, I whipped down to the school board to see the display as I doubted I would have any other opportunity! It was disappointing! But the kids had a great time! They enjoyed sharing journals with the other kids. They loved the wooden carved plaques for each school in the foyer and the life sized statutes in the park outside the building, and of course the cookies and juice. And apparently the bus driver had great jokes!
The next big excitement was our musical, Rock and Roll. Our primary classes did a musical at Christmas and we, intermediates were willing to do one in the spring. Since our principal and music teacher (the same person) is retiring it seemed fitting. I suggested doing the History of Rock and Roll, one I had been involved with a couple of times before at Moberly, and we combined this with a newer version, Rock and Roll Forever, by the same authors, John Jacobson and Kirby Shaw. We also added Division One's new favorite song, Stop in the Name of Love. It's great when a staff works well together and we do. Everyone had a role, and it's a great experience for the kids. While our principal taught the kids the songs etc., our PE teacher taught all the students the dances, I took care of the acting, and the others did sets and costumes, lighting etc. The primary teachers treated us to a barbecue on the school roof before the evening performance. My kids learned quite a bit about the history of rock and roll and developed a real taste for 60's music. My class had to act or dance and they did well as did all the others in six classes. What a community event it was Thursday with an afternoon and evening performance. And on Wednesday it was neat when the Moberly intermediate classes came over to see our dress rehearsal.
And just as the musical ended, it was time for our final rehearsal for the flash mob to be performed at Sunset Community Centre this Saturday. We had a fourth session with Natalie, our dance instructor
from the Something Collective, who helped the students build this piece during four four hour sessions.Natalie had worked with my last year's class on our story telling so half the class already knew her. And then Flick, our video instructor from Reel to Real, came to film on Friday and was at the Community Centre on Saturday. Here is a link to the event on Saturday.
And yes, occasionally I do work in math and science and stay tuned for the Ancient Greece projects coming next week! But I think all these activities are giving my students a range of experiences and a taste for all the possibilities the arts can bring.
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