Hi Amy!

I am ten years retired from the Norwalk Schools in CT teaching elementary
music for 38 years. I floundered around my first ten years with good
intentions and not much support. Then I discovered the American Orff
Schulwerk Association. This organization for music teacher is amazing! I
know there are chapters in the NYC area. Check it out on line and get
involved. The workshops, which are generally held monthly on Saturdays, are
taught by those who are actively involved in the music classroom. They are
not expensive to attend and are great fun as well as giving you wonderful
ideas for process teaching and developing lesson plans in this way. The
materials are quality stuff made up by teachers for teachers. AOSA uses
small percussion instruments, xylophone types and recorders in additional to
vocal music - singing, playing, moving, creating! . The the kids love all
that stuff. I also attended the national conferences for more than 15
years - held in different cities.

The K-8 Magazine suggested by the Plank Road Publishing Co is a very good
resource. It is well worth the $100 subscription cost per year. It is
especially useful for your chorus, but many of the materials in each issue
are great for lower grades too. Suggestions are concrete and practical.
The CD's are of the highest quality -great accompaniment by real
instruments, no syntheisized corner cutting! Your school district may be
willing to pay for your subscription. There is a good recorder piece eacah
month which is simply written and teaches music reading in the process..
You have the right to copy anything for yourself and students, but cannot
share outside your school.

I would be interested to find out if you connect with AOSA. Good luck in
your teaching! We need great people in the field of music - it is so
important. I still keep involved in music down here in Beaufort, SC and
feel just as enthusiastic about Orff as I did when teaching. My Orff
training is again very useful in my volunteer job as a choir director in the
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Beaufort!
Here's to music!
Chris Raskind


-----Original Message-----
From: Kristyn Johnson
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 3:19 PM
To: Recorder_Classroom
Cc: amy holderness
Subject: Re: [RECL]Introductions

Hi Amy,

WELCOME! Be sure you sign up for the Music K-8 Mailing List, too. This
list, the Recorder Classroom Mailing List, is VERY quiet compared to
the MK8 List, and you will find more feedback and support on the MK8
List.
https://www.musick8.com/html/list.php

Hope that helps!Kristyn Johnson, Web/Contributing Editor and Mailing List
Administrator
kristyn@musick8.com
Plank Road Publishing, Music K-8 & Recorder Classroom magazines
http://www.musick8.com
http://www.recorderclassroom.com

On Sep 30, 2011, at 1:53 PM, amy holderness wrote:

> Hello,
>
> My name is Amy Holderness and I just subscribed to this list. I recently
> got a job teaching Pre-K-5th grade in NYC. The school is very supportive
> of their arts programs with an extensive inventory of Orff and other
> instruments. Last week was my first week - two days only - mostly spent
> doing inventory on the room and cleaning, sitting in on other classes. I
> start for real on Monday. Right now, I'm trying to organize the year
> ahead. Oh, did I mention, this is my first teaching job.
>
> I look forward to any and all advice that is offered.
>
> Amy
------------------------------------------------------------
Hosted by Plank Road Publishing: http://www.recorderclassroom.com
List Administrator: list_admin@recorderclassroom.com
To send a message to the list: send it to list@recorderclassroom.com
To subscribe/unsubscribe, visit:
https://www.recorderclassroom.com/recl/list.php