Choir Concert March 10th!

The Milwood Choirs will present their 2nd Trimester Concert on Wednesday, March 10th at 7pm in the Milwood Cafeteria. The concert will feature soloists and ensembles from the 6th Grade Choir, 7th Grade Choir, and Honors Choir.

The concert will be under one hour, with drinks and refreshments provided afterwards. Please come and support us and get a chance to see what we work on in class each day. This is effectively our "final exam" for this trimester!

If your child needs transportation or assistance with dress (white on top, black on bottom for this concert) please send a signed note with them to school by MONDAY, MARCH 8TH or e-mail me at berglinja@kalamazoo.k12.mi.us - hope to see you there!

This Week in Music, Episode Three.

(A little over a week late with this one - we're pretty busy right now at Milwood! Sorry.)

Our third episode of "This Week in Music" is up! We're still experimenting with positioning of the mic and how best to give ourselves plenty of time to produce the podcast while still having time to finish all our other work..

Part One - The first clip was produced in 4th Hour, and was produced by Mikal, D’Angelo, Vincent, Daejanae + James.

Download

OR

Listen on iTunes

Part Two - The second clip was produced in 7th Hour, and was produced by Alexis and Day'Janay.

Download

OR

Listen on iTunes

This Week in Music, Episode Two.

Our second episode of "This Week in Music" is up! We moved the microphone and the computer to another area in the room (behind a wall!) and the recording turned out much better.

Part One - The first clip was produced in 4th Hour, and was produced by Luke, Shawndell, Kyntari, Josh + Justin

Download

OR

Listen on iTunes

Part Two - The second clip was produced in 7th Hour, and was produced by Chris and Brian.

Download

OR

Listen on iTunes

Choir Visiting Elementaries.

Over the next two weeks, our Honors Choir at Milwood will be visiting some of the local elementaries to present a program to the incoming 5th graders. The plan is for them to be so blown away by our singing that they all rush to join choir! We'll be travelling with the band and will be singing some new stuff (like, brand new, just learned in our last two rehearsals) and some not-so-new stuff (we're bringing back "Viva La Vida" from our Winter Concert).

On Thursday of this week, we're travelling to Woods Lake, then next Tuesday we head to Washington Writers' Academy, Thursday to Milwood Elementary, and Friday to Parkwood/Upjohn. Finally, on Tuesday the 23rd, we finish up the "tour" at Edison Elementary.

I'm very excited to showcase the Honors Choir, and I think the 5th graders are going to be excited to hear us!

This Week in Music, Episode One.

Our first episode of "This Week in Music" was recorded this week! We're still experimenting with where to put the microphone, so we got quite a bit of background noise this time. We promise it'll be MUCH better next week!

Part One - The first clip was produced in 4th Hour, and was produced by Brandi, Kalila, Amanda, Kenya + Keyshaila.

Download

OR

Listen on iTunes

Part Two - The second clip was produced in 7th Hour, and was produced by Devin and Evan. NOTE: You'll hear my voice at the beginning because there was a bit too much background noise in the original intro recorded by Evan.

Download

OR

Listen on iTunes

Our New Podcast!

The students and I have embarked on a new experiment - Podcasting!

A "podcast" is a audio (or video) recording designed to be published on the web and listened to (either straight from your computer or downloaded to an mp3 player). The name, in fact, comes from "iPod" and "broadcast." I'll be posting episodes about some of the things we're doing in class, we'll have samples of work from Music Technology classes, audio clips straight from choir rehearsal, and the Music Technology classes will be producing a "This Week in Music" podcast each week.

I made a "Welcome to Podcasting" episode to introduce our podcast, which you can download here.

I'll post a link to each episode on the blog so that you'll know when a new episode is available, but you can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes - I'll talk more about that later. iTunes is a free program for the PC or Mac made by Apple. Feel free to go and download it (unless you're a student - then you should ASK first)!

What's a Wikispace?

My classes are beginning to use "wikis," which are web-based, user-edited places to store information, files, and all sorts of other things. The biggest "wiki" is Wikipedia, which is a user-edited online encyclopedia.

We'll use this wiki to communicate as well as to share files and announcements by class. Imagine forgetting a homework assignment over the weekend, and instead of freaking out, calmly logging into the wiki to download and print it out!

Computers in my room will be available regularly for those students without a computer or internet access at home. Also, students will always have the option of turning in a written version of each online assignment.

So, how do I use a wiki?

1. Navigate to the wiki. Alternatively, it's listed on the right hand side of this page.

2. You WILL have to sign up for an account to be able to post to the wiki (but not to just look at it). You can use a personal e-mail address OR the one provided by the school - this e-mail address will never be posted anywhere.

3. Once you're signed up and logged in, you can click on the page for your class and read what's there. Also, you can click on the "Discussions" tab at the top of the screen and look at any discussion topics for the class.

I'll talk about the rules of using wikis in a later post.

Ah, Social Networking!

These days it's hard to do much on the internet without running into some sort of social networking site or another. They've quickly become one of the most popular places for us to spend our time on the internet, second only to "searching" and that is DEFINITELY the case with our school-aged kids.

So, this post is to let you know about some of the ways you can interact with me and the Milwood Honors Choir through Facebook.

Mr. B's Facebook page is here, and I've also set up a Facebook page for Honors Choir - if you use Facebook and would like to be a part of the group, just click and join! From there, you can post discussions that the rest of the group can see, and I'll be posting pictures, video, and other information as well.

Have fun!

Endings and Beginnings.

We've come to the end of another marking period, which brings with it all the quizzes, tests and rushing around to turn in last minute assignments and extra credit that we've come to expect with this period of time.

Behind me, my 8th Grade Music Technology class is working on their mid-term quiz, using the computers to demonstrate their knowledge of GarageBand. GarageBand is a program for the Apple computer (there are 25 of them in my room) which we use to edit and arrange musical "loops" to create new compositions. A "loop" is a small piece of music that is designed to be repeated and added to other loops to make music.

The quiz also involves questions about Genres (types or styles) of music. This semester we studied four genres of music - Motown Soul, Disco, Rock, and New Jack Swing. We did this by looking at the music of Michael Jackson, who was unique in his ability to cross through many different genres to make his music.

Sadly, I'll be losing my 6th Grade Exploring Music class tomorrow, but I look forward to another set of students to see for six weeks, and I look forward to continued work with my 8th graders for another marking period. Over the next six weeks, we'll get even more in depth with GarageBand, learning how to use it in different musical forms. We'll also begin learning about Podcasting. Look for more information, including how to subscribe to our GarageBand Project Podcast in the very near future.

Welcome!

Welcome students, parents, and visitors. I thought I'd create this blog as sort of a one-stop place for everything involving me and music. Here you'll find information about Milwood Choirs and Music Technology, Milwood Honors Choir, and other things as they come up.

In the future, look for posts about:

- Honors Choir Auditions/Information
- Choir Concerts
- Music Technology Class Wikis
- Exploring Music "This Week in Music" Podcasts
- Music Technology Project Podcasts

and hopefully much more!