The First Field Trip for Middle School Choir

Yesterday, I took the Middle School Choir to the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio, TX.  The symphony was having an open rehearsal for their performance last night and tonight.  My students were in awe of the beautiful building and the girls were especially impressed with the restroom.  They were quite cute.  We enjoyed their music and watching how they rehearsed and worked as a team or group.  I wanted my students to see that the way we rehearse in class is not much different then the way the professionals do it.  It seem to open their eyes.  My students were very well behaved and I was so proud of them for sitting like a group with purpose and class.

While my son Andrew is probably the only one who has ever been to a symphony, musical, plays etc., this was the first time for almost all of the choir to attend something like this.  After the rehearsal we went over to the River Center Mall to eat lunch and I gave my students about an hour to shop before heading back to school.  For some of my students, this was the first time they had ever been to a mall.  I actually had fun watching several students walking around in awe of the place and taking pictures. 

When we got back to school, we went back to the choir room and discussed what they had learned. They learned a lot and they told me, it was so much fun and worth going to.  They pretty much said for me to please keep bringing them to places to explore. 

At the end of the day, I was not worn out but felt energized knowing I had exposed my students to a world they have never known about.  I wonder what opportunities they might find themselves in knowing there is a world outside of their little town.

On another note, this was the first field trip that my son went on as a student of mine.  It was definitely different and I can get use to my children being a part of these adventures. 

Fall in the Weaver House.........if you can call it Fall in South Texas

School has been in session 10 weeks......tomorrow is the 50th day of school.  We have been busy with new classes, new chapter in our school lives, new adventures and few Saturdays that we did nothing but rest.

Andrew loves middle school.  He passed all of his benchmarks and got to go to the movies in Beeville with the other 6th-8th graders who also passed.  He enjoyed the trip with good friends and enjoyed a large popcorn and coke.  He is doing really well in choir and I have to say, he sings really well.  I wish he would share his voice more. 

Anna has been the class police officer for the past nine weeks and she gave out tickets to rule violators.  She also has to be the first person to arrive at 7:30 AM in class every morning because she gets to be the teacher for 30 minutes.  She is a character.  Anna had a 100 average in Science the first nine weeks and was the only third grader to make that grade.

Alan is getting ready for basketball which practice started last week and his first game is next Tuesday.  He will also coach softball in the Spring.

I have been adjusting to teaching all levels again.  I love my choirs at the middle school and high school.  Theatre Arts can be fun some days.  I love teaching Anna's grade this year.

Last Saturday, we went to Helena TX which is only six miles up the road, to a festival they have once a year.  There was BBQ, museum, Dutch oven demo, a shoot out and a  confederate camp with soldiers.  It was free and we had fun.

Friday the kids wanted to go Trick or Treating in our neighborhood again.  There were cars lined up all the way to the highway and on the highway of people wanted to trick or treat.  We snuck out of the house and went on our way and when we came back, we sat outside and Andrew and Anna passed out candy.  We were out in less than 30 minutes.  We grabbed our chairs, turned off all the lights and went inside. 

Then last night we drove 20 miles to Stockdale Church of Christ to their Fall Fun Festival.  It was absolutely free and was a great time for the kids. 

Captain America and Frankie Stein

The Gun Fight in Helena, TX

Andrew and the movie

Homecoming

Anna Cheering at Homecoming

Happy Birthday Alan!!

We went to church in San Antonio and took Alan to eat at Alamo Café and met some friends there.  The Roans lived in Weatherford and Jarod was Alan's boss for a couple of years.  They recently moved to San Antonio where he is a principal of a private school in the area.  It is great to have some connections near by.  Sometimes we feel so far away from everyone in our lives down here in the South. 

After we got home, Andrew and Anna put together Alan's party.  They wanted to do a Texas Longhorn theme for their Dad.  Anna and I made cupcakes before church and she iced them when we got home and Andrew set up the table.  Yes, I had a cupcake on a UT plate and used the napkin and cup BUT, I still had on my red crimson dress that I wore to church. Hee Hee Hee!!!!

Pitch Perfect

In starting a new choir program at Kenedy where band has been the cool thing to be in, I knew I had a challenge in getting students excited about singing.  I knew the traditional choir ways, would be difficult for the students to "buy into" here.

A couple of weeks before school started, I got an email inviting my students in choir to come join the South Texas A cappella camp and talent over load (STACCATO).  Knowing that most of my students have seen Pitch Perfect, I had a feeling that this might be the answer to jump starting these groups. 

When I finally met the students in high school choir on the first day of school, their first question was, "Can we sing like they do on Pitch Perfect?"  I smiled and said absolutely! (since my first music love is a cappella) and began to tell them about the camp.  They all got excited and I got the info to them and we started preparing for STACCATO. 

Yesterday was the day!  We showed up at MacArthur High School in San Antonio around 8:30 and were warmly welcomed.  There were 200 students from 20 schools.  Students sang two a cappella arrangements, Run to You and Brave.  Three professional a cappella groups worked with our students through sectionals and master classes on how to improvise, use stage presence and make percussion sounds.  One of the groups, Cluster, is from Italy and it is very rare to get to see them in concert in the United States.  The concert with students performing first and the other three groups performing the remainder of the concert was truly a treat for not only me but all of the students.  All three groups combined represented genres from barbershop, jazz, blue grass, contemporary and even some rock.  Each group was very entertaining.

My students not only learned a lot, but they became more motivated, pumped and ready to incorporate what they learned in the camp.  One of my guys started doing some percussion outside the school and within seconds we had a group of guys around us adding more percussion sounds.  He was shocked at what happened.  I told him that he better be careful when he does that especially in an environment like we were in yesterday because everyone wants to join in to make incredible music.

I had fun as well, and even learned or had some new ideas.  I grew up on a cappella music and still love it to this day.  The group Clearly vocal, I discovered, is from the Church of Christ.  The way I discovered this was, one of the songs they sang last night was a song I knew from the Zoe Group.  This is a group that records and arranges contemporary Christian songs for church of Christ denominations who want updated a cappella music.  One of the members is the worship leader for Glenwood Church of Christ in Tyler TX where all five members of the group attend church.

One of my student's dad is a member of the school board and he came to the concert.  He was really supportive of this event and supportive of the new choir program.  I am really excited for the future of our vocal program.  My son is even in the middle school choir.  The other day I was teaching the boys the harmony part to the song "Roar" and Andrew and another boy were right on the notes and leading the rest of the guys.  You know that is a proud Mom moment. :-)

One of the guys from Clearly Vocal announced last night that there is another a cappella camp on October 25 in Austin.  My students are already wanting to attend this one as well.  Here is to new memories and creating our own Pitch Perfect.

SLAG (Super Large a Cappella Group)

Clearly Vocal from Tyler Texas

Cluster from Genoa Italy

Remember the Alamo!!!

Labor Day weekend, we had planned to go to the Beach in Corpus, but there were coastal storms all weekend.  So we decided to go to San Antonio instead.  Alan and Andrew went to see the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while Anna and I went shopping.  When the movie was over, we headed to the River Walk to Casa Rio for dinner but before that, we made a stop over to the Alamo.  It had been a long time since I have been there.  Every time Alan and the kids went in the past several years, I was busy attending the music convention.  I wanted to go because I always do a Texas music unit with Elementary and wanted to brush up on some of the Texas history.  Once our tour of the Alamo was over and had dinner, we headed back home.  I know I have said this before, but living between Corpus and San Antonio has given us a lot of fun opportunities.

 

First Day of School 2014

August 25 began the 2014 school year with Andrew's first year of Middle School and Anna as a third grader.  While Alan's role did not change much other than he will coach Softball in the Spring, my role changed.  I am starting the High School Choir program as well as High School Theatre Arts, two Middle School choirs, third, fourth and fifth grade music.  I am also directing One Act Play and am the High School UIL Coordinator.  I have been coming home pretty tired each day.  Mostly it is a good tired.

Andrew is loving Middle School this year.  The middle school team of teachers are very caring, motivated and fun.  He even eats the free lunch in the cafeteria this year.  Anna still loves school and loves her new homeroom teacher.  She has adjusted to me not being there in the mornings by going to her classroom and she gets to be "in charge" of her class. 

It is going to be a great school year for the Weaver family!

First day of school treat........even Dad came along this year.

A night of Baseball with Anna's team

August 3, we went with Anna's baseball team to the San Antonio Mission Baseball game to celebrate together as a team.  We had an all you can eat dinner, and the kids got to be out on the field before the game.  It was a great night of fun.

 

SeaWorld

SeaWorld has their 50th anniversary this year.  They had a great deal in April where I bought one regular pass and got a second one for free.  So those two passes became Andrew and Anna's passes.  Now because Alan and I are teachers, we get our passes for free.  So I only paid for one pass.  I love a great deal.  We finally got to visit SeaWorld on Friday.  It has been 17 years since Alan and I have gone and this was Andrew and Anna's first time.  Other than it being miserably hot, we had a great time.  We ate lunch on the road and arrived at SeaWorld about 12:30.  We saw Shamu, tried to pet dolphins, saw the dolphin show and the Sea Lion show and went to several aquariums in the park.  We left the park at 5 and stopped by McDonalds and got a cold drink and a snack and headed back home.  We live about an Hour and 10 minutes from SeaWorld, another nice perk of living nearby.

 

Cheerleading Camp and Football Camp

Andrew and Anna had the opportunity to participate in some camps at the school recently.  Anna was so excited about cheer camp and she took it seriously.  She came home each day and practiced all afternoon.  Her Dad of course, was not too pleased.  At their end of camp performance, I noticed Alan was smiling but turning a nice shade of red due to him not liking all of this cheer stuff.

 

Anna is in the front, second from the right.

Unfortunately, Alan did not capture pictures of Andrew's camp, but Andrew enjoyed it and even got a prize on the first day.  He worked with a former University of Texas player as one of his camp coaches.  Even though, I am not a Texas fan, I did think that was cool for Andrew to get that opportunity.

Vacation Part 2

After we left Memphis, we spent the night in West Monroe, LA.  The next morning we made our way to Haskel's Doughnut Shop, where Jase, Martin, Si, and Godwin of Duck Dynasty, ate hot doughnuts in one of my favorite episodes.  The kids gave two thumbs up for the glaze but did not like their chocolate covered doughnuts.  I took pictures of the bar stools with the autographs of the stars.  We didn't get to sit there because a lady and her friend were there for their weekly coffee and doughnut visit.  However, they did volunteer to get up so I could take a picture.  Afterwards, we headed to Duck Commander.  We went into the gift shop and Andrew got a duck call, I got a pink Happy, Happy, Happy T-Shirt, Alan got a cap and Anna got a pencil, eraser and holder for school.  We then ventured out and took pictures of the various areas and I noticed Alan took more pictures than I did.  I think he was quite fascinated.  We ended our adventure by having lunch at Willie's Duck Diner.  It definitely is a new restaurant with very good food but a little pricey. 

Our vacation was needed and a lot of fun but we were sure glad to be back at our house and out of the car.  I never really noticed how far south we really live until this trip.

 

World's largest Duck Call

 

The Loading Dock

The Back side of Duck Commander