Music mentor!!

This year we were lucky to gain another music mentor from the NZ music commission. This is a wonderful initiative by the commission which is completely free of charge. A mentor is assigned to your school and they run workshops based on what you want for your students. This year we were super lucky to get the amazing Lavina Williams! Lavina was such a perfect fit for Hornby and we fell in love with her immediately. Lavina is an amazingly talented performer from Auckland, she is part Samoan part Fijian. She is a singer/songwriter but also an accomplished musical theatre performer. She is the only polynesian woman to have ever been cast in the role of Rafiki in The Lion King. Wow!!!!! Lavina talked us through her amazing career as a singer. Our students were captivated! One of the biggest hurdles for our kids is for them to believe that they can follow their passions in performing arts and that they can travel the world and be a musician. It is possible!!! Lavina really encouraged this and focused on believing in themselves. We had two wonderful days working on stage presence, stage craft and songwriting. Our students soaked up the time and I was really proud of them for putting themselves out there and really giving everything!! I also gained so much from Lavina. It was really interesting to see her giving feedback and having fresh eyes looking at our performances was so rewarding. This was such a perfect way to end the term, I know all my senior musicians benefitted hugely! What an amazing thing for New Zealand to have this commission so that our tamariki can experience working with mentors that we would never usually have the opportunity to access.

Blogging for my students!

This year I want to try really hard to keep my class blog up to date!

Class blog

This is where I put our revised lessons for each class each week. This is a good link for my students to access their learning after class has finished. It also gives me the opportunity to offer words of encouragement and give general feed back. I am enjoying writing this and have set aside time each week to make sure I am keeping it up to date. I will also use this as a tool for my form class too!

Hit the term running....... no, sprinting!!!!

To say we have started school with a bang is an understatement! Its only week 4 and we have had pd days, staff meetings, student meetings, international students, timetable changes, crazy weather and lots of new faces. 2018 was always set to be a big year at Hornby High School but i think i may have underestimated this!
We started our year with our Uru Manuka cluster meeting. This was a day for all of the schools in the cluster to meet together and to discuss our progress with Learn, Create, Share. I did take some valuable things from the day. Listening to Pat Sneddon is always inspiring, hear his encouraging words and the the difference we are making to our children was definitely a great way to start the year. It was interesting though to hear the differences in opinions from our colleagues from other schools........
I always love the start of a school year. I had really missed the kids and it was great catching up with the staff and meeting the 12 newbies! Week 4 in and it already feels like its half way through the term lol! Being over code this term is hard work but I am enjoying all of my classes. Really noticing the difference with smaller junior classes. Going from around 35 to 19 in an average junior music class is already reaping the benefits!
We have set the tone for a great year but it's going to be a hard one too!!

The seniors have left the building.......

I can't actually believe that 2016 is almost over and I have seen off another 13 music!! It has been a super small class this year and although we didn't quite get all of the results we wanted (they would agree), as always they have been a big part of the music department and I will miss them! Hornby kids are special, we say it a lot but Hornby really is family. As migrants to NZ from Englnad ( almost 10 years ago ) I have but a small whanau of 3! The Hornby crew are an extended part of my whanau and I think of the students as #myotherkids. It is a privilege to be part of a young persons life, to watch them grow into young adults and to encourage them along the way! The year 13's this year have taught me alot! They have taught me about wonderful Maori culture and made me feel like part of their whanau! Kapa Haka will not be the same without them! They have also taught me that sometimes our children just need an ear to talk to, a shoulder to cry on and a simple hug!

A new vision!

As Hornby High school moves into the realms of the big rebuild we are starting to look at the vision of the school. Our board of trustees presented their ideas of our vision after school on Monday, along with afternoon tea which always goes down well with the Hornby crew.
Learn, Create, Share is where we want to take our students, being creative in whatever they do
 ( creativity is not exclusive to the Arts but to be creative in all subjects.) The toughest part of that equation is the sharing part. I find my wonderful musos learn and create in their comfort zones well and work hard. The scary part is the sharing. The performing and giving their all on stage! Now, we have become better at this and I have seen the confidence levels grow in my musicians. We are still not quite at the point though where my students will do this freely without me nagging them! ( with the exception of Jacob and Siaosi if they happen to read this) How do I get them to this point.......  I am not sure. I can do all the encouraging in the world but there still has to be more! Project based learning is an avenue we are beginning to look at and I have started thinking about this for 2017. Cross - curricular projects which engage our students and connect our subjects! Is this the answer??? I don't know but as a teacher in the 21st century I want to give it a go, I'm excited to try it and am keen to get it started!!! More to come on this subject......... :)

Last week of term is upon us.....

So, the week is not over yet but I thought I would reflect on the terms madness early!! This penultimate term always seems to fly by. This time it has actually flown and as usual its a mad dash panic to get everyone through the last assessments. My highlights of the term have been getting back into Kapa Haka, I missed it so much and have really enjoyed learning again and being part of the special kapa whanau. We have a performance in the holidays so can't wait for that! Secondly my wonderful Voices with Soul. Such an amazing group of young singers and just generally awesome humans!! We had so much fun at the Voices festival again, they always make me proud and we received two awards for "pop performance" and "emotional plan". It was lovely to do a song dedicated to Krystal. She would have loved singing her beloved Justin Bieber! Great highlights and just a few reminders of why I love this job!! So, 3 days to go, one performance gig, two assemblies and some sad staff farewells, then relax............

Kapa Haka

So, this term my timetable has changed which means I can attend Kapa Haka again! Yay!!!! So happy. It is so nice to have an hour dedicated to learning beautiful waiata and powerful haka. I don't have to be in charge or make any decisions but just enjoy learning and being inspired!! Being part of a kapa haka whanau is a special place. As an only child its nice to have the feeling of having "people" ( even at 36 years old ) Lead by our wonderful matua and our awesome senior leaders I know that I am in good hands. This week we are refreshing our school haka which is awesome, I definitely needed a wee refresher as I have been out of practise for a while. At the end of the hour its such a rush to hear the force of the haka again, its like nothing else...... Cant wait for next week!