Term 1 is KICKING OFFFFFFF!!!!!!

I don't think I have ever had a crazier start to a Term 1. All good crazy of course but never the less crazy!!! One of my favourite parts of the school year is the start! I love catching up with all the teenagers after the big summer holiday and seeing all of my new classes. This year I have three awesome senior music classes. They are all super keen, eager musos and are full of enthusiasm! Long may it last!! I have three junior classes, one yr 9 and two yr 10 classes. This year Hornby changed the way we were offering junior courses. Instead of making everything a compulsory taster session in yr 9, students are now able to choose their passion subjects to do all year if they wish! Similarly in year 10, students can now change options mid year and not be committed to a full year of the same courses! Now..... this is a wonderful idea. Why make students take something they are never going to be into??? So, because we have a strong performing culture here I decided to be bold and make my junior courses a Performing Arts course where students would learn many aspects of the performing arts not just music. BUT you have to perform..... That is the part that often doesn't register in the wonderful minds of the mini humans! I have one of my year 10 classes that are going with it and have happily soaked up the wonderful world of Mime, Comedy, Salsa dancing and Musical Theatre. They have been pushed out of their comfort zones and have almost totally embraced it! The other two classes, not so much..... Initially I took it quite personally thinking "Why have I created this awesome performance course that covers all these wonderful art forms and they don't want to do it??????" Well, I realised after I got over myself that they are all awesome enthusiastic music students who are simply not ready to perform.... Yet! So, we have gone back a wee bit and are revisiting some essential Keyboard, Guitar and singing skills. Here they get to learn and play music without the pressure of the big performance. I have realised that with taking risks and trying new things, there are always going to be detours in the road and that's ok!

Splurge guns and Gangsters!!!!!

We must have been mad when we had the idea of visiting scenes from Bugsy Malone!!! We were mad, it was awesome and it was a banger of a year end!!!

The passion projects are now in its second year! Although, the Performing Arts have been participating in the end of year arts focus since it started its life as the Arts Kete. This year we collapsed the timetable for years 7 - 10 during the last six weeks of Term 4. Students were able to choose their passion to embark on. Options for students ranged from community events to wearable arts. Sports events to science and food. There was something for everyone and of course this year we offered Musical Theatre once again. As we were now accomodating two extra year groups we had a whopping 60 kids sign up which meant we could have four specialist teachers. Joanne clark taking the role of Director, me as musical director and choreography, Sarah Richardson as choreographer and vocal director and Luke Taylor as our resident dialect coach. We were also blessed to have two of our awesome teacher aides Judy and Joanne who also have theatre experience.
It was a huge challenge having to muster up the energy at the end of a crazy busy year to put on this wee musical. Having full days on this project meant that we could get so much more done in a session. Last year we were in two hour slots and this certainly didn't help the creative flow.
As the excited theatre kid faces appeared at the whare we knew that it was going to be a great time. Seeing how much the students were engaged and excited certainly helped my energy levels. If the students were bringing it then I certainly had to.
We all met as one big group to start off our sessions. Here we did a physical warm up and then we discussed our objectives for the day! After that we would work in groups on different parts of the show!
This year we had two wonderful people work on our set and props. Mike and Nick worked on our concept ideas and designed us an amazing stage and of course the unforgettable splurge guns!!

Having the set and props definitely lifted the professional level from the students. This was now getting real and after 5 weeks and a bit we were ready!
We did two performances on our show case day. The first was to our primary school next door, expecting a few classes they were so excited to see our show that the whole school came! They were such a fantastic audience and the performers were feeding off their laughter and their applause! Next up was our students biggest challenge....... their peers. During the day all of the passion project groups had displays that parents could look at, we were the finale of our day with our show! Nerves were high ( including mine as I was on the sound desk again, no pressure ha ha )
Our kids always enjoy the music and drama we provide them to watch but this was for sure the quietest audience we have ever had! I mean that in a good way, plenty of laughter and applause but the audience were so engaged you could feel it!
Our hearts bursting with pride, we finally finished this mad, crazy year!! The show was a success, everyone was exhausted, apart from Mrs Clark who was already in the midst of planning next years show!! HA Ha ha!
Blessed to work with wonderful students and inspiring staff, we had for sure earned our summer!
2018 OUT ( MIC DROP)

As if it were a dream!

So it is already 2019 and I am still pinching myself that I ended 2018 with this amazing show. It was probably the most intense 4 months I have ever had. Not going to lie, the workload of being in this show and working my day job was so hard. Tiredness I could cope with but the most difficult thing is keeping your voice healthy as there is no way you can go on vocal rest when you are a teacher. This was a particularly demanding show and I did take my voice for granted, loosing it during the dress rehearsal week was a a nightmare!!!!!! I learnt a pretty hard lesson during this time. I realised that there are lots of things I could have done to look after my voice better and I had not been doing that. If I want to continue to do shows and teach I need to make sure that I am putting in the work with my vocal health.
This has been a huge year of growth for me. Professionally I have been in two of my bucket list shows, still can't believe it. Even at 38 years old my confidence has grown and my belief in myself as a singer and as an actor has been boosted. I can see this growth in my teaching. My expectations of my students is higher as my own performance experiences have changed and developed.
I feel so lucky that I get to do what I love in and out of the classroom and I am excited for the next year of performance adventures!

The French Revolution.....

Not long after Wicked finished, I decided to be a crazy person and audition for the second show of the Showbiz season Les Miserables. After what felt like weeks, I had the call to say that I had made the ensamble! Yay!
Being vocal backing for Wicked was Epic but now being on stage was going to be next level.
Being back in the performance realm for me is amazing BUT this is also invaluable PD. I know that everything I have learnt so far I have fed back directly into my teaching practice! The next couple of months are going to be exhausting but will be worth it!

Defying gravity...............

It seems crazy that it was 7 months ago that I auditioned for the Showbiz production of Wicked. The time flew by and before I knew it it was opening night!! This has by far been the best professional experience I have ever had!
I love being a teacher and I have spent the last 15 years focusing all of my time on mastering my profession to the best I could. Getting to teach music every day is literally the best job in the world. I had forgotten though how amazing it was to be a performer myself. I have always been a singer since grabbing a plastic mic around age 2. Musical theatre was a massive part of my life before teaching and although I don't intend to quit my job and take up performing full time it is amazing to now be doing both. My only concern about getting back into performing was whether I had the energy to teach and perform. Since the start of the year I have been eating healthier and exercising more. I knew I needed to be fitter if I wanted this to work. Once we went into tech week I knew this would be the most challenging time. I was honestly shattered being at the theatre until 11pm and then getting up to teach, but, I just loved it and so it was worth being a little tired!!
As a musician this experience has been challenging and massively rewarding. It has also given me valuable PD as a teacher also. Working with renowned musical director Richard Marrett was a dream. He is an amazing director and seeing him in action was fantastic. I have taken many things from him that I can use in my own teaching. I have made some excellent contacts in the industry and also made some wonderful friends.
Wicked really has been a life changer for me. Being able to work as a singer professionally again is a dream come true. I know this will also only have a positive effect on my teaching also.

Showbiz bio

Musical Theatre mayhem!!!

It's been a manic term........ In year 8 and 9 we have focused on Musical Theatre as a genre for Term 1. This was a collaborative project between myself, Joanne (HOD Drama) and our two part time PA teachers Luke and Sarah. We all had one goal and that was to get all of our juniors on the stage performing. Cue dramatic sound........
We spent a lot of time initially researching musical theatre and putting this new genre into context. Many students had no idea what musical theatre was, some only thought of good old High school musical and some students already had a vast knowledge and were already fans of Hamilton and Mean Girls. We had ALOT of differentiation..... Some students were so keen to perform and as soon as we headed into the practical element were on their way. Others had a passion for sets and props and began designing. Some students were a little reluctant and preferred to research the genre further and produce detailed slide shows. We had a vast array of work happening and even those students that still were not sold on performing on stage they understood the genre and could explain features and give examples. FANTASTIC. In our final showcase each class presented their work, this was a class performance from each ( and yes everyone in the class stood on stage and did something!!! Even the nervous kids stood at the back and sang or danced their heart out) RESULT!! we had some fantastic solo and small ensamble performances, some fab research and some gorgeous set pieces.
There are many things we will take from this project and change and tweak. There were certainly things that didn't work. But, most importantly there were lots of things that did work! Everyone enjoyed themselves and in the end every student involved stood on a stage and performed and left the term with new knowledge on the wonderful genre of Musical Theatre.

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.