Sunday, November 4, 2018

Sioux City Community Schools Students Selected for NWIA High School Honor Band


Sioux City Community Schools Band Students Selected for Northwest Iowa High School Honor Bands. They will be performing at the 64th annual Northwest Iowa Honor Band Festival Saturday, January 5, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. in Eppley Auditorium at the Morningside College Campus in Sioux City.


East High School - Anna Scott, Brad Anderson, and Angela Kroska, Directors

Debora Allard – Flute

Katie Lammers - Flute

Faith TenHulzen - Flute

Lauren Geerlings – Oboe

Isabelle Ford - Clarinet

Jessica Melville - Clarinet

Lincoln Rahn - Clarinet

Nathan Kitrell - Alto Sax

Tracie Melville - Baritone Sax

Nathan Whitaker - Baritone Sax

Alex Melville – French Horn

Amanda DeBates – Trumpet

Andrew Flory - Trombone

McKennzie Carey - Trombone

Ryan Crawford - Euphonium

Cameron Jensen - Tuba

Tony Thach - Percussion



North High School - Faith Hall, Austin Simon, and Amy Ortmann, Directors

Eleanor Chalstrom – Oboe

Luella Gaskell – Clarinet

Sarah Glade – Clarinet

Reed Adajar – Baritone Sax

Sammy Rosenthal – French Horn

Caleb Weber – Trumpet

Megan Kopp – Trombone

Stephanie Warnstadt – Trombone

Aidan Shorey - Euphonium

Noah Cohrs - Tuba



West High School - Eric Elker, Patrick Patterson, and Katie Birch, Directors

Megan Juhnke - Flute

Gisselle Ayala Garcia - Clarinet

Dani Youngberg - Clarinet

Oliver Engelhardt - Trumpet

Colin Houts – Trumpet

Juan Oropeza - Trumpet

Elias Vargas - Trombone

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

What does the Arts and Community Engagement Program Coordinator do in a day?



I am often asked, "What does a day look like for you?" While this is my fifth year in this position, I can honestly say, no two days have been the same. Rewarding and scary all at the same time!

To start the day, I generally scroll through and answer any emails that have been sent between 10 pm and 7 am.  Following emails, I look through my texts and respond. From there I take a look at the calendar for the day, adding any appointments that came up through information shared in emails or texts that I looked through. This all happens before I step out the door in the morning.

Have I mentioned that I live and die by my Outlook Calendar? "Let me look at my calendar" or "Did you or could you send me a calendar invite" are common phrases often heard uttered out of my mouth. My family now responds with "Do you have us on your calendar?"

As I pull away from the house, I begin the journey each day to serve our students across the district through conversations with educators and administrators.

Today was a great example of the many great things happening in our district for students! I started my day receiving a text from a music educator indicating that she had been invited to a grade level PLC to discuss Rhythm, Rhyme, and Literacy as presented by Ariel Huseman and myself this past Friday at #WeTeach2018.

Following the text, I drove to our Education Service Center(ESC) to meet with and work with our High School Health Educators to continue work designing meaningful instruction for our students through the curriculum adoption process. Many "I wonders," deep questioning and reflection for best practice. Shortly after the work began, I took off to drive to North High to see the Sioux City Public Schools Foundation award our HS PE team a $4,999 grant for IHT watches. While working with the HS PE team at North during PLC team time last year, we discussed many ways to design instruction for students to meet the standards and work to have a healthy lifestyle. This grant is significant to the team as they continue their curriculum work and making PE rigorous and relevant for students.



After the awarding of the grant, I traveled to EHS to work with our MS/HS Band PLC. Discussions from how to reach students, to our district-wide performance, to assessments on canvas through flip grid were discussed. A quick check of texts and emails and answers sent.

Following the discussion with these educators, I was again behind the wheel and traveling to EMS to visit with leadership about content standards and building capacity for student achievement. An excellent discussion and collaboration on past practice and future practice. Following the discussion, time spent with educators learning more about resources we have available and best method for utilizing the resources across the district.

All of this, before lunch. On my way back to ESC, I take two phone calls and continue discussions on topics that have come up over the past week. Once I arrive at ESC, I am back working with our Health team and learning about the work they completed before lunch. I run and grab lunch, in the meantime running to the Foundation Office to set up a meeting to finalize our District Music Concert at the Orpheum this coming Monday evening.

Upon my return, our Health team was sharing with each other skills-based lessons that they have been piloting this fall, based on what they learned at the National Health and Physical Education Conference we attended last spring in Nashville. It was so fun to see their excitement continue into their lesson design from the professional development and conversations we had last spring. In the meantime, texting with our Digital Media Program Coordinator on digital platforms for students to demonstrate learning and sharing with our team.


Before the team was done, I took off to meet with finance to discuss items needed to be budgeted and purchased for our new elementary that will be opening in the fall. I have had face to face conversations with our instrumental music, elementary music, art, and physical education educators to discuss needs for the new building. Today, I was able to bring those items forward for discussion. Throughout the discussion, we also took the time to look at the building specs to make sure that we had everything covered.

Finally, back to my office to check "snail mail" and anything that came across my desk. Final discussions around the office area to clear up any concerns from the day and off on my journey home.

While reflecting the events of the day on the way home, another phone call made to work with an educator and coach. Continued conversation through the evening via text and email.

Now time for reflection and professional reading.  A day in the life... #TrulyGrateful


Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Music and Literacy: Literacy and Music

Over the past couple of years we have been working to use rhymes in the elementary music classroom to help our students with steady beat and music literacy. Our classroom educators also include rhymes through their teaching of reading. Research has shown over and over the benefits of rhymes in early reading and music. Here are a few articles that I have found:


With that I have worked to develop recordings and QR codes to be used in both the music classroom and classroom. I am excited to share this work and can't wait to see how it benefits our students.

Here is an example of what I have developed to help our students and educators.

Recording on SoundCloud:
Wee Willie Winkie

Wee Willie Winkie
Runs through the town.
Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown.
Tapping at the windows, crying through the locks...
Are all the children in their beds?
It's past eight o'clock.


Saturday, October 20, 2018

2018 All-State


Congratulations to the following students from Sioux City on their selection into the 2018 Iowa All-State Festival. These students auditioned Saturday, October 20th, in Storm Lake and have been accepted into one of the finest musical ensembles Iowa has to offer its high school musicians. Only 17% of those that audition achieve this honor. These students will be one of this year's 1,083 elite Iowa high school musicians. The concert will be held at Hilton Coliseum, on the campus of Iowa State, in Ames, Iowa on Saturday, November 17, at 7:30 p.m.
 
2018 All-State Band
East High School
Jessica Melville,  3rd clarinet
Amanda DeBates, 1st trumpet
Andrew Flory, 1st trombone
Nathan Whitaker, 1st alternate baritone saxophone
Tracie Melville, 2nd alternate baritone saxophone
Anna Scott, Brad Anderson, and Angela Kroska, educators

North High School
Sarah Glade, 2nd clarinet
Reed Adajar, baritone saxophone
Aidan Shorey, euphonium (4 year All-Stater)
Stephanie Warnstadt, 1st alternate trombone
Faith Hall, Austin Simon, and Amy Ortmann, educators
 
West High School
Olly Engelhardt, 1st alternate trumpet
Juan Oropeza, 2nd alternate trumpet
Eric Elker, Patrick Patterson, and Katie Birch, educators

2018 All-State Chorus
East High School
Nathan Kitrell, tenor
Max Braunstein, bass
Cameron Jensen, bass
Jacob Licht, bass
Alex Melville, bass (4 year All-Stater)
Ella Voloshen, 1st alternate alto
Tom Hales and Sydney Mc Coy, educators
 
North High School
Erianah Austin, soprano
Finn Coughlin, alto
Gerrit Nieuwendorp, tenor
Zach Crawford, tenor
Andrew Stoneking and Chris Hanson, educators
  
West High School
Matthew Pauling, bass I
Noah Towns and Boe Hodnefield, educators

2018 All-State Orchestra
East High School
Leai Britton, viola
Lauren Geerlings, oboe
Eleanor May-Patterson, educator

North High School
Derek Hwang, cello
Ben Gillette, 1st alternate bass
Kayla Priest, educator

#SCCSD Music Education Noticed Around the World

You know there is something special happening in #sccsd when you wake up to read this message from a former employee. Sioux City Music Education is being talked about around the world. @feierabendmusic #BuildingTheFoundationForLifetimeMusic #Impact @siouxcityschools

District Music Concert at the Orpheum - November 5th


We are so excited to showcase our music programs and celebrate our back-to-back designation of "Best Communities for Music Education." The concert will be free and will feature over 500 of our students musicians from all of our buildings in the district.

Students Selected for Iowa Junior Honors Orchestra Festival


26th Annual
Iowa Junior Honors Orchestra Festival
Friday, November 16, 2018
in Ames, Iowa on the campus of
Iowa State University.
 
Iowa Junior Honors Orchestra Festival began in 1992 as a way to give younger students an all-state level experience. The Festival is sponsored by the Iowa String Teacher's Association. It is a one-day event, held in the same complex and at the same time as the Iowa All-State Music Festival and the Iowa Music Educators Association state convention. There are two orchestras of equal ability in the festival, each with about 90 participants. The groups are composed mainly of 8th and 9th graders, with a few advanced 7th graders. The application process requires that the violins be at least in Book 5 of Suzuki or equivalent, violas in Book 4 of Suzuki or equivalent, celli in Book 5 of Suzuki or equivalent, and basses comfortable up through 5th position. It is an expectation of the festival that the student is enrolled in their school's orchestra and that teacher needs to be a member of the Iowa String Teacher's Association.
 
East High School
Eleanor May Patterson, Educator
Annabelle Helms, Philharmonic, Violin
Caleb Baker, Philharmonic, Viola
 
Sioux City North Middle School
Kayla Priest, Educator
Michael Toben, Philharmonic, Cello
 
Sioux City West Middle School
Kristin Ortmann, Educator
Antonio Ferraro, Philharmonic, Violin
 
Sioux City West High School
Kristin Ortmann, Educator
Iris Engelhardt, Philharmonic, Bass

Students Selected for 2018 Northwest Iowa 7th and 8th Grade Honor Bands


Sioux City Community Schools Band Students Selected for Northwest Iowa 7th & 8th Grade Honor Bands.

Students have been selected to participate in the 51st annual Northwest Iowa Junior High/Middle School Honor Bands Festival. On Saturday, October 13th, over 330 seventh and eighth-grade band students from 41 Northwest Iowa schools auditioned for a position in two honor bands. Approximately 190 students were chosen. These selected students will perform a concert at Storm Lake High School, Saturday, November 3rd. Selected from Sioux City Community Schools are:

East Middle School - Angela Kroska, Brad Anderson, and Anna Scott, Directors
Mackenzie Crawford, 7th Grade, Euphonium
Joe DeBates, 8th Grade, Trombone
Ivy Mehlhaff, 7th Grade, Percussion

North Middle School - Amy Ortmann, Austin Simon, and Faith Hall, Directors
Keera Adajar, 8th Grade, Oboe
Kailynn Thiele, 7th Grade, Clarinet
Gretchen Hoffman, 8th Grade, Bassoon
Ian Julius, 8th Grade, Alto Saxophone
Matthew Hawkinson, 7th Grade, Trombone
Michael Toben, 8th Grade, Tuba

West Middle School - Katie Birch, Patrick Patterson, and Eric Elker, Directors
Antonio Ferraro, 8th Grade, Flute
Marin Frazee, 8th Grade, Clarinet
Anh Nguyen, 8th Grade, Clarinet
Abigail Hammer, 8th Grade, Clarinet

Two 8th grade students will represent Northwest IA in the 8th Grade All Iowa Band at the Iowa Bandmasters Convention in Des Moines in May. Those students are Marin Frazee, 8th Grade, Clarinet from West Middle School and Michael Toben, 8th Grade, Tuba from North Middle School.