MENC Headquarters in Reston, VA is ringed by colorful trees.If you are regular blog visitor (and if y0u aren't, where have you been? welcome aboard!) you may recall that a short time ago I was complaining about the lack of fall color around here. Well, here in Reston, we got a reminder that Mother Nature is in charge, a lesson in patience really. The foliage around here is really, really beautiful right now, drought or no drought.
We love the trees in the parking lot here.One of our favorite things was the 1920s vintage carousel near the entrance. Wonderful music and carved animals as you gracefully spun in circles.
I liked that almost as much as going to the Ben and Jerry corporate headquarters in Stowe, Vermont where I had my first ever taste of Cherry Garcia ice cream. Yum. What a cool factory tour if you are ever up that way. All in all, a good trip.
Now, I'm not saying that Reston is the same as Vermont, but the trees around here make for a beautiful commute into the office each morning.
And speaking of the office, this week I am working on the December online news as well as news January.
Doing the former gives me a chance to look back at what I did for December. Oh, wait, you haven't seen that issue yet. Hmm. If you promise not to tell anyone I will give you a sneak peak. Just between us, OK?
One of my favorite stories this month was about general music teacher Linda White,
(shown at the Great Wall, below) teaches at Haycock Elementary School in Falls Church, VA. She is such a neat teacher. She writes MENC lesson plans for various projects. In October USA Today named her to the 2007 All-USA Teacher Team. This past summer she took a trip to China as part of the Fulbright-Hays International Education Programs . The program motto is "The World is Our Classroom." She handed out CDs of her choral group performing and MENC's Liberty for All: Volume 2 Westward Expansion—Industrial Revolution to music educators she met on her trip.
White is writing a musical about dragons for her students at Haycock to perform. She says she is helping to educate "citizens of the world" in her classroom.
Here are a couple of photos she shared with us. You can see more photos and read her story in
the December Teaching Music online news is posted at the end of November. In my job, I get to talk to a lot of music teachers, which I truly enjoy because music teachers enjoy working with kids. My son is in high school now, but he attended the same elementary school from kindergarten through sixth grade and his music teacher was wonderful.
I remember the kindergarten play about farm animals when he played a pig and sang and oinked and fifth grade when the kids performed sophisticated madrigal music. She taught them to play recorders and read music. They also studied Renaissance history and American folk music
His music teacher was a wonderful and all of the kids just loved her, loved her energy, the way she worked with the kids, loved her plays. I wish every kid could have a music teacher like my son's or like Linda White.
Buh Bye Til next Thursday
RF
I remember the kindergarten play about farm animals when he played a pig and sang and oinked and fifth grade when the kids performed sophisticated madrigal music. She taught them to play recorders and read music. They also studied Renaissance history and American folk music
His music teacher was a wonderful and all of the kids just loved her, loved her energy, the way she worked with the kids, loved her plays. I wish every kid could have a music teacher like my son's or like Linda White.
Buh Bye Til next Thursday
RF
