Monday, May 25, 2015

First Drafts 2 Minutes to Make a Difference 2015

Here are the first drafts.  Please leave comments behind.  Any suggestions will be used by the students to create better Final Cut Videos.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Final Movie Classes

We only have three 2 Minutes to Make a Difference classes left.  You need to have you movie posted to the spmathgr8 youtube account by next week.  Here is what is needed in your movie upload.


Next week we will go over the movies and make suggestions for improvements.

Accepted projects are Powerpoint Movie, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker... Please have them uploaded ASAP.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Moose Jaw Band and Choir Trip 2015


Wow another Band and Choir trip in the books.  I am writing to say how privileged I was to accompany 52 Sargent Park students to Moose Jaw.  At no point in this trip did they disappoint.  In fact I would have to say that they were some of the best ambassadors this school has ever produced.


Pizza 4
In every venue, in every restaurant and outing the comments were always the same.  These are great kids.  Wow your kids are amazing.  We are sitting on the bus giving the kids “what for” before entering yet another hotel and the adults seeing them all lined up and quietly waiting for their rooms comment on their behaviour.  “Best group of kids I have ever had in my 20 years in the hotel business”.  

Waiting for Rooms 1 This really puts into perspective what we get to teach on a daily basis.  WE HAVE AMAZING KIDS.


I want to praise the hard work that Cristina and Kara have done with these students.  They have bought into the music program with vigor and effort and you can tell that they love to be musical.  

Band Practice 13

Kara’s band sounded great and by the time they got to their last song they were absolutely hitting many of the complicated notes with style and grace.  
Phew we did good I have attached many videos to this post and you cannot see Janette in back row but she had “clappers”. I do not know the proper term for them but every time she got to play them she would jump up and smile a smile that was so large that you could see it all over the theatre.  

Music is such a part of many students lives at Sargent Park we are lucky to have teachers that love their job and get the most out of our talented students.




The next day we loaded up the instruments and the choir got to sing.  We went to a great old United Church in Downtown Moose Jaw.  Stuck in the family waiting room the choir practice their songs with Kara and Juliane D playing on a 1934 upright piano.  


Choir time 2 The kids were really sounding good.  They entered the church for their performance. 
Domed glass


The piano played and they sounded terrific.  

Turn the page please The choir soldiered through their first song and then got ready to sing Coldplay’s The Scientist.  Having heard the choir prepare in the family room I was ready for anything.  


I was not prepared for how awesome they sounded.  When the sopranos came in tears started to roll down my cheeks.  They sounded so good in this church.  The smiles on their faces singing a song they loved to sing was so evident.  The passion of their teachers came through with their singing and playing while we were away.





When you are on a trip with 52 kids and it is easier than dealing with your own 3 at home you know that our school, teachers, community and parents are doing a terrific job.


Abby Road?

I am proud to have been on this trip.  I enjoyed my hotel room all by myself, though I did share it with the base amp one night but I do wonder why I was paid to do this.  
We are educators because we love to help kids.  I would have to say that this weekend the kids helped me.  They showed me what greatness is.  They were Sargent Park.  

Lasar Tag 4

So the next time we have a meeting or a gathering with other people in our profession you need to remind them that we teach Sargent Park Kids.  They are some of the most special kids in the world.  

Thank you for the opportunity to be on this trip.  I will remember it forever as a highlight of my teaching career.  I have been teaching for a long time!! That is saying something.
Group shot 4