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I hope this email finds you and your family doing well! As you are aware, Denison ISD will be closed until at least Monday, April 6. By Wednesday, April 1, the district administration will reassess the data to determine whether it is safe for students and staff to return to campus. A decision will be communicated that afternoon regarding whether schools will be re-opened on Monday, April 6.
Learning plans have been designed for “in-home” student instruction beginning tomorrow, Monday, March 23rd. By now, a Denison ISD teacher will have contacted your family personally to provide specific details. (I believe it was your 3A teacher.) Continue to monitor the Denison ISD website on a daily basis for updates: www.denisonisd.net DHS Band Distance Learning Plan We have created a new tab of the Denison Band website that specifically addresses Distance Learning. This page will be updated with all the materials your student might need. In addition, all resources and assignments have already been posted to Schoology. Unfortunately, due to the file size restrictions of CHARMS, I cannot attach all the files to this email. Website Link: https://www.denisonbands.org/distance-learning.html However, most simply - your student will have ONE graded assignment per week. This graded assignment is a video/audio recording of their weekly objective. This is a continuation of their weekly objectives that were handed out at the beginning of the six weeks. The objectives forWind Ensemble and Concert Band were handed out to each student at the beginning of the six weeks and have been posted on Schoology. Symphonic Band students will continue their sticker-chart pass off’s on their UIL music, and should aim to finish one piece per week. Percussion has been modified due to the nature of at-home submissions. Their objectives are included in this email and posted on Schoology. However, as you well know, in order to be able to perform the objectives well, your student must practice! If your student says they don’t know what to practice… we have you covered! I have also included a sample practice guide for each band class on the website and Schoology. The most important thing is that your student continues to play their instrument daily! This will ensure that they continue to progress in their music education AND have a creative outlet during the school closure. For each day, the band directors have created a practice routine that includes: Warm Up (5 min) Fundamentals (5-10 min) Music (10 min) Other (10 min) - These include listening activities, sight reading games, etc. At the end of each week, each student will fill out a required Practice Journal: https://forms.gle/6Z2bMAYg2uVuDNVF9 Schoology The main source of communication with your student’s teachers will be through Schoology. We have already been using Schoology quite a bit this year. Each band class has a separate group. Please ensure that your student is in the correct group. TOG Marching Band (ALL students) - 4RRD-JMPG-CPTVG Wind Ensemble - KW6C-9WKS-5XDGD Symphonic Band - 6JMB-XV45-ZC4NW Concert Band - KDMJ-CVC7-5Z9MM The band directors are also available through email and Remind 101. Supplemental Materials The band directors have provided MANY supplemental resources for when your student comes to you saying that they are bored! The links are also posted on Schoology under Resources. I want to highlight a few of these that I am very excited about! Each private lesson teacher has created a FREE lesson available on our YouTube channel! There is both an Intermediate and Advanced lesson available for each instrument. High school students should utilize the Advanced Lesson. We will post weekly videos for each week of the school closure. I will share the links on Schoology to our YouTube channel. By student request, I have created a Band Bingo with various playing challenges! Students who complete a Black-Out of the board can earn prizes. The Band Bingo board is available on Schoology. I came across a very cool app for iPhones called the Monster Musician Reader Game. This is a sight-reading game that you can play along with at home. If you do not have an iPhone there is also a YouTube channel that you can play along with: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnXN4OKVLYRNGoK-pgXOseQ. These activities, and MANY MORE, can be accessed on Schoology under the Group Resources folder! Other District Resources If your student does not have regular access to the Internet, you are able to get all lessons on printed hard copy. To get these, please contact the Denison High School front office at (903)-462-7125. The Main Office at the high school will be open from 9 am - 2 pm daily. In addition, DISD will continue its Yellow Jacket Feeding Program. Beginning Monday, March 23 Beginning Monday, March 23, Denison ISD will continue to serve Grab & Go Meals at the following locations: ScottMiddle School - 1901 S. Mirick Avenue B. McDaniel Intermediate - 400 Lillis Lane Lamar Elementary - 1000 S. Fifth Avenue Terrell Elementary - 230 W. Martin Luther King All Denison ISD students are welcome to participate in this free breakfast and lunch program. The district will be changing to one service time slot from 10:00 – 12:30 which will allow families to pick up both meals at once. In addition, the district will begin meal delivery to certain areas of town where there are clustered residential areas. Band Calendars - Second Order By popular request, we ordered a second batch of the 2020-2021 Band Calendars! If you are interested in purchasing one for $15, please let me know via email. Spring Trip I have received a few questions regarding a partial refund of the Spring Trip, as we had to leave early due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. I know that the travel company is currently working very hard to reschedule upcoming trips across the country and also work through any potential refunds from trips that were cancelled or cut short. The company is working to reschedule our music festival performance to sometime in May. At this time, I do not have any additional information about the possibility of a partial refund. Once I do get more information, I will share it with you. Cancelled Events I am working to keep the CHARMS calendar up to date with the changes to our spring schedule. All band rehearsals and events during the school closure have been cancelled. Those events that can be rescheduled or moved to an online format (such as the Leadership Information Meeting) will be. We will not try to reschedule the sectionals, full band rehearsals or clinics that we missed due to the school closure at this time. The Chet Baker Educational Jazz Festival for Jazz Band 1 has been cancelled and will not be rescheduled. MA Nationals for our varsity color guard has also been cancelled, as well as the optional trip to watch the WGI Regional in Denton. Lastly, I was informed today by UIL Region 25 that our Concert & Sight Reading Contest scheduled for April 22nd and 23rd has been cancelled. Unfortunately, I do not expect the event to be rescheduled. At this time, we are still planning on participating in the following events this spring: April 25th - Wind Ensemble Music Festival contest in Frisco May 1st - DISD Jazz Concert at THF Park May 8th - DHS Spring Concert May 21st - Band Banquet 2020- 2021 DHS Band Leadership Information I am working on an online version of the Leadership Information meetings. This will be shared on both Schoology and the band website, under the Forms tab (www.denisonbands.org). The paperwork phase of the 2020 - 2021 Leadership Tryouts will be conducted entirely online. I will share the questionnaire and information packet on Schoology and the band website. The paperwork must be submitted to me via email by April 9th at 11:59 PM. You can email me your completed paperwork at [email protected]. Teacher Evaluation surveys will be conducted via Google Forms. Percussion Concert Videos I am working to upload the videos from the DISD Percussion concert to our YouTube channel. You can watch the two high school ensemble performances at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxzGIY6CyII https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwq1U7soAkk Instrument and Binder Pick Up I try to get up to the school every couple of days so that students can continue to pick up their instruments or any other materials they need. If you need to get your instrument, binder, etc. please email me and I will work with you to arrange a time. Lastly, if you have any questions as we transition to Distance Learning, please do not hesitate to ask! As I mentioned previously, the main goal for us is that every student has access to their instrument and continues to play. There will be ONE graded playing assignment each week, as well as a practice journal. Beyond that, the practice guide and supplemental materials included below are provided to help give your student ideas on what to practice, and are not required or graded. Thanks so much for your continued support! Comments are closed.
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