Norwell High School Music Department

Occasionally, we are fortunate enough to receive donations from kind-hearted people who want to help out their local music program.  Still, I was surprised to see a Zenith television and an Emerson VCR/DVD combo sitting in the office with a sign reading “DONATION FOR MUSIC ROOM” taped to it in the office when I came in this afternoon.

I’m going to go set it up in a moment, extremely pleased with the fact that we can now replace our 1970’s-era television with a slightly larger (and much newer) unit, complete with RCA-input jacks to allow us to play DVDs on it.  No more having to screen DVDs using an oversized laptop!   Whomever you are, anonymous donor, thank you!

-Mr. O’Briant

1. I’ve now finished all of the updates to syllabi and policies, and I’m very pleased with how much clearer they are.  Most notably, I changed pretty significantly the grading scheme for each of the courses I teach.  This year, it was a weighted category system, wherein attitude and effort were evaluated weekly and made up 40% of a student’s grade, 40% of the grade was devoted to a mixture of teacher-evaluated and student-evaluated progress towards student-generated goals, and 20% was determined by participation in performances and completion of homework.  Next year, both to make it a little less unbalanced and to preserve consistency between the performance-based classes and the new theory and appreciation courses, I will be using a total-points-style weighting system, where each individual item is assigned a point value rather than entire categories.  For what we do and how we do it, it seems to be a much fairer way to evaluate student performance.
2. I’ve also compiled what I think will be a very accurate calendar for the 2007-08 academic year.  As always, it’s subject to change, but I like how it has turned out.  Some of our concerts will occur earlier in the year (Spring Concert and Small Ensemble Night, specifically), which will allow us more time to prepare adequately for Memorial Day, graduation and finals.  The new schedule also includes all of the pertinent deadlines for District, All-State and SEMSBA auditions and festivals.
3. The Band Staff, in its first meeting, voted unanimously (6-0, one member not present) to approve all of the changes I proposed.  Thank you!

Expect the new handbook to be posted on the website within the next couple of weeks, as well as to have a copy mailed to band students to be reviewed and signed off on before the beginning of school in September!

Cheers,

Mr. O’Briant

While doing some regular maintenance on the website, I noticed something interesting: we’ve been linked to as an educational example of a blog being used in the classroom.

“1to1Stage4Teachers” is, from what I can tell, a professional development course for teachers in the Wollongong Diocese Secondary Schools (Sydney, Australia) exploring the implications of beginning a 1:1 student laptop program and how Web 2.0 applications can be used to enhance students’ learning experiences. One of their homework assignments was to read over three blogs and discuss how they are being used with students–and ours was the first blog listed.

It’s a small thing, but it was sort of neat to see. I hope we get positive reviews!

-Mr. O’Briant

We’re very lucky here to have an administration and advocacy groups that recognize the importance of the arts and understand that in order for students to have a fully enriching musical experience, among other things they need the right tools for the job.  Through our cooperation with Principal Keegan and the Norwell High School PTO, most recently, we’ve been able to acquire several new instruments that will go into immediate use in the 2007-2008 academic year.  Since many people who read this blog aren’t in here every day, I thought it might be nice for you to be able to actually see these new instruments!  Here we go:

1)   This is an Olds brand Mellophone, which we’ll be using during the pep band season and for the Memorial Day Parade, so our French Horn players won’t have to switch to trumpet for these events and can instead continue to build their skills on their primary instrument.  We’re looking to add at least one more of these in the immediate future and hopefully moving up to a total of four in anticipation of eventually filling out a full horn section with the appropriate number of players.  We were able to purchase this with the generous support of Mr. Keegan’s office.

2)  This is a Selmer 1430P Bass Clarinet, a durable, high-quality school instrument to be put into use during the symphonic band concert season.  This instrument replaces a bass clarinet that is several decades old, is non-functional, and for which we were unable to find replacement parts.  Thanks again go to Mr. Keegan for the resources necessary to purchase this horn.

3)  This is a set of Pearl Symphonic Series Concert Toms (10″, 12″, 13″, 14″) that will make a fine addition to the percussion section of the symphonic band.  When we needed concert toms this past year, we were forced to use a rock drumset, so these are a welcome replacement.  Thanks again to Mr. Keegan on these!

4)  Last, but certainly not least, is the Ludwig 18×36″ Concert Bass with All-Terrain Tilt Stand that we were fortunate to be able to purchase by means of a PTO grant.  This instrument replaces a decades-old Slingerland relic and is one of the centerpieces of our revamped concert percussion lineup.  Thank you to Joan Ankner, Kathy Dow, Pat Cammett and everybody over at the PTO for your help!

These are just the beginning of what I hope will be a continued effort over the next several years to bring our instrumental inventory current so we can better serve the needs of our music students.  They deserve nothing but the best, and we’re doing everything we can to help give it to them.  It is important to emphasize, however, that this is only the beginning, and that all of us will have to continue to do everything in our power to build on what we’ve started this year.  Thank you for a wonderful first year, and many happy returns!

-Mr. O’Briant

Hi, everybody! I’ll continue to update the site with interesting or important information over the course of the summer, but I wanted to make a couple of announcements here and now before the summer really gets into full swing.

1) It is your responsibility to practice over the summer! Summer is a great time to work on your chops, since you don’t have much in the way of performing to do. If you want or need recommendations for good books to play out of or good solo literature to work on, please let me know. Most important, though, is to keep playing regularly over the summer. You don’t want to show up in September and have lost all the ground you gained this year, you want to show up and be even better!  We get started right away in the fall and don’t have a lot of time to prepare for our first obligations, so we have to hit the ground running.

2) Please make sure to clear all of your belongings out of the music department over the next several days. There’s still a lot of junk left in lockers as well as platters and whatnot from food-related events and items in the lost-and-found box in my office. Anything that is still here after this week will be reappropriated. Thanks!

3) Again, a huge thank you to parents who helped us out this year, the administration for being so supportive both of the curriculum and with resources, and to the PTO for very generously granting us funds to purchase several new instruments. I look forward to many more years of productive collaboration!

Even though I’ll be in Virginia for much of the summer, I’m still very reachable on this website or via my email address: obriant@norwellschools.org

Cheers!

-Mr. O’Briant

Just a quick congratulations once more not only to the students who received underclass academic awards from the music department, but moreover to each and every one of you who has helped make this year a success.  You have been bold and adventurous and helped us move in a wonderful new direction.  We’ve asked you to try a lot of new things and to invest yourselves in music making in a whole new way, and you have delivered.  I can’t wait to see what we can do next year!  I’m sure I also speak for Mrs. Cortright when I say a heartfelt thank you, students.

-Mr. O’Briant

1. Four members of the band staff (if I could have fit more of you in the car, I would have taken you all!) came with me to Norwell Middle School today to spend some time talking with the middle school students and encourage them to sign up for a music course at the high school.  A big thank you, then, to Kevin Caldwell, Will Doolan, Monica Hanley and Laura Napolitano!
2. Regarding Symphonic Band final exams–I hope you’ve been brushing up on all of the terms, symbols and concepts we went over in our initial exam prep time.  We’ll be going back over them all tomorrow and will likely have some sort of a mock quiz on Wednesday to help get you prepared.  Make flash cards, review with a friend, do rote memorization–whatever it takes!  This is all information that as a high-school level musician you should know cold, so let’s dig in and get to it!
3. I’ve received a ton of compliments about the band’s performance at graduation–Bravo!  I’m encouraging everyone who comments on how much they enjoyed your performance, if they see you in the hallway, to thank you for your performance.  As I’ve said before–I nudge you in the right direction, motivate you and instruct you in any way I can, but in the end, you make the sounds that make the performances sparkle.  Great job!

-Mr. O’Briant

After some hotly contested votes this afternoon in the band room, I’m proud to announce the 2007-08 NHS Band Staff:

President: Kevin Caldwell ‘08

Vice President: Will Doolan ‘08

Secretary: Cole Hager ‘08

Treasurer: Kelly Fanning ‘08

Historian: Laura Napolitano ‘08

Librarian: Monica Hanley ‘10

Publicist: Hope Goslin ‘10/Maria Tsekeris ‘10

As previously stated, in all matters requiring a vote of the band staff, the publicist position will receive only one vote.  Thank you to all of the student who ran, and I look forward to working with the new staff in the coming year!

-Mr. O’Briant

Quick reminder about the 2007-08 Band Staff Elections:

If you are interested in running for a specific position, you must notify me by this upcoming Monday, June 4th.  The period 3 class does not meet on Monday, so if you’re in that class and want to run for something, please still swing by my office to let me know.  Currently, your candidates are:

• President: (Will Doolan or Kevin Caldwell) , Jason Connolly
• Vice President: Will or Kevin–whichever one of them ends up not running for President, currently unopposed
• Treasurer: Tim Dalferro, Kelly Fanning
• Secretary: Cole Hager, Stephanie Sousa
• Historian: Jen Brunjes, Laura Napolitano
• Librarian: Evan Barger, Monica Hanley
• Publicist: Hope Goslin/Maria Tsekeris, currently running as a tandem and unopposed.

I’d like to see at least one more candidate for VP and Publicist so we have no unopposed candidates, but am otherwise extremely pleased to see some names on here belonging to students who are not going to be seniors next year.  Building continuity between each year’s band staff is very important!

-Mr. O’Briant