Hi Team!

A very happy new year to you.  I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things next week.

Posts Update

First off, you will notice that I have taken my appointments out of your schedules that were assigned for homework posts.  I discovered just last week that the way the system was administering these was causing an accounting problem, which led to much kicking of self.  Instead, I will do these manually until we get to the reviews, at which time everyone will see this normalized as part of an increase to their hourly rate, as mentioned before.

It was also discovered that our email delivery of these may not have been working properly – this is now fixed.  It likely accounted for the lower than average Make-up week schedule we had.

There have been some promising developments in tech that lead me to believe we’ll be able to move our homework posts (Website), internal chats (Cotap), to a unified platform that will include the ability to discretely message parents in the next 24 months.

The use of posts also looks to be changing the way we do our reporting, but the next form of the two methods will likely be decided in the coming months.

Renovation

The renovation is nearly done, but we are still in the final (painfully slow) stages.  For those of you that have been teaching in Studio 2 (middle room upstairs), you will be teaching in the space downstairs that is under the front porch (studio number forthcoming).  The basement is fully insulated, and retains warmth excellently.  Radiators are being connected this week.  This will have basic decoration as we wait for the rest of the space to be finished.  The floors are concrete, and I expect we may need to expand our carpeting/foam tiling, so please stay in touch with me about this as you spend some time in the space.

Until the space is fully finished, please supervise your students’ comings and goings – there is a lot of equipment strewn about, and it is a safety concern.  Thank you.

Studio Decorations downstairs

At the moment, my intention is to uniformly decorate each room with school blue along the ceiling, and to include photos of musicians in each room.  For the photos, I’ll ask you for a list of suggestions so that each room can have a personalization and contribution by you, since you will use those space fairly regularly.  I am also interested in educational materials that we can print for reference, so please let me know if you have any thoughts on it.

Annual Reviews

Please visit Teachers Only (under the Quick Links tab) and complete your annual review evaluation now.  They are due on 15 January by 11:59:59.

Lesson Length Recommendations

I have made a round of calls to students that had lesson length recommendations.  This may change a bit over the coming week, and I will inform you, but do take a little extra time to check your teaching schedules early on each teaching day.

Music Together + Ops Manual = Together, at last

With the extra effort we’ve put into our Music Together program this school year, it was necessary for us to bring some more structure to the way that the program is administered by and for the teachers.  This is important because it functions quite differently from our lessons, and the expectations are therefore different.  As soon as this is completed (Lisa and I are drafting it now), we’ll do a training session (likely accompanied by pizza), to make sure we are on the same page.

Barn Away?

It is possible that I will be away again in the first week of February.  We may do the same thing we did last time, but I will update you as this develops.

Looking Ahead

GM – Easter Alert

Please note that this year is one of those in which the last Sunday of March falls during the Easter weekend which means our General meeting will be April 3rd.  Reporting for students is due the 15th.

Recital

The recital is currently planned for 15 May.  Rock Band will be expected to play.  The theatre has been beautifully renovated, and is a pleasure to be in.

Rock Band Gigs

Our Spring Performance calendar looks like this for the Rock Bands:

  • ? – Hillcrest Community School
  • Wednesday, 1 June – Forest Hill Jr. & Sr. School
  • Saturday, 4 June – Rawlinson

We may have up to 5 schools plus the recital this year.

It is my hope that we can do the ‘Karaoke Band’, whereby students get a chance to sing along with the band backing them up.  We’ll get the schools to have a contest and choose the students that will sing with the band – maybe we can do a YouTube video ahead of time that they can practice with.  Colin, please choose 2 popular, appropriate (language and vocal range) songs that will work for boys and girls.

Thanks!

Barn.