This past week was the second annual Teacher Art Retreat and it was a “wonderful three days!” as one of the participant wrote. We sang, danced, drew, glued, told stories, listened to music, drummed, looked for math in nature, acted, ate, relaxed, played with rocks, the list goes on…
One of the coolest things we did, though was during our focus project time. Last year we created Hinged Box Books.
This year we composed a song; 12 adults collaborated on one song. Talk about going through the writing process. We decided on a theme, brainstormed words and ideas we wanted to focus on, wrote lines of lyrics, but the lyrics together, and then worked on the music. We decided on a genre or feel for the music, listened to music to get inspired, moved, played and then tried out a bunch of melodies. In the end we came up with music that had two different feels but seemed to really work together.
Debbie leads us in singing and recording our awesome, original song!
Teachers study and discuss the lyrics and music before recording.
I’m excited to share the final product with you!
The song is called Create and Celebrate!
It’s an anthem for educators everywhere, exclaiming the possibilities and promise of arts integration!
~EMP
Awesome three days!!! I love our song. Everyone was great and I am glad I was part of it. Cheers! Hope the school year is off to a good start for everyone.
Leda, It was a great time and I’m so happy you joined us! I still can’t get over what a cool song we composed. I get it caught in my head often. 🙂 School is off to a good start. Lots of change, but it’s all good change and I’m managing to make sure the arts continue to find a place in my room and lessons. Enjoy your year! I hope to see you again soon!