Anyway, because some people like to see what I did each year, here are two samples. We filmed them during rehearsal time. Enjoy.
Acoustic Versions:
Showing posts with label Concert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Concert. Show all posts
Concert Videos - 2018
13 December 2018
Last night was the Christmas concert. There were a couple of hiccups with the sound system, but that meant that we did more acapella singing (which is always very beautiful with young voices).
Anyway, because some people like to see what I did each year, here are two samples. We filmed them during rehearsal time. Enjoy.
Anyway, because some people like to see what I did each year, here are two samples. We filmed them during rehearsal time. Enjoy.
19 December 2017
Joseph would like to present a Christmas concert to you all. The songs were selected by Joseph.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
15 December 2017
Yes, another self-indulgent blog. What else is there to talk about these days anyway?
Our school Christmas concerts are now over. I've had a headache ever since they ended. Lack of sleep catches up to us all. The concert I'm in charge of (grades 3-5) went very well. Thanks be to God. Or is that "Thanks be to ME?" Doing yet another concert has made me feel like God in a way. No, not in the all-powerful way. More like in the way of how God makes things work despite human weakness.
I take charge of almost everything. I do the lights, the sound system, fix the sound system, replace the sound system computers 3x, even minutes before the first performance, backup up all sound system items in two different ways, organize all practices, set up, decorate, clean up, and everything in between. It takes about 100 hours out of my life. I try and spoon feed jobs to other teachers. All the pressure falls on my shoulders. The other teachers are blissfully unaware of what happens behind the scenes. I think of how at our local library we went for a Christmas craft night. The library worker had crafts set up in such a way that you'd have to be a fool to mess up the craft. And sure enough that's what people do, mess up. That's just life.
I think of how God works in the world. He surely spoon feeds us. He is deeply concerned with every little detail, whether we notice or not. He takes on our burdens, all too often with us not even noticing. Relationships break? God works behind the scenes to mend them. Pressure from life? "Cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). Need beauty in life? Look around you, it's everywhere. Though don't we just take this for granted? We would be fools to mess this life up, and of course that's just what we do. Yes, I get to play God for a month and a half. Right?
To make a festive reply: Poppycock.
I mess up sound systems. Somehow God makes it right. I lose my temper with others. The Lord's peace prevails. I try to create beauty. The voices of little children, surely the most beautiful sound of all, are right in front of me in abundance. I lose sleep from stress of making things perfect. Again, "Cast all your cares on Him..." All the pressure is taken by God. I would have to be a fool to not know this. And surely I still mess up. That's life.
Being in charge of such an event is difficult... if you are in charge of it. It turns out I am not God after all. I'm not even an angel. I'm just like every other person. Messing things up, but being uplifted, unknowingly, all the same. And I think I would have it no other way.
Our school Christmas concerts are now over. I've had a headache ever since they ended. Lack of sleep catches up to us all. The concert I'm in charge of (grades 3-5) went very well. Thanks be to God. Or is that "Thanks be to ME?" Doing yet another concert has made me feel like God in a way. No, not in the all-powerful way. More like in the way of how God makes things work despite human weakness.
I take charge of almost everything. I do the lights, the sound system, fix the sound system, replace the sound system computers 3x, even minutes before the first performance, backup up all sound system items in two different ways, organize all practices, set up, decorate, clean up, and everything in between. It takes about 100 hours out of my life. I try and spoon feed jobs to other teachers. All the pressure falls on my shoulders. The other teachers are blissfully unaware of what happens behind the scenes. I think of how at our local library we went for a Christmas craft night. The library worker had crafts set up in such a way that you'd have to be a fool to mess up the craft. And sure enough that's what people do, mess up. That's just life.
I think of how God works in the world. He surely spoon feeds us. He is deeply concerned with every little detail, whether we notice or not. He takes on our burdens, all too often with us not even noticing. Relationships break? God works behind the scenes to mend them. Pressure from life? "Cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). Need beauty in life? Look around you, it's everywhere. Though don't we just take this for granted? We would be fools to mess this life up, and of course that's just what we do. Yes, I get to play God for a month and a half. Right?
To make a festive reply: Poppycock.
I mess up sound systems. Somehow God makes it right. I lose my temper with others. The Lord's peace prevails. I try to create beauty. The voices of little children, surely the most beautiful sound of all, are right in front of me in abundance. I lose sleep from stress of making things perfect. Again, "Cast all your cares on Him..." All the pressure is taken by God. I would have to be a fool to not know this. And surely I still mess up. That's life.
Being in charge of such an event is difficult... if you are in charge of it. It turns out I am not God after all. I'm not even an angel. I'm just like every other person. Messing things up, but being uplifted, unknowingly, all the same. And I think I would have it no other way.
Our arts ed class practicing.
7 December 2016
I run the grade 3-5 Christmas concert at our school. I enjoy it, though it is an enormous amount of work. The work can get to you after a while.
We had a concert practice scheduled. I looked over and a whole flock of parents started showing up to watch. Did they get the dates of the show mixed up? I scrambled to get chairs out for them. We began the concert practice. I was trying to play a computer song file accompaniment but the darn thing wouldn't work. So I tried my backup CD instead. But it would only play Oasis' Wonderwall. In a panic I switched to another CD. Wonderwall came on again. This was getting crazy! So I decided to switch to the song where I play guitar and sing a long with the students. The mic stopped working and so the kids at first were singing way ahead of me, and then they were singing a different song all together. The parents were laughing. I wasn't! All this work for this?!? Then I realized I had forgotten how to play guitar. I was scrambling for a D chord, but my fingers could not grab the guitar properly. I was like our little girl Emilie trying to awkwardly hold on to an object. So I started strumming the guitar without any chords. It was horrible! And why on earth were we practicing outside all of a sudden? One student came up with a snowball. I yelled at him: "No throwing snowballs!" He threw it away. Well that was too much. I just lit into him! I crushed the kid with yelling. His poor face was shell-shocked. That was enough. Away I stomped.
Feeling some remorse for how I yelled at him, the disappointment in me made things worse. Becca then showed up with the kids in the van to take me home. I angrily asked her why she was late. She looked puzzled. Well I had enough of that. I kicked her and the kids out of the van and said I was driving home alone. They could walk. I got into the driver's seat and noticed I was unshaven and unkept. A veritable maniac. As I was driving away in our blue minivan some loser marathon runners raising money for charity were blocking the road. Those goody-two-shoes. I opened the window and yelled at them to get the heck out of the way. They didn't move. So I cranked the steering wheel left and started driving on a grass path, as people shouted for me to stop. After a bit of driving some police stopped me. I looked back and there was a large crowd of First Nations and TV reporters there to confront me. Apparently I was driving on some ancient sacred ground. I told the police where to go, and drove off home. This was the worst concert practice ever.
And then I woke up.
Yes, I've been reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment lately. Eleven years ago when I read it I dreamt I was beating my dog to death. Now I am having a full out Raskolnikov-esque meltdown. That book. I tell you.
I hope concert practice goes a little better today.
We had a concert practice scheduled. I looked over and a whole flock of parents started showing up to watch. Did they get the dates of the show mixed up? I scrambled to get chairs out for them. We began the concert practice. I was trying to play a computer song file accompaniment but the darn thing wouldn't work. So I tried my backup CD instead. But it would only play Oasis' Wonderwall. In a panic I switched to another CD. Wonderwall came on again. This was getting crazy! So I decided to switch to the song where I play guitar and sing a long with the students. The mic stopped working and so the kids at first were singing way ahead of me, and then they were singing a different song all together. The parents were laughing. I wasn't! All this work for this?!? Then I realized I had forgotten how to play guitar. I was scrambling for a D chord, but my fingers could not grab the guitar properly. I was like our little girl Emilie trying to awkwardly hold on to an object. So I started strumming the guitar without any chords. It was horrible! And why on earth were we practicing outside all of a sudden? One student came up with a snowball. I yelled at him: "No throwing snowballs!" He threw it away. Well that was too much. I just lit into him! I crushed the kid with yelling. His poor face was shell-shocked. That was enough. Away I stomped.
Feeling some remorse for how I yelled at him, the disappointment in me made things worse. Becca then showed up with the kids in the van to take me home. I angrily asked her why she was late. She looked puzzled. Well I had enough of that. I kicked her and the kids out of the van and said I was driving home alone. They could walk. I got into the driver's seat and noticed I was unshaven and unkept. A veritable maniac. As I was driving away in our blue minivan some loser marathon runners raising money for charity were blocking the road. Those goody-two-shoes. I opened the window and yelled at them to get the heck out of the way. They didn't move. So I cranked the steering wheel left and started driving on a grass path, as people shouted for me to stop. After a bit of driving some police stopped me. I looked back and there was a large crowd of First Nations and TV reporters there to confront me. Apparently I was driving on some ancient sacred ground. I told the police where to go, and drove off home. This was the worst concert practice ever.
And then I woke up.
Yes, I've been reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment lately. Eleven years ago when I read it I dreamt I was beating my dog to death. Now I am having a full out Raskolnikov-esque meltdown. That book. I tell you.
I hope concert practice goes a little better today.
18 December 2014
Once again life has been way too busy. That means the best I can muster up is a points to ponder post.
1) Concert - Over and Out
The Christmas Concert is over! People show up, have a great time, and then go home. But in reality there is far too much work put into it. For instance, my class performed a five minute song where we took famous songs and made them Christmasy. I had this project in my head since the summer time. I would be jack hammering concrete and thinking about what songs I could use, and how I could transition them with the proper chord progression. We ended up using the following:
Can't Help Falling in Love
I Will Wait
Brown Eyed Girl
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Waving Flag
Anyway, the kids performed extremely well and I'm proud of them. They got to be rock stars for one night, and they enjoyed it tremendously. But it was also great for them to experience just how much work is required to do anything well. A good lesson.
2) You Know You Teach at an Elementary School When...
...the evening concert is delayed by a couple of minutes because one of the kindergartners is going potty.
3) Concert Reviews
What I hate about the concert are the reviews. You see in Tisdale the concert is a big time show (there's not a lot going on). People are very eager to compare it to the previous concerts. They want to analyze the songs, the production value, the everything. They want to heap praise if it's great, and speak negatively if it isn't. It's a show. While I'm thankful that everything went extremely well, the whole show aspect to me could not be any further from the reality of what Christmas is all about. Christmas is the humblest of events. God becoming man. Born to poor parents. Born in a stable. Born small, and yet infinitely awesome. The whole story is great in part because of the profound humility of God; of how His humility is supposed to hit us straight between the eyes. But with the concert we are left merely to discuss a show, and only a show. Of course I threw in many references into the concert which emphasized the true meaning of Christmas. And obviously there are some who appreciate being able to come together to, in an innocent and youthful way, celebrate the coming of Christmas (which was the intent of the concert). But all in all, what matters in Tisdale is the entertainment value. I guess that's show biz.
4) You Know You Teach at an Elementary School When... (pt. 2)
...the day after an evening concert there are no fewer than 12 "injuries" in my phys ed classes. Also, there are close to 20 different kids I have to deal with who have tear-filled meltdowns (yes even grade 5ers). Tired much?
*Sigh*
Needless to say, they didn't get much sympathy from me.
5) Belated Birthday
Pope Francis had a birthday on the 17th. Off the top of my head... that would make him... 78(?).
Think about that for a moment.
78. I've never been 78, but if I was 78 I bet I'd be doing a whole lot of nothing. I might still be golfing, with a cart. I might even be cutting my own grass. But I certainly wouldn't be doing the most important job on the planet. Heck, I wouldn't even be the most important person in my house.
Anyway, happy birthday. I hope someone made you spring rolls (that's why I'm not the most important person in my house).
6) Rock and Roll Mass
I wonder what they put in the incense here. This is from Father Z's blog. I've heard about such things, but I honestly didn't expect it to be this awful. It was a Rock Mass for Love from March 21st, 1971. It comes from Perth, Australia.
7) Christmas Cheer
Who's ready for Christmas!?!
This guy!
It doesn't hurt that a two week holiday is starting on Friday (at 3:25pm to be exact)
1) Concert - Over and Out
The Christmas Concert is over! People show up, have a great time, and then go home. But in reality there is far too much work put into it. For instance, my class performed a five minute song where we took famous songs and made them Christmasy. I had this project in my head since the summer time. I would be jack hammering concrete and thinking about what songs I could use, and how I could transition them with the proper chord progression. We ended up using the following:
Can't Help Falling in Love
I Will Wait
Brown Eyed Girl
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Waving Flag
Anyway, the kids performed extremely well and I'm proud of them. They got to be rock stars for one night, and they enjoyed it tremendously. But it was also great for them to experience just how much work is required to do anything well. A good lesson.
2) You Know You Teach at an Elementary School When...
...the evening concert is delayed by a couple of minutes because one of the kindergartners is going potty.
3) Concert Reviews
What I hate about the concert are the reviews. You see in Tisdale the concert is a big time show (there's not a lot going on). People are very eager to compare it to the previous concerts. They want to analyze the songs, the production value, the everything. They want to heap praise if it's great, and speak negatively if it isn't. It's a show. While I'm thankful that everything went extremely well, the whole show aspect to me could not be any further from the reality of what Christmas is all about. Christmas is the humblest of events. God becoming man. Born to poor parents. Born in a stable. Born small, and yet infinitely awesome. The whole story is great in part because of the profound humility of God; of how His humility is supposed to hit us straight between the eyes. But with the concert we are left merely to discuss a show, and only a show. Of course I threw in many references into the concert which emphasized the true meaning of Christmas. And obviously there are some who appreciate being able to come together to, in an innocent and youthful way, celebrate the coming of Christmas (which was the intent of the concert). But all in all, what matters in Tisdale is the entertainment value. I guess that's show biz.
4) You Know You Teach at an Elementary School When... (pt. 2)
...the day after an evening concert there are no fewer than 12 "injuries" in my phys ed classes. Also, there are close to 20 different kids I have to deal with who have tear-filled meltdowns (yes even grade 5ers). Tired much?
*Sigh*
Needless to say, they didn't get much sympathy from me.
5) Belated Birthday
Pope Francis had a birthday on the 17th. Off the top of my head... that would make him... 78(?).
Think about that for a moment.
78. I've never been 78, but if I was 78 I bet I'd be doing a whole lot of nothing. I might still be golfing, with a cart. I might even be cutting my own grass. But I certainly wouldn't be doing the most important job on the planet. Heck, I wouldn't even be the most important person in my house.
Anyway, happy birthday. I hope someone made you spring rolls (that's why I'm not the most important person in my house).
6) Rock and Roll Mass
I wonder what they put in the incense here. This is from Father Z's blog. I've heard about such things, but I honestly didn't expect it to be this awful. It was a Rock Mass for Love from March 21st, 1971. It comes from Perth, Australia.
7) Christmas Cheer
Who's ready for Christmas!?!
This guy!
It doesn't hurt that a two week holiday is starting on Friday (at 3:25pm to be exact)
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