First Day of School Schedule Wednesday, September 4th , 2013

(All times are approximate)

DAY 12345

7:00a.m.- 7:25a.m.- Students must report to school-wide advisory classroom.  

7:25a.m.- 8:45a.m.-  School-Wide Advisory Rooms

Period 1 - 8:00a.m. - 9:00a.m.

- Students report to period 1

- Seniors report to the Auditorium

Period 2 - 9:04a.m. - 10:04a.m.

- Students report to period 2

- Juniors report to the Auditorium

Period 3 - 10:08a.m. - 11:08a.m.

- Students report to period 3

- Sophomores report to the Auditorium

Period 4 - 11:08a.m. - 12:50p.m.

• 1st lunch - 11:08a.m. -11:32a.m.
• 2nd lunch - 11:47p.m. -12:11p.m.
• 3rd  lunch - 12:26p.m. -12:50p.m.

Period 5 - 12:50p.m. - 1:55 p.m.

Communication

Some of you may have gathered that I am a fan of blogging. As a matter of fact, this blog is the home base of communication with our GHS Music Community. On this page you will find links to music, recordings, assignments, calendar, etc. I don't send home pieces of paper, or limit communication to verbal requests during class time. I do my best to be as open and transparent in communicating expectations and information throughout the school year as I can possibly be. My hope is that students and parents will also feel free to communicate with me throughout the school year to address any concerns or issues that might arise.

In addition to this blog, I also maintain a twitter account and an email mailing list. I want to get the message to where you are. I am always interested in exploring new ways to get the message out so feel free to pass along ideas.

I encourage you to subscribe to the blog to receive email updates, follow on twitter (@GraftonBAND) to get messages on the go and always feel free to contact me with any questions.

School Committee Gives Preliminary Approval for Trip

We can start moving forward with our plans for Virginia Beach after last night's school committee meeting. The committee voted 5-0 to grant approval for the trip. We will make one more presentation for the trip when the itinerary and all protocols are fully in place, but for now things look good.

We have set aside the dates of May 8-11 for our trip to the Music in the Parks festival. All students who are members in good standing of the concert band, chorus, and chamber choir will be eligible to participate in the trip. The trip is not a required component of any of these courses, but we encourage students to participate in what is sure to be a memorable high school experience.

As the school year gets under way, we will present more detailed information about the trip (payment info, fundraising opportunities, medical contingencies, etc) and continue to shape the itinerary. We will also be making a call for parent chaperones. If you are a parent and think you might be interested, please let me know. (you would not be making a commitment at this time, I just want to get a sense of interest)

Welcome Back!!

I know this post might seem a bit premature, but you'll get over it. We are just about to get underway with the 2013-2014 school year. Many of you are probably just checking out what your summer reading list looks like. A number of you are protectively nestling your iPad as you recover from the long separation of summer. Others are looking in closets for the location of the carefully stowed instrument you will need on day 1 when you return. Yes, that is right, you will need your instrument the first day we meet in band. Over the next few days and into next week, you will also notice some new links and posts on the blog about helping you to get off on the right foot this year. By this coming weekend there should be links to much of the music we will be studying and performing this year.

Other things to consider:

• Pep Band will meet on Wednesday afternoons until 3pm. The first meeting will be on Wednesday the 4th.
• Jazz Ensemble will get up and running within the first few weeks of school. Watch for announcements and posts with more information.
• The music calendar can be found adjacent to this posting in the right column. Dates for music activities are already up, please check them out.
• Subscribe to this blog. You will get all of these informative posts sent right to your door (if your door was the email account you subscribed with)
• Follow Grafton music on Twitter @GraftonBAND I often tweet out links to blog posts as well as reminders, musical musings and some favorite quotes.
• Guest blogging: This year I would love to post your thoughts within this forum. If you are interested in authoring a music oriented blog post, please let me know.

I am looking forward to seeing you all in the next couple of weeks.