Welcome
During
the school year I will find and post
various links to subjects that the
students have discussed in their
music classes. Some posts are more
entertaining than informative. These
links are an assortment of pages I
have found on the internet. Most are
appropriate for students who can
read. I hope you find these pages
helpful.
Videos from our Veterans Day programs, a community-wide event held every year at the North Daviess High School, are found by clicking on the television icon. |
Our school mascot is a cougar, and this camera icon links to a slideshow featuring lots of cougar pictures that I found on the internet. The Cougar fight song is included. |
Studies have shown that listening to music may influence cognitive function. Here are some links to explore the role that music can play in boosting brainpower. |
NDE Still Feels New
On January 7, 2002 students from the North Daviess community entered their new school building for the first time. The first semester of the school year was spent at three elementary schools in Plainville, Elnora, and Raglesville, Indiana. The new school wasn't even completed in January, but everyone could see that it was going to be a beautiful building.
When I first started teaching in 1980, there were four elementary buildings. In the fall of 1995 the old Odon Elementary was finally closed, and the students were split between the remaining three schools. Because of the lack of classrooms, I lost all four of my music rooms and began teaching from a cart. We called it "music on the move." I discovered that teaching from a cart was a very limiting experience. I taught in the library in one building. The current students have never known anything but the amazing facilities of our new building. They may not remember, but the past eight-plus years have gone by very fast, and I still appreciate the new building and my music classroom as much as I did in 2002, if not more.
“The mission of North Daviess Elementary is to develop ethical, productive citizens by providing a nurturing environment promoting lifelong learning, independence, individuality, and respect for others.”
-Mission Statement
NORTH DAVIESS STUDENTS ARE COMPOSERS!
At the
beginning of
Spring
Semester
2011, the
upper grades
(4-6) of
North
Daviess
Elementary
started
writing
lyrics for
the assigned
theme--THE
MONTHS OF
THE YEAR.
After
listing
their
thoughts
about their
assigned
month,
students
wrote
sentences
which were
combined by
the class as
a group in a
poem. All
students
contributed
at least one
line or more
to the song.
After getting the poems written, Mrs. McAtee found demo songs from the program BAND IN A BOX. The chord structures of these songs were the basis of the melody for the students' poems. The program makes it easy to add intros, change chords, or add as many verses as desired.
Once the melody was completed, Mrs. McAtee arranged the verses to fit the melody created. We recorded all the vocals on a $60 microphone, a Clavinova piano, and an iPad with a VocaLive Free App. We only used 20 minutes to record each song!
Mrs. McAtee has been mixing the vocals and instrumental tracks over the summer using Sony ACID Music Studio. The first one, "January," is now finished and is available for download. Yes, I know our voices have southern accents and not all have perfectly perfect pitches, but I'm very proud of my classes!
"January" Vocal Track - By Mrs. Crooks' 2011 5th Gr. Classes
"January" Instrumental Track - In case you want to sing it yourself!
"January" Lyrics Only Page Right click the link and save or choose open in Google Documents.
"January" Melody and Lyrics Page Right click the link and save or choose open in Google Documents.
No. Daviess Elementary
5498 E. State Road 58
Elnora, IN 47529
Email: Click here
Phone: (812) 636-8000
Fax: (812) 636-7444