Music Instruction

All students are required to participate in the enriching Suzuki Charter School music program.  This program allows all students access to three half-hour instrument group lessons on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, as well as two thirty minute choral classes each week.  Students are to come to school with their instruments on these days.  Please arrange a safe storage area for their instruments.  Our trained Suzuki music staff provides group instruction for violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, guitar, flute and recorder.  For students wishing more challenge, quartets or other small ensemble groups are offered.  Children are given many opportunities to perform at monthly assemblies featuring different instruments in a variety of combinations.  Public concerts are held in venues outside the school.

School group lessons are not a substitute for a student’s one-on-one individual lessons and their own private lesson group activities offered.  It is vital that all students be enrolled in private Suzuki music lessons, not provided by the school, in conjunction with school group lessons, provided by the school, in order to keep up with the method of learning received at school group lessons.

A number of music organizations share the same premises but are entities unto themselves and separate from Suzuki Charter School.  The Society for Talent Education (Strings) and the Edmonton Suzuki Piano School have their offices in the north wing.  These Suzuki organizations and a number of independent Suzuki music teachers use our rooms as well to teach private lessons.

Like our students, parents are vital to our program and to the learning process.  They are to be warmly welcomed to sit in on group lessons, assemblies, and other performances as well as in any academic class.

Assemblies

Assemblies, a time to celebrate student musical achievement, are scheduled once a month.  The Beginning of the Year assembly is on the first day of the school year at 11:00 a.m.  Each academic teacher will have a turn or two hosting each month’s proceedings.  You will be in charge of organizing the agenda, as well as setting up the gym and seeing that everything is back in order following the assembly.  The general format is music and finally any pertinent announcements or acknowledgements.  Please ensure that your students visit the washrooms before the assembly begins so that they don’t interrupt the concert in progress.  All students and staff are encouraged to wear their school t-shirts.
 

Concerts

Concerts, in and out of school, are a culmination of hard work by students, teachers, and parents. Please remind students to wear concert dress (white tops; black bottoms) the day before any performance. You will be expected to supervise students before, during and directly following the concerts for the safety and security of all Suzuki Charter School children and ensure that students behave courteously at the concert venues.

Rehearsals

Before concerts, students will be required to attend preparatory rehearsals involving all or the majority of students in the school.  All teachers are expected to assist the music teachers with general small group management to help rehearsals run smoothly.  This means that you will be needed in the gym during these final rehearsal times assisting a specific music group and teacher.

Integration of Music in the Classroom

Take time out to know what the music theme is as it changes three times per year and incorporate it into your classroom day where or whenever possible.  Following are some ideas to help you get inspired and create more exciting ways of integrating music in the classroom:

• Play Suzuki repertoire, classical music, group lesson and choral repertoire music in the classroom as much as possible.  Dr. Suzuki discovered that the more the children were immersed in music listening the greater progress they made in their music studies.  Why not play music before school begins, filing in and out at recess, during silent reading time, art, or math, or as background music?
• Do an art project related to each theme.
• Language arts lend itself well to writing their experiences or gathering information about any aspect of the theme.
• Math lends itself to sorting skills using notes, composers, pieces, etc.
• Classroom management is easily handled with clapping rhythms for attention, or playing sections of dramatic music for different activity changes. 
• Install a music-composing program on your computer and have students work on it as an extension project.
• Please take pictures of your projects on the digital camera, as we would love documentation of the many ways we provide a music education at our school for our records.
• Find creative ways of integrating themes into every subject and reference it for the children.

Alberta Initiative for School Improvement Projects (AISI)

All AISI funding will go towards music enrichment.  Cycle Four will focus on music and technology integration. Each project will focus instrument skills, cognitive learning, group cohesiveness and music assessment.  Music themes for this year include Baroque Music and Jazz Music.  Funding will also be set aside to explore more effective ways of assessing music development and developing curriculum to help each child continue to improve their learning via the Suzuki method.