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March 30, 2007
If you're interested contact Carol Doemel at Carol.Doemel@Cobbk12.org
Posted by Doemel at 11:48 AM
March 28, 2007
PLEASE return the CCSD "Permission To Participate In Overnight Trips" form (IFCB-6), the notarized medical release form (IFCB-5. Our secretary will notarize it for free) and front/back copy of your insurance card now.
There will be a parent information meeting on Tuesday, April 10th at 7pm in the Mabry Theater regarding our Spring Trip.
Posted by Doemel at 11:29 AM
The 8th grade orchestra will have a playing test on Monday, April 9th. The material is the 2 octave F Major scale and arpeggio, #134,135 in the Essential Techniques III book.
Posted by Doemel at 08:13 AM
The Mabry Symphony will rehearse tomorrow morning at 8AM. Please arrive before 8 so we can begin on time.
Posted by Doemel at 08:07 AM
March 20, 2007
Science Daily - A newly published study by Northwestern University researchers suggests that Mom was right when she insisted that you continue music lessons -- even after it was clear that a professional music career was not in your future.
The study, which will appear in the April issue of Nature Neuroscience, is the first to provide concrete evidence that playing a musical instrument significantly enhances the brainstem's sensitivity to speech sounds. This finding has broad implications because it applies to sound encoding skills involved not only in music but also in language.
The findings indicate that experience with music at a young age in effect can "fine-tune" the brain's auditory system. "Increasing music experience appears to benefit all children -- whether musically exceptional or not -- in a wide range of learning activities," says Nina Kraus, director of Northwestern's Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory and senior author of the study.
"Our findings underscore the pervasive impact of musical training on neurological development. Yet music classes are often among the first to be cut when school budgets get tight. That's a mistake," says Kraus, Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology and Physiology and professor of communication sciences and disorders.
"Our study is the first to ask whether enhancing the sound environment -- in this case with musical training -- will positively affect the way an individual encodes sound even at a level as basic as the brainstem," says Patrick Wong, primary author of "Musical Experience Shapes Human Brainstem Encoding of Linguistic Pitch Patterns." An old structure from an evolutionary standpoint, the brainstem once was thought to only play a passive role in auditory processing.
Using a novel experimental design, the researchers presented the Mandarin word "mi" to 20 adults as they watched a movie. Half had at least six years of musical instrument training starting before the age of 12. The other half had minimal (less than 2 years) or no musical training. All were native English speakers with no knowledge of Mandarin, a tone language.
In tone languages, a single word can differ in meaning depending on pitch patterns called "tones." For example, the Mandarin word "mi" delivered in a level tone means "to squint," in a rising tone means "to bewilder," and in a dipping (falling then rising) tone means "rice." English, on the other hand, only uses pitch to reflect intonation (as when rising pitch is used in questions).
As the subjects watched the movie, the researchers used electrophysiological methods to measure and graph the accuracy of their brainstem ability to track the three differently pitched "mi" sounds.
"Even with their attention focused on the movie and though the sounds had no linguistic or musical meaning for them, we found our musically trained subjects were far better at tracking the three different tones than the non-musicians," says Wong, director of Northwestern's Speech Research Laboratory and assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders.
The research by co-authors Wong, Kraus, Erika Skoe, Nicole Russo and Tasha Dees represents a new way of defining the relationship between the brainstem -- a lower order brain structure thought to be unchangeable and uninvolved in complex processing -- and the neocortex, a higher order brain structure associated with music, language and other complex processing.
These findings are in line with previous studies by Wong and his group suggesting that musical experience can improve one's ability to learn tone languages in adulthood and level of musical experience plays a role in the degree of activation in the auditory cortex. Wong also is a faculty member in Northwestern's Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program.
The findings also are consistent with studies by Kraus and her research team that have revealed anomalies in brainstem sound encoding in some children with learning disabilities which can be improved by auditory training.
"We've found that by playing music -- an action thought of as a function of the neocortex -- a person may actually be tuning the brainstem," says Kraus. "This suggests that the relationship between the brainstem and neocortex is a dynamic and reciprocal one and tells us that our basic sensory circuitry is more malleable than we previously thought."
Overall, the findings assist in unfolding new lines of inquiry. The researchers now are looking to find ways to "train" the brain to better encode sound -- work that potentially has far-reaching educational and clinical implications. The study was supported by Northwestern University, grants from the National Institutes of Health and a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Posted by Doemel at 10:57 PM
March 13, 2007
Right now I'm listening to the Mabry 8th Grade Orchestra performance with Barrage the other night. And I'm incredibly proud of them. I hope they realize the skills they have and that they will continue to grow and keep music-making a part of their lives.
I also listened to Crooked Still and the Wild Band of Snee tonight, because Rushad will be here next Thursday. He'll be playing 2 'shows'. The first @1:35, the 2nd @ 2:45.
The shows are
open to the public. Check in at the front office and come to the theater at the times above.
Posted by Doemel at 10:28 PM
As of 3/13 at 8:56pm, all practice records I have received have been entered into I-Cue (and will show up in I-Parent).
Posted by Doemel at 10:09 PM
To see the 8th grade orchestra performance at the Barrage concert and to see the 11Alive news story click the link below.
Posted by Doemel at 12:27 PM
March 12, 2007
were due today.
Posted by Doemel at 04:42 PM
The 2002 federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation names arts education as part of the “core curriculum” for schools, on par with reading, math and science. This legislation underscores research that supports music education as a critical component to the overall educational experience of our youth. By listing the arts among the core academic subjects, NCLB established a goal that all students have the opportunity to achieve in the arts, and reap the benefits of a comprehensive, creative, innovative education.
Even with this policy directive outlining the role of arts and music education in schools, the federal legislation has not made its way to state and local schools. As a result, more than 22 percent of schools surveyed nationally have reduced instructional time for music and art. Parents, employers and community leaders expect schools to prepare children to be creative and successful in the information age, and still, there is a discrepancy in many schools between the curriculum and desired outcomes for student learning, particularly in the areas of arts and music education.
Legislators need to know that their constituents support and believe that music education in schools is vital to ensuring a quality education for all children. As Congress begins to consider reauthorization of No Child Left Behind legislation, we must demonstrate our commitment at the federal, state and local levels to making sure students have the opportunity to learn music and arts in school, and to expand their minds through more creative and innovative education.
By communicating your views to your Member of Congress, you are taking a critical first step to ensuring a commitment to arts education. By demonstrating community support across the country, we can encourage legislators to not only reauthorize NCLB legislation with language that strengthens access to music and arts education, but to also strengthen the federal commitment to ensure that a quality arts curriculum is implemented nationwide.
Please take a moment today to tell your Member of Congress that reauthorization of No Child Left Behind must continue to support and strengthen our national commitment to the arts, both in theory and in practice, in schools across the country.
Posted by Doemel at 04:41 PM
March 07, 2007
Is our trip to the Woodruff Arts Center on Wednesday, March 14th to attend a performance by the Atlanta Symphony. We need to leave by 9AM to get to Woodruff in time. Chaperones please be here no later than 8:40. Check in at the front office and come back to the orchestra room. Students need to bring $6 or so for lunch at Colony Square. Casual but nice dress is appropriate. No shorts, t-shirts or torn clothing. We'll be back before 2PM.
Posted by Doemel at 01:18 PM
March 06, 2007
Below is a link to the newscast about the Barrage event last week.
http://www.11alive.com/news/education/article_education.aspx?storyid=93350
(I could only get it to show the video on Netscape and Internet Explorer, not Safari or Firefox.)
Click on Donna Lowry Reports
You need Windows Media Player to view it, which you can download for free.
Thanks to Emily's Dad for his time and energy in getting this on the air.
Click on the picture above for a larger view.
Posted by Doemel at 09:49 PM
March 02, 2007
Posted by Doemel at 10:53 PM
This went home in a letter dated 2/15 but here it is again.
Mabry Seventh and Eighth Grade Orchestra Students will participate in the Cobb Orchestra Directors Association (C.O.D.A.) Middle School Orchestra Festival at Dodgen Middle School. The Seventh Grade Orchestra will perform on Monday, March 5th at 6:25 p.m. and the Eighth Grade Orchestra will perform on Tuesday, March 6th at 7:15 p.m.
This is an important performance and all students are expected to participate. The performances are open to the public and you are encouraged to attend.
We will have a pizza dinner at Mabry before we leave for Dodgen. Dinner will be provided with funds from our fall fundraiser. We will leave Mabry after dinner and travel by school bus to Dodgen. The Cobb County Board of Education provides school buses free of charge for transportation to festival.
IMPORTANT There is no return transportation provided. Please arrange pick-up from Dodgen at 8:30 P.M. Most of you will be at the performance and will provide transportation home for your child.
IMPORTANT Students using school-owned instruments must return the instrument to Mabry by 9:00 a.m. the next morning.
IMPORTANT Students will bring their concert uniform with them to school on festival morning. Concert dress for boys is solid black slacks, long sleeve white dress shirt with long tie, black socks and black or dark dress shoes. Concert dress for the girls is a long (ankle length or longer) solid black skirt or black slacks, long sleeve white dress shirt and black or dark dress shoes. Please adhere to these guidelines closely. This is an important performance for these young musicians and they should dress appropriately.
As always, we need parent chaperones for this field trip. If you can ride the bus to Dodgen with us, or provide transportation for string basses and cellos please contact me at Chris.Doemel@Cobbk12.org
Your children and the Cobb County Orchestra Directors put tremendous effort into producing this festival. Students should be practicing diligently on their festival music. We hope you will come out and support them at this exciting event. We look forward to seeing you at our 11th Annual C.O.D.A. Festival.
Posted by Doemel at 04:34 PM
