Welcome to a brand new school year!
This is going to be a great year! There is a lot of change at Calapooia and I’m excited to embark on this new adventure with you! This summer my family and I took a five week trip across the country in an RV! We saw a lot of amazing sites and learned so much about our beautiful country! I am so excited to be back in our comfortable temperatures and ready to begin my 17th year teaching and seeing all of my amazing kids again!
Each individual choir member is an important part of the whole. I like the analogy of a puzzle: each piece of a puzzle has to be present and with the right part of the picture on it to make the puzzle complete! Each choir member is a piece of our puzzle. We all have to be ready, give our best and work together to complete the task set before us! Our task is creating music and moving our audience as we perform it!
This handbook contains everything you need to know about the year. Please read everything. The last two pages list important dates and include an agreement to follow all expectations. Please read this thoroughly!. I will try to send home monthly newsletters this year, on paper and via e-mail, as well as keep my website updated (it is linked to the Calapooia homepage.)
Please don't hesitate to contact me about anything! I am looking forward to fantastic year! I can't wait to get this year rollin’!
Sincerely,
Margo DeYoung
Welcome to a brand new year! I’m so glad to have your child in class and apart of a growing and exciting program here at Calapooia. I will quickly go over the what you should have already seen and what you will hopefully see in the future!
1) I will send out monthly newsletters—hard copies with your child and electronic ones via e-mail and my website. Look for those near the beginning of each month.
2) You should have already read the choir handbook, signed the back and sent that back in with your e-mail address. You haven’t received an e-mail from me, please contact me so I can make sure I’m sending it to the correct person!
3) T-shirt have been ordered! I did ask for students to purchase their own shirts this year as we have grown and I don’t have the budget for this purchase. I will make the design such that we can reuse these shirts for years to come. So if you ordered one this year you can use it again next year, unless you need to order a new size. If you haven’t paid for your child's shirt I will check one out to them on performance days and that will need to be returned immediately after the performance to me. If you are still planning to send money in, I will gladly accept that and be able to give your child a shirt to keep!
4) The “Informance” in coming up in less than a week! I’m asking students to arrive at 6:45 p.m. This event will start at 7:00 p.m. Everyone, including parents will be involved in the first half of this evening =)! (Bring your singing voice!) Then each group will perform two songs for you. This is a fun way to kick off the year and get things started! It takes place in the Cafeteria at Calapooia! Hope to see everyone here!
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to be involved in helping with something or if you have questions! E-mail is fastest: margo.deyoung@albany.k12.or.us (541)967-4555.
Thank you for sharing your kids with me!
Time flies when you’re having fun! It has been a busy last three months with the musical and a fantastic choir performance! I apologize for my limited communication during these months. You should hear form me more regularly between now and the end of the year! Here are a few details about what is to come:
1) This Thursday—The 5th graders from our feeder schools will come to learn about band and choir. The Beginning Choir and Band will perform for them 1:00-2:00—Please wear Choir shirts and jeans!
2) The OMEA Middle School Choir Festival will be May 12th at Albany First Assembly of God Church. Both choirs will participate and perform the songs you heard in March. As it get closer I will get our performance times to you so you can come support as you are able! This takes place during the school day!
3) Many people are collaborating to support SAHS in light of the recent loss to their campus. There will be a Benefit Concert and Silent Auction on May 20th, where 100% of the proceeds will go to SAHS. I will be running the Silent Auction portion and would LOVE your help! This is your children’s future program!! I am attaching a letter that you can pass out to business owners or anyone interested in supporting the cause! (If you want additional copies I can e-mail or send them with your child!) I will also be asking for help with setting up, running the event and cleaning up. So please be thinking about how you would like to be involved in supporting this!
4) Albany Sings is May 21st and will take place at the Linn County Fair Grounds. This is for Advanced Choir Only. This involves all middle school, high school choirs in Albany and LBCC choirs. It is a terrific event and I will get more information to you as it becomes available!
Thank you for sharing your kids with me!
DECK THE CALENDAR
(DECEMBER)
It was great to meet and talk with so many of you at conferences! I enjoyed getting brag about your amazing kids! Thank you for taking the time to invest your kids!
We have many performances coming up:
· December 9th (7:00 p.m.) at Calapooia—Concert Attire Required. Students report to the choir room at 6:30 p.m.
· December 12th (2nd-6th period) We will tour to 4 elementary school and sing at Heritage Mall 12:30-1:00. We will return to school for lunch time, so not special arrangements need to be made.) Please wear Choir shirts, jeans and comfortable shoes.
· December 15th (1st period) SAHS Rebel Singers/Rebelation! will be sharing an assembly with both choirs.
· December 19th (AM Assembly) both the band and choir will perform for the student body. Please wear Choir shirts, jeans and comfortable shoes.
Thank you for sharing your kids with me!
Other Classes...
It is very important that students stay caught up in other classes! Especially when I ask to pull them out for fun events! Teachers can chose to pull this privilege if students have too many absences or missing assignments
(NOVEMBER)
Coming off a crazy week...and getting right back at it!! We worked hard last week right through the costumes and the fun of it all! Each choir is learning 5 songs total. 2 songs will be sung by both choirs combined. I have also invited Belissima from SAHS to perform at our December Concert. It’s going to be a great evening of fantastic music! Your kids are working VERY hard and will be performing at a high level and some of the songs are very complicated! It will be exciting for you to see their growth. This performance is December 9th at 7:00 at Calapooia….we’ll see you then!
We are kicking off the wreath fundraiser THIS FRIDAY! Kids will come home with a manila envelope with the letter/form attached to the front. Everyone gets a wreath for the holiday season, so make sure to ask all of your family and friends to purchase one from you! They are $20 ($2 more for a bow) and we keep 1/2 of that for the choir. The wreaths are made locally and will be delivered to the school the first week of December!
I look forward to seeing you at conferences:
November 20th (3:30-7:00)
November 24th (7:30-11:30 & 1:00-6:00)
Thank you for sharing your kids with me!
T-Shirts
FINAL CALL… We need to sell 5 more t-shirt for me to even place the order!! Please send in the money and order ASAP if you’re interested!!
All State
Nate Corneleusen, Zoey O’Neill, Annaliese Papesh-Schmidt, Devanee Pappas, Abe Peterson
Welcome to a wonderful year! You’re kids are off to a fantastic start! We have started the year leaning how to sight read rhythms, sing solfege, write learning targets and sing songs of different styles. Students are working hard and doing a great job! We will soon be adding theory and more complicated songs to our daily routines.
The Informance on October 9th will include our first performance. I am wording this differently because I would like it to be apart of the learning process this year. Students will model what we are working on in class. I would like parents to be informed about what Sight Reading is and how your children are learning to do that. The students will start out sitting in the audience with you (parent/guardian). We will warm up, sight read and go over concert etiquette together. (YOU are welcome to participate!!!!) Then each group will perform 2 songs for you. (Maybe more, but we’re running out of time!) So I would encourage you to come to this! By understanding how I teach, what I’m asking of your students and how we are growing as a group this year it will help you to better support your child! I look forward to meeting many of you on October 9th at 7:00 p.m.!
T-Shirts
Most forms have been turned in an I will placing that order this weekend. I am hoping they will arrive before our first performance in October!
All State
I have selected, recorded and will soon be submitting some very talented 8th graders to the application pool! Result should come before Winter Break!
Handbook
Every parent should have read through the handbook and be aware of all choir policies! If not please check out my web-site!