Songs in their Hearts & Strings in their Hands!

Dear Friend,

On behalf of our organization as well as the children and teachers who will be making music because of your contribution, thank you so much for making the choice to give this project your support! These are precarious times for charitable work and each decision you make in favor of helping us- or any charity you like- is immensely important. It tells your friends and family that you stand for good. That you are not going to live life on the sidelines. That you are going to alleviate suffering and support what improves the quality of other human lives. And you have decided in funding GITC that this must include the arts. Thank you so much.

We are heading into the holiday season now with new classes on the horizon because of you. Not just classes, but new songs- ones that will increase language learning and literacy. The work in Hampton, Virginia, for example has really taken off! You can read about it in this report.

37 of you contributed to this project. Each one of you has done something that matters. Of particular note, I would like to thank Peter D'Addario and Joan Maute for contributing very significant matching funds to this campaign, and to Whitney Kroenke, Jasmin Powell, Art Harvey, Janet Godin, Della Peretti, Nathan Davis, and GITC friend, Kevin Wimer and his company, www.jamplay.com for pushing this campaign across the finish line. Thank you so much to you teachers, friends of teachers and family members who gave! We could not have raised $5,000 in such a short time without you all! Thank you!!

Now. instead of giving you platitudes, please allow me to complete this report by sharing a note I received day before yesterday from our program in Vista, Calfiornia. This in addition to the article from Hampton, Virginia will paint a pretty accurate picture of what is going on in the teacher training classes.

Vista Academy is a Title 1 (low income) school with a positive mission to learn through the arts. No matter how scarce their funding grows, the teachers are passionately dedicated to teaching and to their students and families. This fall they are taking GITC training for the first time. To understand how your contribution will matter to so many more people, please read what Margaret Welch, the GITC trainer in Vista has to say about her program.

Thank you again for being a part of Guitars in the Classroom in everything we are attempting to accomplish each day. We can do this as long as we stick together!

With endless gratitude,

Jess

The Note

                                                                                                                November 23, 2013

Hi Jess,

We have been busy in Vista.  We did not have class the week of our parent conferences.  But last Monday's class was our 6th class.  We have had no "drop outs," and in fact have gained a new member or two.  All of the guitars are being used, and we are in good shape.  Everyone is tuning their own guitar.

Our newest member is the person who will start teaching our school's music class after Thanksgiving.  She plays some guitar, and wondered about the open G.  We talked and I explained the program, and she thought it was great.  So she has joined us.  She is enjoying learning the open G chords, and is having a great time with us.  She has invited the teachers in the guitar class to bring their guitars to the music class with their students, and wants my input so we can coordinate.

Jolene, our lefty, is LOVING her lefty guitar.  It is amazing that the Godin people were able to send it. She wants to send a thank you letter.

Some interesting updates:  Our principal is totally into this.  She has been practicing her guitar at home, and her 2 kids now want to learn guitar.  She and two of our teachers from the class were in a meeting. She had already told me she had a meeting and would miss guitar class.  But, a couple of minutes later, in the three of them walked.  I was surprised.  After class the principal told me they were in the meeting when she looked at the clock and announced to all, "Well, I have to leave.  It is time for guitar class."  So great!

Our speech teacher has been using her guitar to piggy back simple songs for the speech skills with her students, and loves their participation when they are singing.

The ELD coordinator is starting the little class with the kindergarteners and their parents.  She is loving the Amigos materials and other GITC ideas.  We are coordinating, and I am helping her with piggyback words for some concepts.  She is leading the singing, and the other teacher who is doing the story part is one of our regular guitar members.  GITC has really enriched that whole  kindergarten ELD class.  Very exciting!

Our class played some cute Thanksgiving and Halloween songs, and played them with their classes.  They can now play The Lion Sleeps Tonight and the Addition and Subtraction songs to I've Been Working on the Railroad.  We have been doing the shuffle strum.  I made the eggs by digging out our plastic Easter eggs from our garage and filling them with rice.  Nice device for the shuffle rhythm.

One of the teachers wants to be able to play Izz's Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  Online I found the chords for his original version, too hard for our group.  But I also found a version in the key of G which we will be able to play after I teach them the C major and Em, so that is where we are headed.  If we put the capo at the fifth fret and don't strum the bass strings, it sounds a lot like a ukelele.  I am also very excited to get into the 12 bar blues in about 2 weeks.  I have a friend, a former VAPA teacher who now is at the high school, who plays bass.  I plan to surprise the class by having him come play bass with us as we have a blues jam in a few of weeks.  Wouldn't that be fun??

Have a great Thanksgiving.  I am glad to have the week off.  So busy.  So ready for a break.

Hugs,
Margaret

Links:

• new article on the Virginia program