posted on 7/11/08

Welcome to a New School Year!

    Independence starts the 2008-09 school year on Thu., July 17. I know students, parents & teachers are all looking forward to another great year of learning at our great school! Our Music program is getting started right away - if you (or your child) is a 4th or 5th grader this year, you should check out the Singing Eagles Choir Page for info on joining Choir!

    There'll be lots of exciting things going on in Mr. McDade's room this year, so stay tuned to this website for the latest! One change in our Music program that you should plan ahead for is a change for our annual Talent Show - we have moved the Talent Show from late in the school year year in April to October of this year (Oct. 27 & Oct. 28). So, singers & dancers & actors & instrument players & comedians & any other kinds of talented people - start practicing! Tryouts for the Talent Show will be Oct. 20, 21 & 22, which will be here before you know it!

    I'm looking forward to an AWESOME year, so - see you at school!

posted on 6/6/08

New Video Page on Website!

    Parents & students, check out the NEW Video Page on our Independence Music Website & Wiki: Video Page  Right now on the Video Page there are videos of some of our 4th Graders who created their own harmonies and arrangements of our favorite recorder songs; a blues song by Mrs. Tosto's 5th Graders; and a terrific performance of "Amazing Grace" at the Talent Show by four of our talented 4th Graders. Look next year for more videos of classroom musical activities!

Music at Independence Elementary finishes another great school year!

    The 2007-08 school year finished on Mon. June 2, with the traditional rockin' send-off to the buses by Mr. McDade & his electric guitar!  The strains of "School's Out" & (I Just Wanna) "Bang On the Drum All Day" sent our students off to summer vacation, concluding another great year of learning at Independence. Highlights of the year in Music at Independence this year included:

• an interactive whiteboard (aka as a SMARTBoard) being installed in Mr. McDade's classroom, opening up a world of exciting learning opportunities for Mr. McDade's students (see more on SMARTBoards below)
• students actively learning about music through the use of interactive musical websites. See Mr. McDade's collection of links to interactive music websites at www.ikeepbookmarks.com/mcdade
• students of all ages become more engaged in creating their own musical compositions, through interactive websites such as the popular site "Drumsteps": Drumsteps
• our 4th Graders became expert recorder players this year, earning more Recorder Karate belts than ever! Mr. McDade had over 25 students earn their Black Belt this year, far more than any year before!  Mr. Gibbs 4th Gr. classes also had several students earn their Black Belt this year. One reason for the high level of achievement in recorder playing this year was students accessing our Recorder Page from home in order to print out, listen to and learn new songs on their own.
• our 4th & 5th Graders started participating in "Web 2.0" learning activities by creating a collaborative online Music Glossary. This is an ongoing project that will continue in the 08-09 school year. Check it out at: Independence Elementary Musical Definitions
• our 1st Graders put on a great show called "The Cheese Stands Alone", with a message that reinforced our school's Character Education goals.

• our Independence Singing Eagles Choir had another great year, singing at a St. Louis Cardinals' game, putting on a successful holiday concert in December, and performing a tribute to Broadway musicals in our spring concert. We also encored our Broadway show in a performance at the opening of the Francis Howell Elementary Schools Art Show at the St. Charles Foundry Art Centre.  See pictures of our Choir's performance at the Foundry Art Centre here: Picture Gallery

posted 1/26/08

    We now have a SMARTBoard (© SMART Technologies ULC) in Mr. McDade's classroom! This amazing educational tool is already keeping Mr. McDade & his students busy! Far from being just an expensive toy for the classroom, a SMARTBoard can fundamentally change the way teaching and learning happen. An amazing feature of SMARTBoards are that they are interactive, meaning that students can go to the SMARTBoard and touch it, using their finger like a mouse on a computer screen. This allows students to take words & objects on the screen & move, change, transform & interact with them in ways never possible before. In addition, our SMARTBoard is connected to the internet, so we can explore the vast world of learning resources online.

    Much of what we have been doing so far with our SMARTBoard has been working with interactive websites that help students learn musical concepts, or allow them to gain an understanding of music by creating their own musical compositions. One of the students' favorite websites that we've been using is Drumsteps (click on the word "Drumsteps" to go to the site). Have your child show you what fun Drumsteps can be!

    If you've never seen a SMARTBoard in action, come to either Independence's Enrichment Nite - Tue. Jan. 29, or come visit Mr. McDade during P/T conferences (Wed. Mar. 5 & Thu. Mar. 6, 4 - 8 pm), or just stop by Mr. McDade's room anytime at the end of the school day - he'll be happy to show you all the cool things a SMARTBoard can do!

Independence Recorder Page Up & Running!

    A great resource for 4th Gr. Music students at Independence has now been posted on this website - our Independence Recorder Page! On this page, students who are learning to play the recorder can view, download & print out all the songs they need for the Recorder Karate method that we use to learn the recorder in 4th Gr. at Independence. Students can also listen to the songs, which is a big help to students when they are learning to play new songs.

    To go to the Independence Recorder Page, just click on the link at the upper right hand corner of this page, or click here: 

Recorder Page

Recorder Karate is copyright 2007 by Plank Road Publishing.

Go to Mr. McDade's iKeepBookmarks!

    You can visit all of the websites that we use in Mr. McDade's Music classes at: www.ikeepbookmarks.com/mcdade No login is required on the site. The site is organized into three folders - click on each folder to see what websites we are using in class.

All external links are intended for educational purposes only. The Francis Howell School District and its employees are not responsible for content that is objectionable outside of this site.