Past projects 32
Recorder Rookies and Rockstars
Funded Nov 21, 2023My students have been SO excited to get their hands (and mouths!) on their brand new recorders!! My classroom was literally filled with screams of glee when they walked in and saw their new instruments. We are right in the middle of recorder learning centers this semester, and these little musicians are practicing like mad! They are developing wonderful habits of musicianship and personal responsibility while tracking their progress. Each week they are learning to be more independent players and adding to their list of repertoire. By the end of this year, they will be little recorder rockstars!! We are even starting a Recorder Club at the end of January at school during recess time for those kiddos who just can't get enough! Thank you for supporting our music making and our passion. We are so grateful for your generosity. Thank you for being part of the magic.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Traxler
Drumming Our Way to a Great Day at Gateway
Funded Nov 1, 2022I wish you could have felt the excitement and heard the cheers when my students walked into the classroom and saw the hand drums on display ready for them to play! It was like Christmas and their birthday all at the same time. Every single grade level has had a chance to play them this month during our rhythm reading time, beat keeping practice, in compositions, with hand clap games, and during movement activities. We have gotten SO much use out of them already, and our technique is improving weekly. Students are learning about timbre and vibration while trying out the different sizes of drums, too! This has been such a wonderful experience so far, and we have only just begun. These hand drums will be used with hundreds of Gateway Elementary students for years and years to come. We can't thank you enough for supporting our students and for seeing the value in a rich music education for children. YOU are helping us make Gateway the GREAT WAY forward for our students.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Traxler
Making Music With My Online Community
Funded Dec 1, 2020I can't thank you enough for contributing so generously to our project. I have been using the new laptop everyday (and not just Monday through Friday) for teaching and planning for our music and dance zoom classes, as well as for attending tech trainings and professional development sessions. I wanted to give you an idea of how important this device has been in the educational lives of my 400+ students. Each day, I log on at 8 am and teach 4-5 hour-long music and movement classes on zoom. During that time, my students interact by using the chat, breakout rooms, spotlighting their ideas, and of course singing and dancing their hearts out. My classes are large- sometimes 60 kids at once!- so this new computer has helped tremendously with lag time and processing power trying to teach so many students at once. I can now see 40 zoom boxes at once! I don't have to scroll endlessly through pages of faces to make sure I am engaging with all of my students. I can show video clips and share music and google slide presentations seamlessly with no lag or sound issues. Our classes have fewer tech problems than ever before, and teaching online- stressful as it is- is more enjoyable because I don't have to worry every minute about the "color wheel of death!" Ha Ha Ha! Thank you for allowing me to connect with my students through this strange and difficult time. I have been able to bring them music from around the world, projects focused on social emotional health, interactive culturally relevant lessons, and the opportunity to be with each other and be seen and heard from home. Thank you. Your generosity will never be forgotten.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Traxler
This classroom project was brought to life by FamilyAlbum and 20 other donors.Meeting a Masterful Musician
Funded Aug 13, 2019I am SO overwhelmed by your generosity. I can't believe that our project was funded in ONE DAY! WOW! I can't wait to tell my students about this. They are going to flip out with excitement. I will be sure to take some great pictures of them when they are beginning with their recorders and playing with Horacio Franco. I hope you know how much this means to me to be able to provide this unforgettable experience for my little musicians.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Traxler
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 8 other donors.Piano Practice Parade
Funded Sep 11, 2018Our piano classes have been underway for two months now. Every Monday afternoon you can hear the students practicing away at new songs, scales, and chords. It is so exciting! I can't thank you enough for your generosity and kindness. My students are so incredibly lucky to have this opportunity. They have been looking up piano videos and "how to play" videos for their favorite songs, learning songs from chorus and weekly music class on the keyboards, and making up their tunes as well! They are so motivated! We are planning for a little recital sharing session at the close of the first semester of class, and I know the parents will be thrilled to see the confidence their little ones are developing. On another note, I am grateful beyond measure because I get to see these new connections being made between what I am teaching my students in their weekly classes and what they are learning in this new after school piano class. Their skills are improving so quickly! I can see the benefits already after just a few weeks. I am really looking forward to watching their progress over the next few months.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Traxler
Practicing Our Way to Carnegie Hall
Funded Nov 22, 2017Our 3rd grade students have had about 2 months of recorder classes on their brand new recorders! They are so excited about their new musical adventures. They are practicing at home, sending me videos of songs they are learning throughout the weekends, and coming in at lunch recess time to ask for even more time to work! They have learned several songs using just a few notes and are concentrating on developing their technique. In just a few more weeks, they will be starting to learn the music they will play along with the orchestra at Carnegie Hall in May. Their books are already labeled and ready to go! We can't thank you enough for this experience. It has been a wonderful opportunity for the students to experience the rewards that come from a little struggle and hard work. They've also learned to help one another and work as a team so that the whole class sounds beautiful as an ensemble. We are so grateful that you donated to our project so that they could each have their very own recorder and ticket to Carnegie Hall. These instruments will give them many more years of happiness! Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for supporting music education in public schools!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Traxler
Explore the World's Music in NYC
Funded Oct 11, 2017It is with such deep gratitude that I write to you about my second grade musicians and their first concert experience at Carnegie Hall. The Musical Explorers program has brought such joy and excitement into our classroom. We are currently halfway through our curriculum and just attended the live concert where our students were singing and dancing their hearts out. We even had two students invited up onto the stage WITH THE MUSICIANS to sing and dance! It was incredible. They will never forget it. We will be starting our second unit with the program shortly and that will culminate in May with another concert trip to Carnegie Hall. By the time the year is over, these little musicians will have discovered music and dance from 6 new cultures around the world. This program is engaging their bodies, their minds, and their hearts.
Another really exciting opportunity that unexpectedly came out of this partnership was that our students got to work with a fabulously talented teaching artist to write a song for Carnegie Hall's A Time Like This song competition. It was all inspired by the "Freedom Song" unit in our Musical Explorers curriculum. We have just heard back that OUR SONG Yes We Can was selected out of 50 submissions to be performed at their big concert event in March! This is like a dream come true. Thank you again for supporting this project. It has truly changed their lives and encouraged music making in new ways that we'd never dreamed of.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Traxler
Third Grade Musicians Bound for Carnegie Hall!
Funded Nov 29, 2016Our third grade students have been playing their recorders now for 2 months, and they are really starting to sound like budding musicians!! They are playing with beautiful tone quality, correct technique, and learning new notes on the music staff every week. Gone are those terrible squeaks and icky notes! They've mastered their first few songs and are almost ready to play at Carnegie Hall. Even though our field trip to Carnegie isn't until May, our students have been using their curriculum workbooks and recorders every music class. Thank you for being so generous to our classroom so that they can have this amazing opportunity to learn to express themselves through music. We've just recently started improvising with the C Jam Blues, and we are eager to move on to Oh When the Saints next week. The kids are so motivated! They can't wait to complete the activities in the book each week, and they are really practicing at home! I am so proud of their incredible work. I am so thankful to you for your generous donation which made all this possible. Your support of the arts in public schools is so important to us. We will always be grateful for this experience. These memories will surely last a lifetime.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Traxler
A Musical Trip Around the World!
Funded Oct 26, 2016This program is the most rewarding experience my second graders have ever had. We have already been to the first of 2 concerts at Carnegie Hall, and it was just an amazing trip! The kids learned about Chinese opera, traditional Sudanese celebration songs, and Bluegrass! Now we are learning about Hip Hop, Armenian Folk, and Calypso music from Trinidad and Tobago. The students are singing, playing instruments, writing new verses, improvising on drums, and dancing their hearts out each week when they come to music. It is pretty extraordinary. We can't thank you enough for giving us this amazing opportunity to be a part of music from around the world. This is truly an unforgettable year, and YOU made it all possible. Thank you for your generosity and your kindness. Thank you for supporting the arts in public schools. We will forever remember your selfless spirit!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Traxler
Carnegie Hall Adventures in Third Grade
Funded Oct 20, 2015Our third grade students are knee deep in their amazing recorder adventures! We can't thank you enough for your generous donations to our Carnegie Hall recorder program and field trip. Our students have been playing their recorders for almost 3 months now, and they have learned almost 10 songs during that time and have mastered reading 5 different pitches on the music staff! Today, we finished an amazing little composition inspired by Holst's The Planets that we will be sharing with our parents. Mars, from Gustav Holst's "The Planets" is one of the many pieces they will hear when we attend the concert at the end of the year, so this project has been part of our exploration of the Link Up Curriculum. Our students are so inspired and so excited by your generosity. They are well on their way to being independent literate musicians- all thanks to YOU!! Thank you for making this possible. We can't wait until the concert...”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Traxler