Operation Rock!

Funded Nov 28, 2019

I want to take this moment to thank you all for your special donation. My students were in shock when we opened our boxes. It is not everyday that we have such special people give to our programs, so we are truly blessed. Students have been able to explore new instruments, and not just feel like they have to sit around and wait for one to be available.

New instruments, such as our Guiro and bongo drums, have been student favorites. It is nice to explore new sounds with the students, and especially cool when they can recognize the sounds of certain instruments in a song. We have two songs on our playlist for this year that fall into the Latin Jazz/Cumbia genre. Having these instruments available for us to play is amazing. I didn't want to have to settle with an electronic sound from the keyboard :)

Our students are now able to come into their class, grab a music stand, get their instrument ready to go for class (or leave it on the guitar stand to be tuned), and get their sheet music ready to go. It was challenging at first to have students hold up their music, since we do have have keyboards with the stand included. Our students feel like our Band is legit, now that we have stands.

We are now practicing as a full group, to prepare for our Rock Band showcase. Students have selected a list of 8 songs to prepare for a show. Last week was our first all group practice, and it was exciting for all of them. Many of them have been practicing various days of the week with their chosen instrument, but now we are focusing on playing together. That is next on our to do list. It may be easy to play on your own, but in a group, is much more difficult.

Thank you again for your generosity. Giving students from this area the opportunity to explore instruments, for free, is something their parents do truly appreciate. Please follow us on our website lorena.exteraschools.org, or Extera Public School on social media. We will post videos or pictures. I am looking forward to our showcase, and showing our student progress. Thank you again!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Salas