The Glambs International Fan Club

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A question asked by a child in every class using the ukes (10 classes in 3rd, 4th, 5th grade) was, Why did they give us the ukuleles? I explained it was because all who donated know the importance of music education, and they really wanted you to have an opportunity to learn a string instrument.

The children absolutely loved the ukuleles, even in classes where we didn't get much further than tuning. The tuning, in and of itself, was quite a listening and learning experience, both for the children and this teacher. I have to confess, at times it was a bit like herding cats. (This summer I'm going to restring the ukuleles with better quality strings so they hold their tune better.)

We also used the ukuleles in an after school instrumental club, where we made more progress than in the classes because I only had twelve students. I had a tough year physically, due to a slip-and-fall on black ice and wasn't able to accomplish as much as I'd hoped. Because I was using a cane/crutches/walker, I had a classroom teacher take pictures of the instrumental group with one of the school's flip cameras. Unfortunately, they got deleted by another teacher.

The photos are limited to three talented children in the club who wanted to sing and play the ukuleles for the annual school talent show on May 27. As you can see, these girls were very focused and had a lot of fun, as did I.

I am very appreciative of your generosity, as are the children. The ukuleles were a big hit -- all the students want their own ukuleles! I'm really looking forward to using them again next year with better strings and better physical mobility on my part. I know when the intermediate grades walk into music class in August, one of the first questions will be, When are we going to play the ukuleles?

”

With gratitude,

Ms. Hilleman

On behalf of our school, I would like to thank you for your generous grant award. Our students eagerly awaited the boxes that contained our recorders and music books. Your commitment to helping public education in our community is sincerely appreciated.

Each year, our school continues to advance its mission of providing quality educational experiences for all students to achieve their full potential. Through our many different programs, with support of donors such as yourself, we have seen many lives changed for the better.

Thanks again for your generous support of what teachers do each and every day in the classroom for our students.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Land

Donors Choose,

The students in my project, "String Along Students" has been very successful. The use of the instruments for students that do not have them have made them feel a big part of the school raising their self-esteem playing beautiful music.

There were several concerts in the neighborhood. Some students played in the County's Honor Orchestra.

Most of them have done better academically making the school;s honor roll. All of them say that music is fun to learn. They also like me teaching them.”

With gratitude,

Mr. Robinson

I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for donating the funds in order to purchase the materials for my classroom. My students are having so much fun while learning to read and write. It has helped me a lot with the age group I teach. Educators as myself need donors like you in order to achieve quality teaching.

Due to the lack of funding in the school budget, educators rely on people that donate money for proposals that are needed in order to teach the curriculum. I can't thank you enough for caring and taking an interest in the academics of children. After all, they are the future of America and if we do not engage them and motivate them with a variety of materials, our children will lose interest in wanting to learn.”

With gratitude,

Teacher Shanab

The pictures you see are from one of the recorder lesson sessions I held with my sixth grade students. They are learning about musical notation and fingering on the recorder, and I had them practice some notes as well as clap a beat with whole, half, quarter, and 8th notes. One of the reasons many of them have significant difficulty with reading and math is that the part of their brain that recognizes patterns doesn't function properly. However, we know that the more you practice music, the better your brain gets at seeing patterns, so it was a nice change for them to learn that something they enjoyed doing was helping them learn other things better as well.

Many of you donated to this project because you were inspired by Adam Lambert's wish for the preservation of arts education in our public schools. I know that Adam himself benefited from dedicated music and theater teachers and coaches from an early age; his promotion of the arts in schools is clearly his way of thanking all those who helped him along the way to his current success. I think even if he wasn't the success that he is, he understands how the arts can enrich anyone's life, as you all clearly do.

In our year-round school, we were off-track for January and February; we just returned the first week of March, and my students are asking for the recorder music lessons again. Several of them saw a group playing ukuleles recently and asked to learn that (I guess I'd better learn to play the ukulele real fast, right?); we also viewed videos of "Stomp" performances and now they want to compose one of those on their own. Some of them had learned some songs on the recorder in elementary school, but not by reading the music; now they know that the notes on the staff are the "language" of music, and they want to try writing their own. The recorders make it very easy for them to put down some notes and then play them to see if they sound good. They have folders for storing their handouts that they keep with the recorders in the carts you provided, and can relax while playing because the music stands hold up their materials for easy view. My other classes have heard about this and they want recorder music lessons, too, which I will certainly provide.”

With gratitude,

Ms. K.

As always at my school, we strive to do it bigger and better the next time. Our first talent show was such a huge success that talk of a second annual talent show started before our hands stopped stinging from clapping so hard in 2009. That led to the question, "How can we make it better?" Our esteemed principal told us of a web site, Donorschoice.org. Here we found that there are people in this world that want to help students.

The students and staff thought the best place to start improving our talent show would be a lighting system. A lighting system would continue to 'shine a spotlight' on our talented performers. The reverberation of your generosity is still being felt throughout my school.

When we decided to do a talent show 2 years ago, people were.....apprehensive at best. No one wants to be ridiculed. Our students get pointed at and laughed at often enough in the community. A couple of brave teachers were convinced that the students would respect each other. Standing up in front of your peers takes guts and determination. To live the life that was dealt to them, we know our students have guts and determination. Our school is a safe place for our students. They do not have to worry about the finger pointing. Well, maybe we still finger pointed but, this time it was in a positive manner. While we were in rehearsals students left still singing their songs and dancing through the halls. We even had a few secret performances that were kept a secret until performance day. The fears of the staff from the previous year have been dispelled. Now the finger pointing is' did you see when so and so danced for us, sang for us, performed for us.' Increased self-esteem generalizes throughout students' life, in school and outside. You have been a part of making a huge difference. Many of our students have severe social skills deficits. The entire experience of the talent show has assisted students in overcoming some of these deficits. They have begun talking to each other and making new friends. The performers have learned that they can do whatever they want in life. As our hands are once again stinging, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You've given them that cornerstone to a more confident life. Our students, staff and parents have extended their extreme gratitude to you for making this possible.

My personal thank-you to you also. I never expected that a talent show would have this large of an impact on our population. That is due to you. The best gift you can give is a smile and we have 200+ smiles in our building now. Our gift to you.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Guzzi

What a wonderful way to begin our school year! I wasn't sure our class would be fortunate enough to receive funding for this project. I have been borrowing my teaching partners instruments and she is tickled that this funding has come through as well. Our children love to make music and learn the patterns that can be associated with it. By receiving these instruments, our children have gained access to a variety of instruments to choose from, and a new rhythm as well. The children's faces light up each time we get the instruments out!

Thank you for your help in teaching my children a love for learning!

”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Behne

I am writing to you to express my gratitude for your generous donation to my students. The books that you donated have helped my students enhance their literacy learning through the use of text of familiar songs that allows them to gain confidence in reading. We have used these books to sing the songs and enjoy reading from text while singing. In addition to this, having the books available has encouraged meaningful questions about new vocabulary words and the meaning of the stories in the songs. Without your help students would not be able to experience literacy in such a fun way. Thanks again. ”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Hamann

Thank you very much for the collection of Dr. Jean's music. The students love to sing and dance to all the different songs. We use songs for every area of the curriculum. That's what's so great about Dr. Jean, she has a song for everything. Students are learning the letter sounds, Dr. Jean has many songs for that. Numbers, shapes, sight words, counting, science, social studies, character development - Dr. Jean has it all. We really do use the songs every day in school. Kindergarten students love to move, so I am very glad to be able to include music and movement every day. Thanks again!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Tarle