HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-12-22, Page 30PAGE 30. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2011.Stagefright always part of concerts: Dawe
Students take a Christmas trip
Continued from page 22
Toronto. Then, wherever the plane
dropped me off, I would rent a dog
sled and bring my dogs and cats
from home so they could pull me to
the North Pole. My cats would lead
the way and the dogs would follow
them.”
Ava
“I would go on a big plane, but I
would take off from France. From
France I would fly to Pittsburgh,
then to the North Pole, then use a
crazy carpet and push myself with
my hands the rest of the way to the
North Pole.”
Owen
“I would take a big plane and fly it
from Toronto. Then I would
parachute out with my dog sled and
snow dogs and get them to take me
to the North Pole once we got close
enough.”
Kierstynn
“I would fly a small plane right
from my front yard and fly it
directly to the North Pole. Then I
would use a SCUBA Diving Sled to
get the rest of the way in case I had
to go through any water.”
Ella
“I would get on a big jet and fly
from Toronto and watch a movie on
the way. If it couldn’t go all the way
to the North Pole, I would get a
snowmobile to take me the rest of
the way.”
Abigale
“I would walk to the ocean and
then rent a yacht to get me across it
to the place where the North Pole is
so I could use a hot tub if I got cold.
Then I would walk the rest of the
way with really warm boots on.”
Tamara
Continued from page 13
low, however, and combined with
the costs of starting a new program,
the AMDSB decided not to expand
the French Immersion option.
Some students from outside the
Stratford area do and have attended
the FI programs in Stratford, the
board learned. These students must
either arrange their own
transportation or be able to find
space on an existing AMDSB high
school bus coming to Stratford. The
FI program must also have room for
them.
Brussels Public School teacher
Heather Dawe may have been a
spectator for the last two Christmas
concerts at the school while on
maternity leave however she was at
the helm before that and she
remembers things used to be a bit
different.“I’ve been at Brussels Publicschool since the 2003/2004 school
year and I’ve been involved with the
concerts since then,” she said. “I
started running them with Erin Baan
when I first got to Brussels and then
I did them on my own.”
Dawe, who taught music, said the
school used to do a concert or
pageant for the Kindergarten to
Grade 4 students and host a cabaret
night for the senior students to show
how well they could play
instruments they had been learning.
“We had the music nights and it
was a great way for the students to
realize they could play in front of
people and that they were pretty
good,” she said. “I also always used
to take the band on the float in the
Brussels Santa Claus parade so they
could play Christmas tunes.”
Having been involved in six
concerts, she said that this year’s
performance, the last to be held at
Brussels Public School as it is slated
for closure, was a bit different from
the ones she had run before.
“I wasn’t involved, so it was
different from that aspect,” she said.
“There were two teachers running it,
which was different, and the
students performed to recorded
music on a CD and not live
accompaniment.”
She said that, during her tenure,
the plays were similar in that the
speaking points were handled by the
Grade 3 students.
“It’s nice for them to be the star of
the show,” she said. “For many of
them it’s their first foray into
speaking individually on a stage.
“They did have fewer lines than
when I was there, this year was
much more focused on the music
and the singing.”
She said that she was able to work
with the Grade 3 students as that was
the class she taught and that she
could incorporate the performance
into her lesson plans.
“I found it easier to deal with the
speaking parts and the Grade 3student’s participation during classtime,” she said. “The roles they play
dealt with a lot of lessons I was
teaching in language class, art class
and music class.”
This year’s message, about
kindness and giving, was a common
thread among many of the plays that
Dawe oversaw.
“We tried to do something
different every year,” she said. “First
we did Christmas around the world
and set it as a newscast, the second
year was more a bunch of skits and
then we had plays that focused on
Christmas on the farm, the reindeer
going on strike and Santa trying to
get into the National Hockey League
(NHL), but there was usually a
message there.”
She said that some of the plays
were very well received, especially
the farmyard Christmas play where
students “grazed” in the “farmyard”
where the audience was sitting. They
mooed and clucked at the parents
while they were getting to theirseats.There were also some things that
inevitably happened regularly, if not
every year, including children
getting sick either before a show or
mid-performance and children
looking for and finding their parents
in the audience and proceeding to
yell or wave at them.
Dawe said she has plenty of good
memories from being involved in the
plays but that they also were
stressful.
“It’s pretty hectic but it’s all worth
it in the end” she said. “Participating
in the arts really brings things out in
kids that they didn’t know they had.
By the end of the night, parents are
proud to see their kids do well, the
kids are proud they did well and they
don’t have that option as much in
school anymore to know they did
their job well.”
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Dancing the night away
Erin Overholt, left, and Griffin Marshall decided to give their
dance routine everything during the Brussels Public School
Christmas concert on Dec. 14. (Denny Scott photo)
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
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