This week's artist is Nate who is turning out to be a quite a rock star.
On Friday we attended the District's reception for the Reflections contest. When we first walked in Nate had to be signed in and then we were directed to sit down at one of the tables scattered about. Once I was settled in I opened my program and was a bit puzzled. As opposed to the County reception, only one name was listed for each age division in each category. Then it dawned on me, Nate won the district! His entry is now up for consideration a the state level.
He got a nifty award and a certificate. After the speechifying we mixed with the other families and noshed on the spread (which was much nicer than the County's, you could actually get a meal out of it). Larry then found out that the winners of the state judging would be announced in April. This would be the last party (apart from the school's), from this point on everything will probably be done by phone and mail. The funny part was that Nate didn't realize that he had won until after we got home and told him. He had been expecting a formal announcement at the reception. All that happened was that he was called up, received his awards and got a handshake.
Last night was the school's reception. All of the kids that placed, first, second, third and honorable mention were recognized. First through third received medallions and honorable mentions got ribbons. I wasn't there (Max is sick), but Larry said they did a nice job with the awards. What I do know is that Nate came home with a boatload of stuff.
He has a package of acid free paper with a special pen, a couple of pencils with musical notations on them, a sticker book with a musical theme, a harmonica with an instruction book and of course candy.
He was quite a celebrity last night. His picture was taken with the Principal and will probably end up in the local free paper
He was the only one this year to advance to the County level and the first one in many years to go beyond District judging. In a way it was nice for him to go with just his father and be the center of all the attention without his siblings. Nate even picked up a groupie. A girl (Gracie) from his grade spent her time hanging around Nate and, according to Larry, flirting with him. She was a real cutie, but Nate was more interested in her Heelys, then the girl wearing them. As they left last night she bade Nate good bye. Nate turned, waved and said "Bye Gracie!" Gracie was then heard to say "He knows my name!"
A line from Dire Straits immediately sprang to mind when Larry told me this: "Money for nothing and your chicks for free."
So far these are all the awards he has received.
It'll be interesting to see what happens in April. We think his main competition will be coming from Fairfax county. It's awash with money and over achieving parents.
And for those of you interested this is the score:
On the sidebar under Nate's music you can click on Laserquest and hear the piece. Meryl complained about what a big pain it was finding it and I though it would be nice to stick it there along with Torpedo.
Showing posts with label Reflections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reflections. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Artist of the Week: Reflections
This week’s artist is Nate in recognition of his achievements in the Reflections program with a bit of a shout out for Meryl’s niece Sorena.
Every year the national PTA organization, through the schools, sponsors an art competition called Reflections. A theme is announced and students can enter in any or all of five categories: dance, literature, music, photography and visual arts. The categories are further broken down into age groups: kindergarten through second grade, third through fifth, middle school and finally high school. I had been aware of the program, but none of my children had been particularly interested until this year. Nate’s piano teacher has a composition camp in the summer and she brought up this year’s theme “My Favorite Place” as a starting point for her students. Nate was inspired and composed “Laser Quest.”
When the deadline loomed for submissions in Reflections he was still game. So we made a quick and dirty recording using the cheap microphone that was included with my computer and I burned it on a CD in both wav file and as an MP3. I dropped it off at the school with a clear photocopy of the score and the filled submission form.
Much to our delight Nate was notified in December that he was the first place winner in music for his age division (K-2) at our school. His packet was then being forwarded to the county level. He was invited to attend a county reception on January 27 and a school reception in late February.
This was great news, but it initially was problematic with our travel plans for the wedding I wrote about yesterday. Originally we planned to drive up Saturday, leave the kids with the Grandparents on Sunday while Larry and I go to the wedding and then all head back down on Monday. If we were going to attend the reception, this would not work.
Larry and I mulled it over when we hit upon the idea of his mom and step dad coming down on Saturday while we flew out Sunday. We could go to the reception with the added bonus of Grandma and Grandpa coming too.
On the Tuesday last week I got a call from the county PTA rep, it turns out that Nate’s entry made the cut and was going onto the next level. Normally we would not find out until the reception, but she was having problems copying the disk and wanted to know if I had another copy. This of course was just after I had dropped off my computer for repairs. I wouldn’t be getting it back until Wednesday and the material was due Friday. After a bit of back and forth it turned out that first CD player the rep tried was too old, but that her daughters had no problems with it. I didn’t have to come up with a new copy after all. But I was now privy to some exciting information!
The reception was well run, well except for the fact that Nate spaced while waiting on stage to receive his certificate for getting first place in his school. Larry figured out what happened and was able to send Nate up to get it.
This is Nate checking out his certificate of acheivement.
Then it was time to announce the winners on the county level. Nate indeed was the overall winner for Primary (aka K-2) Music in the county. This time Nate was more on the ball and I was able to get a picture of him receiving his certificate and ribbon.
Meryl was seated near us with Sorena and her mother and they all congratulated Mr. Nate and admired his ribbon.
Then we found out that Sorena got third in the county for Middle School Music! I was very impressed with both kids. Nate didn’t have any competition at the school level, but I’m sure Sorena did since she is in the center based gifted middle school. Then for both to place at the county level is amazing because there are 58,000 students in the county. Sorena may have only placed third, but she is young for her age group and I think the competition gets a bit stiffer in the older age groups.
So here are our two winners:
As Meryl observed they probably had the biggest cheering section at the ceremony, with a combined total ten people cheering each one on.
At the end they organizers requested that the county winners stay behind for a big group photo.
The next shindig is at the end of February and we are all looking forward to see what happens.
Oh and as an interesting side note, all of the PTA officers at the school were very impressed with Nate’s submission. They really enjoyed it and according to one person I spoke with, it was remarkable because he had scored the piece. It turns out most kids don’t submit a score with their musical composition. This could bode well for Nate.
Every year the national PTA organization, through the schools, sponsors an art competition called Reflections. A theme is announced and students can enter in any or all of five categories: dance, literature, music, photography and visual arts. The categories are further broken down into age groups: kindergarten through second grade, third through fifth, middle school and finally high school. I had been aware of the program, but none of my children had been particularly interested until this year. Nate’s piano teacher has a composition camp in the summer and she brought up this year’s theme “My Favorite Place” as a starting point for her students. Nate was inspired and composed “Laser Quest.”
When the deadline loomed for submissions in Reflections he was still game. So we made a quick and dirty recording using the cheap microphone that was included with my computer and I burned it on a CD in both wav file and as an MP3. I dropped it off at the school with a clear photocopy of the score and the filled submission form.
Much to our delight Nate was notified in December that he was the first place winner in music for his age division (K-2) at our school. His packet was then being forwarded to the county level. He was invited to attend a county reception on January 27 and a school reception in late February.
This was great news, but it initially was problematic with our travel plans for the wedding I wrote about yesterday. Originally we planned to drive up Saturday, leave the kids with the Grandparents on Sunday while Larry and I go to the wedding and then all head back down on Monday. If we were going to attend the reception, this would not work.
Larry and I mulled it over when we hit upon the idea of his mom and step dad coming down on Saturday while we flew out Sunday. We could go to the reception with the added bonus of Grandma and Grandpa coming too.
On the Tuesday last week I got a call from the county PTA rep, it turns out that Nate’s entry made the cut and was going onto the next level. Normally we would not find out until the reception, but she was having problems copying the disk and wanted to know if I had another copy. This of course was just after I had dropped off my computer for repairs. I wouldn’t be getting it back until Wednesday and the material was due Friday. After a bit of back and forth it turned out that first CD player the rep tried was too old, but that her daughters had no problems with it. I didn’t have to come up with a new copy after all. But I was now privy to some exciting information!
The reception was well run, well except for the fact that Nate spaced while waiting on stage to receive his certificate for getting first place in his school. Larry figured out what happened and was able to send Nate up to get it.
This is Nate checking out his certificate of acheivement.
Then it was time to announce the winners on the county level. Nate indeed was the overall winner for Primary (aka K-2) Music in the county. This time Nate was more on the ball and I was able to get a picture of him receiving his certificate and ribbon.
Meryl was seated near us with Sorena and her mother and they all congratulated Mr. Nate and admired his ribbon.
Then we found out that Sorena got third in the county for Middle School Music! I was very impressed with both kids. Nate didn’t have any competition at the school level, but I’m sure Sorena did since she is in the center based gifted middle school. Then for both to place at the county level is amazing because there are 58,000 students in the county. Sorena may have only placed third, but she is young for her age group and I think the competition gets a bit stiffer in the older age groups.
So here are our two winners:
As Meryl observed they probably had the biggest cheering section at the ceremony, with a combined total ten people cheering each one on.
At the end they organizers requested that the county winners stay behind for a big group photo.
The next shindig is at the end of February and we are all looking forward to see what happens.
Oh and as an interesting side note, all of the PTA officers at the school were very impressed with Nate’s submission. They really enjoyed it and according to one person I spoke with, it was remarkable because he had scored the piece. It turns out most kids don’t submit a score with their musical composition. This could bode well for Nate.
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