Ten of our students performed at the Alabama Symphony Orchestra concert on May 21st at 10:15 A.M. Thank you to all of my students for all of your hard work this year and for performing well at the concert! Thank you to Composer-in-Residence Paul Lansky and Alabama Symphony Orchestra Education Manager Meaghan Heinrich for working with my students this year!
Congratulations to all of the students who participated in the All City Band Evaluation on May 4, 2010 in the Central Park School Music Technology Lab. The Ensemble made an 'A' (Superior Rating) for their performance!
March - April, 2010
I am currently going through some of my 'oldest' quizzes and updating them from Hot Potatoes and older Flash software (2000-2006) to newer Flash software and Articulate Quizmaker so the scoring, printing of scores and randomization of the questions will work better. Thank you for using the site!
February, 2010 Paul Lansky visited our Music Lab again on Feb. 4, 2010. The students are doing well with their compositions and are preparing to play before an Alabama Symphony Orchestra Coffee concert on May 21st.
Congratulations to C. Walker for winning First Place in Music Composition in the City PTA Reflections Contest. His composition is posted on the Student Work section of this site.
A banquet was held on Feb. 21, 2010 in Birmingham.
December, 2009
The Music Tech Ensemble performed at the annual Christmas Music Program at Central Park School on Dec. 16, 2009. Pictures are posted on the Central Park School site.
November, 2009
The UAB Music Tech Academy and the Alabama Chapter of TI:ME Conference was held on Nov. 14, 2009 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Ms. Garrett's presentation is posted here. Information about the Conference is posted at this link.
September and November, 2009
Selected Music Tech Students will participate in a special, year-long project in cooperation with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra Education Division and composer-in-residence Paul Lansky. The first session was held on Sept. 18, 2009. The second session was held on Nov. 5, 2009. Pictures and information about the project are posted at this link.
April, 2009
Congratulations to all of the students in the Music Tech Ensemble at Central Park School! The students received a Superior Rating at the All City Band Evaluation on April 30, 2009. To see a video of the evaluation, follow this link.
We were sad to hear of the loss of our Birmingham City Councilor, Miriam Witherspoon, who died on April 21, 2009. Councilor Witherspoon has been a wonderful supporter of our school and district. She was also responsible for giving us the funds to purchase all of the new keyboards for our Music Tech Lab in 2007. (Link to City Council)
February, 2009
The National TI:ME Music Technology Conference was held in San Antonio, Texas from Feb. 11-14, 2009. Presenters from all across the U.S. taught others how to use technology as a part of the music curriculum. The conference was held in conjunction with the TMEA (Texas) Music Educators' Association Conference.
October, 2008
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) held a Music Technology Academy Workshop for Music Educators and Music Students on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008. For more information about the Academy and photos from the event, visit the following link.UAB Music Tech Academy
February, 2008
Ms. Garrett and the Music Tech students are happy to announce that we received a '2008 Best Buy Teach Award' on Feb. 18, 2008! Our class will receive a $2000 Best Buy gift card to purchase supplies and implement new projects related to music technology. Follow this link to find more information about the Best Buy Teach Award program.
January, 2008
Ms. Garrett attended the National TI:ME Music Technology Conference in Grand Rapids, MI Jan. 23-27th. Pictures of the conference are posted here. For more information about TI:ME, visit http://www.ti-me.org
December, 2007
The Music Tech Ensemble at Central Park School performed several songs in the annual Holiday Celebration on Dec. 18, 2007. Pictures and MP3's from the program are posted here.
October-November, 2007
Ms. Garrett taped an interview on Nov. 9, 2007 with Keith Mason of MusicTechForMe.com. The MP3 podcast about our Music Technology program will be featured on Mr. Mason's website this week and will also be available through iTunes.
We finally moved! The Music Tech Lab moved to a 'larger' classroom on Oct. 31, 2007. We have a 14' x 20' room with air! We have been in a storage room (with no air) for the last 10 years, so this is exciting for us. New photos and videos of the students playing in the new room are being posted. We would like to thank Mr. Leverd Nunn for volunteering his time to install our new carpet. We would not have been able to move so soon without his help. Thank you, Mr. Nunn!
August-September, 2007
I am currently working on articles for a music technology magazine (www.metmagazine.com) and hope to have time to add new content to this site soon. I teach almost 200 students in the 2nd-5th grades at our school each week in addition to working on three school-related websites, a fine arts newsletter and magazine articles.
June-July, 2007
I have updated the website coding, graphics and all 40 of my older (Hot Potatoes) quizzes. I am starting to create new lessons and quizzes for this site.
I have posted new information on a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page about our lab. I receive numerous questions from teachers each week regarding our history, materials and funding. Take a look at the information here... FAQ.
May, 2007 The new Yamaha PSR-e403 keyboards arrived the last week of May! We are so happy to receive the keyboards as a result of funding from our City Council. We look forward to using them when school starts in August.
April, 2007
Thank you to Eliahu Sussman for the article and feature about our lab in the April, 2007 issue of School Band and Orchestra Magazine. We appreciate all the interest in what we are doing with music technology to enhance our students' learning and enjoyment of music.
Congratulations to music technology student G. Lowe for winning 1st Place (Music Composition) in the Alabama PTA Reflections Contest for 2007! Mr. Lowe was recognized at an award's reception on April 28, 2007. He also was notified at the reception that he was a winner of the Award of Merit at the National PTA Reflections contest in the Intermediate Division. He is one of five students in the U.S. to receive the award. We are so proud of him!
February-March, 2007
Our Music Tech Lab will be featured in an upcoming issue of School Band and Orchestra Magazine. We are excited about the feature and appreciate the opportunity to showcase our students. Thank you to photographer Alex Cohn for photographing images of our students at work in the Lab on March 8, 2007.
TI:ME Conference 2007 pictures have been posted. I really enjoyed seeing all my TI:ME friends and attending the sessions Feb. 8-10, 2007 in Columbus.
January, 2007
Congratulations to A. Hawkins (1st Place), K. Topping (3rd Place) and G. Lowe (Honorable Mention) for their award winning music compositions at the city-level PTA Reflections Contest in Birmingham. They will attend an awards banquet with Ms. Garrett in February.
December, 2006
Congratulations to the following students for submitting winning music compositions in the school-level PTA Reflections Contest:
A. Hawkins, K. Topping, G. Lowe and J. Malone.
August, 2006
Ms. Garrett has moved the old lab to another storage room. We have new student desks, a little more space and a jazzy new look for the room. New photos are being posted on the Home page.
May, 2006
Our lab is on the move! We are planning to relocate the Music Tech Lab in August of 2006 to the old band room at the school. It is only a few feet wider, but should allow for more students to be in Music Technology class. We are hoping to obtain new computer tables and keyboards for the lab. The 'new look' of the lab will be unveiled in August.
We would like to say 'thank you' to our Birmingham City Council President Pro Tem, Ms. Miriam Witherspoon, for visiting the Music Tech Lab on May 30, 2006.
February, 2006
Ms. Garrett attended the Birmingham City Council meeting on Feb. 21, 2006. She was given recognition by Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid for receiving the TI:ME Teacher of the Year Award.
January, 2006
Ms. Garrett is very excited about being named the TI:ME Teacher of the Year for 2006. The award was presented at the national TI:ME Conference in Tampa in January.
Interviewwith A. Ruisi of The Birmingham News
Ms. A. Ruisi, pictured below, interviewed Ms. Garrett and her students on January 13, 2006. Ms. Ruisi wrote an article about Ms. Garrett and the national TI:ME Teacher of the Year Award, along with information about the Music Technology Lab at Central Park School. The article appeared in The Birmingham News on Wednesday, January 25, 2006 in the West Edition. A link to the text of the article is here....
April, 2004 We would like to thank D. Des Vignes from NBC13 News for featuring our lab in a news segment on April 21, 2004.
March, 2004
A Music Workshop for K-12 Teachers was held at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Alys Stephens Center, March 6, 2004. Ms. Garrett presented a session on Integrating Music with Technology.
Winners of the PTA Reflections Music Composition Contest at the City Level include R. Jenkins (1st Place), D. Perry and S. Freeman (3rd Place), J. Jibri (Honorable Mention). Congratulations!
January, 2004 Thank you to all who completed the MENC Survey for the 100 Best Communities for Music Education for the Birmingham School School District.
November, 2003
Thank you to Sarah Verser from Fox 6 News in Birmingham. She featured our lab on 'What's Right With Our Schools', a bi-weekly news report on local schools. The feature aired on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2003 on the 5:00 P.M. News.
September, 2003
Our site was featured in the premier issue of the new Music Education Technology Magazine.
We are excited about the new students this year in Ms. Garrett's Music Tech Lab. There are over 130 students receiving lessons each week. Thank you to the PTA at Central Park for your support of our websites.
August, 2003 SoundTree has provided a microKORG to the Music Technology Lab at Central Park School for the 2003-2004 school year. The microKORG is a synthesizer offering a variety of tools for performers, producers, computer musicians and beginners alike. The microKORG delivers modeling synthesis, vocoding, real-time control, on-board effects, and external audio processing. The microKORG’s 37-mini-key compact chassis also makes it ideal for the musician or DJ working in a limited-space environment.
June, 2003
MiBAC Music Software has donated software to our lab. Thank you, MiBAC!
ArtistPro.com Publishing has generously donated a Music Technology Library of books to us. Our lab had no books or text resources before now. Thank you ArtistPro!
March, 2003 The TI:ME National Conference was held in Pasadena, CA March 12-15, 2003.
January, 2003 Congratulations to the PTA Reflections City Winners in Music Composition:
1st Place - K. James, 2nd Place - M. Felton, 2nd Place - K. Abdullah, 3rd Place - K. Perry, 3rd Place - A. Sowell
December, 2002 - Congratulations to the PTA Reflections School Winners in Music Composition for Central Park:
1st Place - A. Sowell, 2nd Place - K. Abdullah, 3rd Place - M. Felton, 4th Place - K. Perry, 5th Place - K. James
October, 2002 - Our Music Tech Teacher website receives the USA TODAY Educators Best Bet Website Award.
August, 2002 - Our tech lab receives two 'new' computers with Win 98 and one computer with Win 95. This is a very welcome upgrade from our Win 3.1 computers! Thank you to B. Thomas (South East Lake) for helping us get the Win 98 computers!
May 3, 2002 - Ms. Garrett was a speaker at the Alabama PT3 Showcase at the Birmingham Civic Center. She presented information about the Music Technology Lab at Central Park and our two web sites (Central Park and Music Tech Teacher).
Mar. 13, 2002 - Thank you Anne Ruisi and Jerry Ayres of the Birmingham News for featuring our lab. Sterling Thomas, Chief Information Officer from the Birmingham Board of Education, told the News about our lab a few months ago. The article was published in the News on Mar. 13, 2002. The article from the Birmingham News is now in the News archives section only.
