Mr. B's Blog

When I was in the third grade I distinctly remember watching my brother Steve play the drums in the 6th grade Band at the Bagnall School in Groveland, MA.  I idolized him and thought that's the instrument I am going to play...I'm sure my parents were happy with no rental fees!  In fourth grade, there were tons and tons of percussionists.  I remember Matt Lovett and I standing out as the better of the bunch.  Back then, Mrs. Tatarunis was our band director and General Music Teacher at the Bagnall and she rocked!  Everyone was in band!  We had it the last hour of school each Friday and the teachers loved getting that free time. In the 7th grade, I got that typical middle school attitude when meeting Mr. Howard in my first percussion lesson. When asked for my name instead of saying Anthony, I said Lloyd, named after the main character of the movie Dumb and Dumber.  Everyone in the lesson laughed their heads off and Mr. Howard decided to keep calling me ...

In about five hours I depart for China! Around 20 Pentucket Regional School District teachers and community members are traveling to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai for eight days. Aside from sightseeing, we will be visiting two schools. I hope to get a lot out of this trip. I purchased a new camera this morning and am also bringing my Flip video camera so hopefully I will be able to make an awesome slide show. We are supposed to bring a small gift to the two schools that we are going to. I am going to stop somewhere in Newburyport to get a poster and I also have a Pentucket Sachems hat to give. So far the weather looks great. I took an extra luggage bag with me so that I will have space to bring home some musical instruments with me. Mr. B

Last year I found myself still working late in my office at the high school and noticing a lot of foot traffic in the hallway. I made my way down to the cafeteria to find a full-out history fair. I learned that all freshmen present historical information at this fair via tri-fold boards, video, food, and pictures. I was impressed with what I was viewing. There was one presentation that really peaked my interest. A 9th grader did research on how the town of Groveland had a home that was part of the Underground Railroad. I interviewed the student and was quite impressed with her knowledge. I then thought, how can we take this specific part of our history to the next level? I bumped into two of the history teachers that night and asked if we could collaborate on the fair next year, including the concert band. The answer was a resounding yes. The result can be fully understood by reading the Boston Globe Article and watching the video at www.pentucketunderground.com . Some thing...