Band

January 2015
Greetings Bayside Band Families,
Welcome to the new year of Bayside Band 2015!! I am so glad to be back working with the Bayside Bands! While on maternity leave with my beautiful daughter, I’ve missed making music and helping students develop a love for playing an instrument. For those families whom do not know me yet, my name is Amber Aitchison and I have been teaching at Bayside since 2000. I have taught Band and PE every year since 2000, and have taught English, French, Drama, Art, and Social Studies intermittently during that time. My passion truly lies with music. I started playing flute in grade six concert band, later learning tenor saxophone, percussion, piano, vocal jazz, and jazz band in juniour and high school. I studied Music and Education at UVic earning my Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education. Later in my career, I returned to school to pursue my Masters in Education, with a focus on Curriculum and Instruction. My thesis centered on performance and test anxiety which I found very interesting and has helped shape the way I approach testing in the band setting.
I am a mother to three beautiful children and own a small hobby farm with my husband here on the Saanich Penninsula. I love living the rural life, having a garden full of fresh veggies and beautiful flowers, along with space for our children to run around outside each day. This year, we are working towards raising chickens, with future plans to add pigs and a cow to our livestock.
Music is my hobby, my stress-release, and a part of my everyday at home with my family and also at work. I feel so blessed to work with the Bayside Band students every year, and am grateful to form close connections with Band Families as I am the only teacher at our school privileged to work with the same students all year for three years!
With this letter, I wish to invite you to subscribe to the band webpage forums that are applicable for your child’s grade. This is located on the Bayside website on the teacher directory. Look for the BAND link. Each week I write an update to let families know what we’ve been working on in class and what students should be practicing at home. I will also provide information about concerts, fundraising, field trips, music festivals, and sound files (recordings of pieces we are playing so students can practice with the band and hear how their part fits in to the big picture). There is some wonderful resources on the Band Webpage to help with finding private lessons, how to care for your child’s instrument, performance requirements, evaluation, and other band policies. Please take some time to read through that information and don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Email is the quickest way to ensure a prompt reply. Happy New Year! I look forward to getting back into the swing of things with the Bayside Bands.
Sincerely,
Amber Aitchison
Band and PE teacher, Bayside Middle School
aaitchison@sd63.bc.ca