Q4 Fall Events

 

By now, close to 500 school districts in the state of Texas have received musical/instructional CDs for Texas Journeys and Texas Senderos with my music!  Soon, several million students will be singing and learning through this wonderful modality.  This is an exciting time for all of the people on the Q4 team that have made this event possible.  We've been getting positive reviews from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt representatives and many teachers across the state.  Thanks to all. 

 

I want the educators that attended my sessions at the TABE Conference in El Paso last week to know that I truly appreciate the spirit and positive energy they helped me to create.  The testimonials from those of you who have been using my music make me feel as though we have a bond, even though I'm not in your classrooms.  Hopefully, many of you were encouraged to differentiate your instruction through music and the multisensory activities that were modeled at the sessions. 

 

If any of you plan to go to La Cosecha Conference in Santa Fe later this month, please come by the Q4 booth or plan to attend my session on Friday morning.  If I don't see you there, maybe I'll see you at NABE 2011 in New Orleans, or, at one of the area conferences.

 

Oh, and if any of you have tried to contact me or fax to my home phone, please know that AT&T finally reconnected me with my old phone line after a month!  432-368-4733.  I'll be posting new product information in a few weeks, when I get a better idea of when they will be available. 

 

NEW IN SPRING OF 2011: 

 

BUBBLES/BURBUJAS FOR PRE-K AND K  PART 1 - 34 Songs!  17 English & 17 Spanish for Dual Language & Bilingual Classes

BUBBLES/BURBUJAS FOR PRE-K AND K PART 2 - 32 Songs! 16 English & 16 Spanish for Dual Language & Bilingual Classes

BUBBLES FOR PRE-K AND K - 33 Songs (English only)

 

 

*FALL NEWS & EVENTS*   Monday, October 18 - A Fall Premier will be held in Grand Prairie to showcase the newest compilation by Linda Quiroz:  Bubbles & Burbujas Series A, B, C & D.  The spectacular technology piece will be demonstrated by Shabbir Degani.  For K-5.   9-11 Session and 1-3:00 Session.  Take your pick!  Call Kim @ 214-412-3651 to reserve your seat!    Tuesday, October 19 - Richardson ISD Bilingual K-2 will be trained by Linda Quiroz on Bubbles / Burbujas Part 1.  They are going to get so many ideas for using the CLASSROOM SET and LITERACY CENTER FLIPCHART!   Thursday, October 28 - El Paso, TABE 2010!  A.M. Session:  Dual Language-What Transfers? P.M. Session:  Shake, Rattle & Roll Your ESL!  Visit the Q4 booth.  #719   Friday, November 19 - Santa Fe, La Cosecha 2010!  11:00 Session: Teaming Up to Preserve Dual Language through Music, Rhythm and Rhyme

New Products Available for Fall 2010   This fall, Q4 is offering a new line of products.  I have a new series titled, Bubbles - Burbujas.  This 4-part series includes 'the best songs' that I've written for Reading and Language Arts in English and Spanish.  For many years I offered a mix of songs in different content areas.  This series is exclusively for reading and language arts.  Many new songs and recordings are available in this series.  Thanks to Johnny Saldivar, the master musician featured throughout, and Savoy, @ ICEE Studios, for helping me to produce this awesome collection.     CD & Lyrics Books   Series A is titled, Bubbles - A Compilation of Songs in English for Reading and Language Arts by Linda Quiroz, Part 1.  The CD is newly recorded and varies in musical genre with upbeat and rhythmic selections throughout.  The lyrics book is absolutely beautiful with vivid graphics that bring the lyrics to life.  Thank you Shabbir, graphics artist, and Durriya at AC Printing for helping me produce this nifty flipbook.  The flipbook includes 10 English songs that start to lay the foundation for reading with the popular and animated, The Alphabet 'a la Q'.  Nine more songs follow, each one, addressing skills and concepts for reading and language arts for grades K-3.  Flip the book over and, Voila! - The Spanish side, Burbujas, is conveniently coupled for ease in transitions for dual language and bilingual programs.  Whether students' L1 is English or Spanish, this book will help them learn L2 because music is so conducive to retention due to its repetitious nature.  Series B, the sequel to Part 1, continues the development of Reading and Language Arts addressing higher level skills and concepts.   Series B engages students with songs targeting compare and contrast, capital letters, elements of a narrative passage, inferences, tenses, parts of a sentence, prepositions, long and short vowels, procedure and summarization.  Flip the Bubbles over and you have a slew of Spanish reading and language arts targets in range.  Whew!  Can you visualize your students singing and role playing to these instructional targets?  They will do it in the classroom and away from the classroom, because it's so much fun with music! Series C includes all 20 of the English songs for reading and language arts.  This series is great for English regular, special and GT education.  This series is also highly recommended for ELL & ESOL students at the secondary, and newcomers at all levels, in your district.  Music can be a non-threatening tool for engaging struggling students in the content areas by providing repeated exposure that eventually becomes so familiar in sound and concept that it provides security.  Students can retrieve this language much more readily if they have memorized it through song.  Series D includes all 20 of the Spanish songs for reading and language arts.  Make your Spanish classroom come to life with targeted music. As a high-school Spanish teacher, I quickly became very popular with the students.  Why?  Because I used music to keep them interested and engaged.  Whether your students are learning Spanish in private, elementary, middle or high schools, they will learn the melody, syntax and grammar patterns of the Spanish language with these catchy tunes that vary greatly in genre.    TABLE TOP FLIPCHARTS!  Bubbles and Burbujas Series A-D also come in table top flipcharts for your literacy center or listening center.  The 11" X 17" full-color flipcharts set up and store easily.  They will help you make your reading groups come to life as you role play or use body movements to the song that addresses your instructional targets so that you can nail down tough skills and concepts for reading and language arts.    Whether you choose the Individual Set of one cd and 1 Book, the Literacy Center Set of 1 CD and 6 Books, or, the best bargain, The Classroom Set of 1 CD and 25 Books, I hope you will consider enhancing your instruction with any of the above Bubbles and/or Burbujas series that make a 'good fit' for the students you will be teaching this year.  Don't forget the flipchart!    I'll keep you posted on the development of new products including: Bubbles - Burbujas for Math, Bubbles - Burbujas for PreK, Bubbles - Burbujas for All Seasons.   (Please download the new Fall 2010 Q4 Catalog these products and more.  The Fall 2010 Q4 Order Form is also available for download.)

SUMMER - SUMMER - SUMMER - SUMMER - SUMMER   Congratulations on completing another productive school year!   This summer will be a busy one for us as we prepare to launch a new line of products titled,  Bubbles / Burbujas.  This series will include 14 compilations of songs and chants and rhymes that will be organized according to their function, such as, Reading and Language Arts, Seasonal, Math, Science & Social Studies, Pre-Kinder, etc.  The songbooks for Reading and Language Arts Part 1 will include 10 songs in English, then, when you flip the book over, you will have 10 songs in Spanish!  There will be 2 'flip books' for reading and language arts - Part 1 and Part 2, for a total of 40 songs that address critical concepts and skills in English and Spanish.  We're hoping to have these available for you this fall so that you can start your school year with fun and focus.  Pre-K and Math are now on the front-burner and I'll likely be recording for these CDs this summer and fall.    Hope you all have a very restful, enjoyable and safe summer.

PTP/PARTE for Secondary by Linda Quiroz Parents Taking Part/Padres tomando parte   Much of my music deals with skills and concepts that spiral through the curriculum.  In a few days I'll be training students and parents at the ECISD Family Education Center in one of my first attempts to offer my music and methodology at the secondary level.   The focus of the 1/2 day training will be to provide opportunities and tools for students to 'teach themselves' during the course of the summer on a variety of topics for language and literacy development.  Demonstrations and hands-on activities will take place during the workshop portion of the training.  Links to online resources will be provided and students will be able to pair up and 'check out' the sites so that they can access them during the summer months.    Students will share unique ideas gleaned from the training, with other student participants and their parents in the closing hour of the training.  The packet that the families will receive include a 27-song CD with an instructional focus, a songbook with the lyrics, and a binder with assorted lessons and activities to work through the summer.  Concurrently, I hope to provide an awareness for parents of the resources being provided, so that they can monitor and reward effort at home in the summer.  Many of the activities would serve parents who want to learn English or to improve their English language skills themselves.  I truly hope that the participating families will take advantage of these resources so that students can return to school in the fall with improved ability in the areas of English language and literacy and greater confidence in tackling academics, in general.      Thank you Ms. Aurora Dominguez, Migrant Coordinator for Ector County ISD, for your continued support and for allowing me an opportunity to impact ECISD students at the secondary level.

TRAINING   Are you interested in having me come to your area for multi-sensory training this coming Fall?  I specialize in training your parents or teachers in the areas of Family Literacy PreK-2 - English and/or Spanish English Literacy K-5 Spanish Literacy K-5 Dual Language Literacy K-5 For districts in Texas that have adopted Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Texas Journeys and/or Texas Senderos, you may want to consider having me come train your K-5 teachers on the musical CDs offered as free materials, titled, Sing and Connect and Canciones de gramatica.  I have created dynamic activities to complement most of the 50 songs in the CDs.  Please contact me as soon as possible for details or to request a custom proposal for your campus, district or Region ESC.  I will be available for training starting the last week in July of 2010.  Be an early bird and secure your training for your desired date.

The English song lyrics are now available for download!  Thank you Jeremy :).  Will work to get Spanish lyrics up within the next couple of weeks.  Hope all of you are gearing up for a great end-of-school-year experience.

I had a great time with teachers in El Paso this past weekend at the BEEMS Conference.  I was impressed to see teachers from different parts of the state, including, Pasadena, Houston and Waller!  Short and Sweet! - (Except for the incredible wind storm on the drive to El Paso).  Congratulations, Dr. Josie Tinajero and fellow organizers for a job well done.  Now, I'm headed to Kingsville for the Texas A&M Univ. 36th Annual Spring Bilingual Conference where I will be a featured speaker, along with, Dr. Frank Lucido and Dr. Ruiz-Escalante, keynote on Tues., March 30.  Title of Presentation:  Double the Language, the Fun, and the Possibilities for Student Success.  Isn't Dual Language awesome?  Thank you, Dr. Torres and Dr. Patricia Gomez for the invitation to address your participants!

Dallas ISD

Just got some interesting news about the textbook adoption for Dallas ISD.  As you may have heard (from me), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has published 50 of my songs in the upcoming reading adoption for Kinder through 5th grade for Texas in a series titled, Texas Journeys and Texas Senderos.  Last night, Dallas ISD Board Members voted in a very heated debate to adopt the Teacher's Choice for reading books at these levels instead of the recommended one from a textbook committee.  Teacher votes online were overwhelming for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.  In other words, the Board opted to listen to the teachers!  What a great move.  When you consider teacher's votes, you will have buy-in from the educators who actively teach children and these teachers will break their backs to do their best because of Board confidence in their expertise.  Oh, and, guess what they chose?  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt!  Yeah!  That's 500,000 more kiddoes using great resources from HMH created from scratch for this adoption with incredible stories, illustrations, resources, online technology for teachers and parents, and, of course, my music!  Go Dallas ISD!  Click on link below for details.  P.S. Issues with errors, which occur in every publisher's first printing, have been addressed and corrected.        http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/032610dnmetdisdboard.40635bc.html

Presenting @ BEEMS in El Paso this coming Saturday, March 27.   Room 210 at the Undergraduate Learning Center, UTEP.  Session:  Shake, Rattle, & Roll Your Way Through the ELPS.

If you are teaching in a Texas school district @ K-5, that has adopted Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's TEXAS Journeys and TEXAS Senderos, congratulations!  You will have access to 50 of my songs for instructional use when you come back to work this fall.  :)

Planning to move to San Antonio later this year.  Woohoo!