**Six students from sec.1-2 ELA class in Mecatina School wrote about their experience with music workshops and shows. Three different texts are in this post. The other three are here.**
Musicians visit
For the past few days we had three musicians come to Mecatina School. Their names were Mike Sixonate, Fergus O’Byrne and Jim Payne. I really enjoyed their visit. The first day, the secondary students met Mike in the morning and the elementary met Jim and Fergus. In the afternoon we met Jim and Fergus while the elementary had Mike. The first day we just got to know each other, but the second day we wrote songs.
The song we wrote with Mike was about some of the experiences we have had travelling on and off the Coast. The song we wrote with Jim and Fergus was about the Coast and the way we live.
On the weekend I went to the cabin, but the musicians got to explore La Tabatiere and Mutton Bay, and from what they told me on Monday, they enjoyed it a lot.
On Monday, the secondary and elementary students got to perform their songs to the entire school. After that was all done, we said goodbye to the musicians and later that day they were supposed to leave on the plane, but got delayed until the following day.
Brayden Mansbridge, Secondary 2, Miss. Kelly’s class, Mecatina School
The Workshops with the Musicians
The experience that we had with Jim, Mike and Fergus was great. We had many laughs and giggles. The first musician that we had was Mike Sixonate. He was very funny. Our first session that we had, we used to just to kind of tossed around ideas to get to know each other, which was quite relaxing. He made everyone laugh and once we started to actually get to talk about our song, we came up with the idea of transportation on the Coast and some of our bad experiences. It was fun just to sit around and come up with ideas. But before we got to get into the idea, Mike said that we could make it into a blues tune which everyone thought was a great idea. When we were done with the song we practiced it a bit. I would love for him to come back again.
The second session that we had was with Jim Payne and Fergus O‛ Byrne who were also great. We got to write a song with them to. They already had an idea on what our song could be about. They thought that it could be about what we like most about living on the Lower North Shore. They got everyone to get a piece of paper and pencil so we could just make a list of all the things that we love most about it. That night they told us to bring it home to put it into a poem or write a few lyrics. The next day we started to write our song. We decided to do it more about the freedom that we have on the Lower North Shore. Everyone had great ideas. We weren’t long coming up with rhymes and ideas about the topic. After two sessions, we had our song written. It sounded great and we all took part in writing it.
In the end, they were all good songs and they turned out great. I don’t know about anyone else, but I had a great time. It was really nice to have people here from Newfoundland because it was like they were from here. I would love for them to come back another time for sure.
Written by Caitlin Collier, Secondary 1, English Class, Mecatina School
Coasters music
I think the music activities were awesome. The music they played was very, very good. I learned that I want to learn to play the guitar more than I thought I wanted to; and write my own songs. The musicians Fergus O’Byrne, Jim Payne and Mike Sixonate are amazing, and I would love for them to come back to do this again. They showed me that a song takes time, and when you first start, start with something you know. The song also has to go with a melody, and that the hardest part is to write the first line.
Fergus O’Byrne and Jim Payne have visited this school before. This is the second stage of Ms. Kelly’s project. This project is one of the funniest, and coolest things I’ve done. We wrote a song with Fergus and Jim about living on the Coast and how much freedom we have. We also wrote one with Mike about the transportation on the Coast. All of us had a couple laughs writing these songs, and I for one would love to do that again.
Kaylie Bobbitt, Secondary 2, Mecatina School, La Tabatiere
Life on the Coast - La vie sur la Basse-Côte 
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