The global pandemic with Covid 19 has brought about so much pain, division, and negativity. BUT, there has also been some good that has come from this time of being home. Today I am going to focus on one of the positives that have come from our current circumstances.
This summer is unprecedented in so many ways. Levels courses, workshops, and summer professional development has moved from specific locations to being available everywhere. This Wednesday I will finish my Land Ho, Falling Forward, Not Failing Forward Workshop and I have had over 600 people from the US, Cypress, Ukraine, UK, Ireland, Scotland, Cypress, Spain, Finland, Greece, Germany, and Estonia! When else would I have been able to teach fellow music teacher friends from this many countries? It has been amazing.
International Sunday Sharing
JaSeSoi, the Finnish version of the American Orff Schulwerk Association began in May with a Sunday gathering of International Sharing for music teachers. In June my friend Thom Borden and I continued with a USA version. Every Sunday at 11:00 AM Eastern time we experience singing, dancing, playing, and creating with hundreds of fellow music teacher friends from around the world. The session is about 30 minutes, then most people stay for the 10 minute break out session (a lovely zoom feature) with a random group of music teachers from around the world. The presenters change each week and it has been SO WONDERFUL! How to join? On facebook, go to International Sunday Sharing USA and join. The link to the live zoom is published Saturdays. At the end of July JaSeSoi will begin again and we will continue the sharing from Finland!
AMIS Online Summer Sessions
The Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS) has wonderful (and free) PD EVERY Wednesday at 8AM Eastern time. Click AMIS Online Summer Sessions. Can't go? No worries- it is all recorded! Check out the Getting the Most from SeeSaw session! SO good and shows how to create, share, and add skills to SeeSaw creations.
Sing, Say, Zoom and Play!
Rocky Mountain Orff Chapter and Regional Organization of Colorado Kodaly Educators (ROCKE) has free PD EVERY Tuesday from 11AM to 1PM Eastern Time. Check it out: Sing, Say, Zoom, Play! Summer Online Learning Series.
Looking for more? There is a HUGE list of PD from a previous post several weeks ago - go check it out!
My most lovely friend and fellow Orff teacher, Crystal Pridmore, shared a beautiful ocean canon on the facebook group, The Singing Space. Most of you know I am originally from Maine and have a pretty serious love affair with all things ocean. When I heard this lovely canon, I loved it for it's simplicity, but also for the orchestration and minor key tonality. Beautiful! Crystal so kindly gave me permission to share the song and also the activity she sent to her students remotely on making an ocean drum.
Originally pitched in a minor, I have written it in d minor as that would work for children's voices. Hope you enjoy listening and find a way to incorporate this into lessons with students as school ends or as a beginning of the year activity or anytime next year.
We have experienced the worst of times. We have also experienced outpourings of gratitude, appreciation, and love. We have seen a country divided over masks, race, and so many other problems. But we have also seen a coming together to help others in need and, especially in the music education world, an outpouring of sharing, caring, and connecting.
There have been so many wonderful webinars and workshops online lately! This summer the possibilities and options are richer than ever before.
So, here is a partial list - please let me know what courses you find and I will add them to the list.
Can you relate to the question marks above? I think many of us are stumbling forward with Remote/E/Distance Learning but also looking to next school year and asking the question of "What will that look like?"
Are you feeling the pressure of all this uncertainty? Take a moment and watch and listen to Jimmy Fallon and crew (with pots, pans, glasses, even a toaster as instruments) perform Under Pressure:
We are all wondering and there are no clear answers. If you would like to see me talk about this, head over to these links - technology was not my friend today, so it is in two parts.
Singing can be dangerous -Webinar: What Do Science and Data Say About the Near Term Future of Singing with National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), Chorus America, Barbershop Harmony Society, and Performing Arts Medical Association (PAMA).
Comparing your lessons to others creation of padlets, flipgrids, SeeSaws, Google Slides, Google Classrooms, and Virtual Classrooms damages your
Sense of Self
Doesn't Help You Get to Your Goals
Limits You
Next year may include a mix or one of these teaching realities: remote, streaming live from our classrooms, face to face with small groups in our classrooms, face to face with large groups, traveling on a cart, with a mask, without a mask, with a face shield, without a face shield, seeing our students on a different schedule, remote one week or day, face to face the next, etc.
We Also Know
We are creative.
We want to be relational with our students.
We will teach children.
We will teach children music.
We will teach the elements of music; rhythm, harmony, melody, form, and expressive qualities.
Things to Consider
Some things will be more important than ever - a focus on social/emotional learning. Students will need music to heal, to celebrate, and to move forward in a positive way.
Structure and routine. Students will have been out of school and away from tradition, routine, and socialization for almost six months. It will be a time of re-learning, particularly for our youngest students, and our more vulnerable students.
Moving Forward
So,what can we do now? SO much!!!Think about what you want your Kindergarten, Fifth Graders, ________ to know about one element of music - rhythm, for example. What would you normally teach your students to prepare division of beat? A song? Ok - If we are unable to sing the song together due to restrictions, make a recording of yourself singing the song to play during the class. Students can sing the song "in their heads and hearts". Perhaps they can sing specific words or the highest, lowest or "home" pitch. Learn the song the same way you normally would- maybe you record yourself teaching the song by rote in sections with space for students to sing "in their heads and hearts" until they can lip sync the whole song. Now of course, that is not the best and it will be awkward at first, but we are moving forward, right? Then maybe you may have had students keep the beat with the song - use body percussion or non-locomotor movement- jump, twist, wiggle, sway, etc. Perhaps students clap the "way the words sound". Then maybe you had them play instruments. Uh oh- sharing may be problematic due to virus.
But wait - what if each student brings in an empty oatmeal box, 4-5 pairs of chopsticks, and 2 plastic eggs filled with pennies, plastic beads, paperclips, etc. (no food items- bug/insect/vermin issue). If parents are unable, others could donate. No plastic eggs? Oriental Trading has 144 for less than $5.00. The best part - everything goes INSIDE the oatmeal box, AKA drum. These would be stored in classrooms along with art supplies, etc. They do not take up much space and everything for music class goes inside the oatmeal box. Play with lid only, use chopsticks as mallets or create rhythms using chopsticks as manipulatives or use as conducting batons, tap together for light wood sound, etc.
Hopefully, you are getting the point here - we can still teach music!!! No, it won't be the same. Grieve that, mourn it, and choose to move forward.
Technology
Obviously, there is some amazing tech, sites, and apps available to many of us that we will continue to use remotely or face to face.
If your students will not be able to use barred instruments next year or you are on a cart AND your students have access to tech in their rooms, Brent Geyer has created some fabulous internet based virtual xylophones for our students to use. Not an app, nothing to sign up/in, no personal info shared, and beautiful sounding! Many thanks to Brent for providing these for FREE!!!
There is a line from my favorite medical drama that is in every episode. The director of the hospital asks a simple, yet powerful question - "How can I help?"
Let me know. I may not have an answer, but I am here for you.
We music teachers love our manipulatives, whether they are the mini-erasers from Target, stuffed animals, popsicle sticks, or printed items. Engaging students to actively create while in remote/3-learning is challenging. I have been using Google slides to create manipulatives students can move around and wanted to share these with you here. You can use these in many ways - the final slide has the ones you may want to use with students to go with the Bee Bee Bumblebee rhyme.
Here is what the moveable slide looks like - with cards the students can click and drag to create new rhythms based upon the traditional rhyme.
There are other slides to use as well in the classroom:
Remote Learning has been a learning curve for me. As an Orff trained music practitioner active, hands-on music making and engagement is how my classes roll. It's not that I dislike technology, but rather that my focus is on activities, games, songs, movement, and very little technology. I also think our children have far too much access and interaction with technology and not enough with other humans, but that is a different conversation. My biggest hurdles with online/remote/e-learning have been using technology in a meaningful way. So, crash courses in imovie, screencasting, and google slides.
Our school leadership wanted to ensure that relational teaching stayed at the forefront of our thinking and planning activities and lessons for our students while they are not on our campus and our physical presence. School is still happening, and I am so thankful that our leadership made relationships our primary goal.
Delivering Content
Knowing we were to keep our faces front and center made delivering content decisions easy - it was going to be me recording videos with songs, activities, and lessons. I already had a youtube channel (3 in fact) and one I had used for sub plans before where I recorded lessons, so that was an easy decision.
Powerpoint vs. Google Slides
I have used Powerpoint forever, but think I will be switching to Google Slides now for several reasons.
Obvious, probably, but whatever I make is automatically saved to my Drive.
Easy to create a link.
Many other reasons - the top two sealed the deal for me.
Google Meet vs. Screencastify
So far, I have found Screencasting to be the way to go. Screencastify is a free add on from Chrome and is truly ridiculously easy. My favorite features are the edit once recording is complete, and the highlight cursor!
I also like that once I record I can edit the recording. Free up to 5 minutes long, click here for a tutorial and info on how to redeem the free coupon code for unlimited access.
Here is a lesson I made for my students that has been very successful as we have moved to Remote Learning:
3. How to Beatbox (complete with a mistake -no, we are NOT perfect and it's OK)
4. Beatboxing Video - my kids loved this and sent me videos of themselves making up beatboxing rhythms which have been so fun to listen to!
Videos
I have also made many videos of myself singing and using childrens literature with songs. Lessons are following a flow of "steady beat or rhythm activity", "review" (song), "new" activity or lesson and always end with an invitation for students to send me a picture of their "Sidewalk Symphony" or "Clapping Challenge" or "make up a new verse" and have gotten some wonderful pics and videos from families.
There are many reasons schools may choose to close to on-site learning and move to remote learning. In times of flu or illness running rampant through our petri dishes, um ... schools we need to be careful about hand holding, instrument sharing, and taking care of our physical health. At present, COVID - 19 is spreading around the world. Friends teaching overseas have already been teaching online for months as their schools closed in January. Some school systems around the US are closed and others making preparations and plans for possible closings. Teachers are being asked to create lessons students can access from home to continue learning. This list is just a quick overview of some possibilities - many more exist and it has been amazing to see the camaraderie of music teachers joining together to help one another continue our students music education. Please add to the conversation - read on and you will see there are many places and spaces for you to join, ask questions, and find answers. If you are not on facebook and cannot access the groups, leave a comment here and I will post your question/comment on fb. Stay healthy, everyone! Some of us will stay teaching in our schools and the rules and restrictions around contact, sharing instruments, etc. will be important to consider, particularly in our classrooms where so much of what we do is movement related.
Hands Off Dances/Movement
Click this link for a playlist of many no-touch dances. Please let me know what others you have and I will add them to the playlist. As of right now there are 35 videos. For others, we will move to remote/online/e-learning formats where our students will be home and we will be using a platform to teach from. Our school uses Powerschool, and if we go to a remote format, we will direct students and parents to Powerschool and to our existing pages where we can record videos, add documents, and add links to Seesaw, youtube, etc. Some teachers will use existing subscriptions (such as Musicplayonline.com, Seesaw, etc.) and others will be able to access some new ones - check out this googledoc of Education Companies Offering Free Subscriptions Due To School Closings.
Remote/Online/E-Learning
So, how to teach elementary music online?
First look at what is already done you might be able to use.
Short, Sweet, Specific
This is the message from many teacher friends overseas who have been remote/online/E-Learning for months. Will students receive lessons in an email or online platform your school uses, will you need paper/pencil activities or online activities? Lots of things to think about here: Resources for Teaching Online (Not Music Education Specific)
Facebook Groups - Ask Questions, Get Answers, Info, Comments
My friend, Kathy, teaches at Seisen International School in Tokyo and while her school has been out she has continued the learning. She happily shares a very successful lesson we can model using A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle.
Her school uses Seesaw but anyone can see this. I love how everything is included right in the Seesaw app! This could also be done as a youtube or vimeo video with a link to materials in a google doc.
This amazing theater has canceled it's amazing line up of shows, but is bringing lessons for ages 6-12 direct to us at home. The first week (March 16-20) is Percussion Week complete with Body Percussion, stepping, and a bucket or two! Their videos are very kid-friendly:
Teaching Music Digital Learning
Looking for something by grade levels to see what someone else does? Check out this great resource by David Row of Make Moments Matter.
Music Teacher youtube Videos
Laura and Daniel are music teachers in Hong Kong and are experts now at remote learning. They have a HUGE selection of videos to choose from and they are so clever! They deliver content through the home learning section of their music blog. Here are two of their videos.:
Brahms Storm
Loose Tooth Music Note Reading
Mariana teaches in Tokyo, here is a link to her many videos. Here are a couple of her wonderful videos:
Grade 1 Lesson 5: Rhythm and Movement
Grade 4 Recorder Lullaby
Krista teaches in Hong Kong and she has several videos students can watch and write a response to - here are a couple:
Instrument Game Show - Do You Know Your Instrument Sounds?
Singing with Solfege -"Hey, Hey! Look at Me!" (Mi-So Edition)
Other Possibilities
Che Che Koolay - folk song (traditional) from Ghana
Students learn the song and then can play along with various parts - this would need short directions such as, "Find something at home that makes a shaking sound and play the shaker part when you see the four ta (quarter)notes." Or, "Find two pencils or wooden spoons to try playing the rhythm stick part when you see the rhythm rest titi rest ta."
Have students make connections to Ghana in this short video - chocolate, gold, and poisonous snakes - COOL!! Start the video at 1:00 (advertising before that).
Can Music Bring Joy When Times are Tough? Watch, Listen, and Respond
Check out this googledoc of a sample watch/listen/respond using google forms. Easy to recreate and so perfect for upper elementary to help them deal with the uncomfortable emotions surrounding the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Let's Dance
Play along using a fitball (students could use a pillow on a chair and wooden spoons or chopsticks instead of drum sticks)
Hello Echo Rhythm Song
More from Kathy in Tokyo
Jump, Jump, Everyone:
Kye Kye Kule Movement and Song:
What other ideas do you have? Please join the conversation and let's all help each other continue to make music with our kiddos.
