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It is so great to be back in a classroom again after two years of teaching JK-G5 Music "á la carte"!  For me, our first in-person performance is looming very soon. We are three weeks away from hearing the entire junior school sing together in front of all of their parents and teachers. This is such an important first step for everyone to heal and come together, as a community, finally!

How can I fully prepare students who have limited or no performance experience for such a big event? This is the urgent piece for me. I am focussing on the PYP Approaches to Learning Skills to help build endurance for the Whole Body Listening Skill they will need to demonstrate for about one hour on concert day.  After showing a video of our last Harmony Concert in 2019, in each class, we had discussions about what they noticed. What is their responsibility as performers? What is their responsibility while listening to other performers? Why are we coming together to perform for their parents? What message are we communicating with the repertoire that we perform?

Grade 5 students were in Grade 2 in 2019, so they were considerably shorter and cuter (their words) than they are now. In addition to learning and polishing repertoire students recognized that they also had work to do in the area of maintaining focus, at least for the duration of a song or a piece. This needs to be practised alongside our pieces. I created this social story based on these discussions and we review this at the beginning of every class. This lead to further discussions about what to do if our bodies have too much energy and it's a challenge to be in control of their bodies. Students identified what works best for them. Some can practise mindful breathing in their spot in the classroom, while others need to go to the hallway for a couple of minutes and then return. They can also go for a short mindful walk to reset or grab a quick drink of water. There are visuals on the whiteboard to remind them.

We are getting there, slowly. The next challenge will be combining two classes together to rehearse, so we can then gradually build up to performing together as a full Junior School.  The best part for me is noticing how much my students are loving singing together. They play instruments too, but they are blending together so beautifully and sound amazing. They tell me that they feel happy after singing together and they love the songs. December 8th will be an emotional day. Our hearts will be full after hearing their wonderful sound!

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HMW shift the mindset of music education towards SEL and meaningful cultural experiences and student agency?

As I grappled with this question, I realized there were several pathways to choose from.  At the beginning of the year, we explored how we respond to our favourite songs. Students created a playlist of musical choices they know influence a calm state of mind, or can infuse energy in themselves. A large part of our music curriculum is learning an instrument. How can this be a more meaningful experience for students. We start with our "why." Why is learning to play a musical instrument important?

In Grades 3-5, we explored the idea of why we learn a musical instrument at school. What is happening in our brains? Why is it important? What impact can learning an instrument have on our lives? When we unpacked how busy the brain is while listening, looking at notation, or thinking about how to play the notes, moving fingers, breathing etc, students were surprised to discover that playing a musical instrument involves the whole brain. Playing a musical instrument is the only activity there is that involves the entire brain. Check out this short video which explains the science and research supporting this concept. 

My students were completely blown away to learn that their brain benefits from this intensive workout regardless of their skill level. The key is to try their best, Students agreed that this is an achievable goal and that over time, their brains will develop neural pathways that will impact their ability to self-regulate and problem solve. One student’s big “aha moment” was “Playing an instrument is my superpower”

Grade 3 students are playing ukulele and are excited to start the recorder soon. Grades 4 and 5 are playing chords on ukulele, keyboard or guitar and are jamming together learning chord patterns, and playing along with their favourite songs.  While performing together they are bonding as a class. I have observed students help each other learn the chords during practise time and encourage each other while working on challenging chord transitions and then cheer for each other at the end of a song. 

During this process, I have learned that all students are able to participate regardless of their skill level. There were a few students who needed my guidance to access their potential, due to a lack of confidence. Other required step-by-step modeling or colour-coded stickers to easily differentiate between the different chords as well as increasing fine motor skills to get the desired tone quality.  Some solutions needed to be creative, but there was always a solution to every challenge.  When encouraged to learn one chord or play one note from the chord instead of all three, they could be part of the song. Spirits are lifted and I have seen students who might struggle with academics shine when playing an instrument. When referring to the Mood Metre at the end of the class, most report a positive change in their mood and move their magnet on their class chart to reflect this. 

The resources I use are the Ukulele Class Method offered by Essential Elements for the Classroom. In Grades 4 and 5, I added Musical Futures Online which is an excellent resource providing visual chord pattern play- along videos for current popular music as well as classics. 

This endeavour has been a very positive process and I am looking forward to what comes next. It was challenging to make this happen from a cart, but I found a way to make it work. When I walk into each classroom, there is always excitement, which is uplifting for me. Their playing is not particularly polished or technically perfect, but there is joy which is lovely to see. Next we will work towards playing and singing simultaneously, which is very challenging at this age. 

Grade 3 students are playing ukulele and are excited to start the recorder soon. Grades 4 and 5 are playing chords on ukulele, keyboard or guitar and are jamming together learning chord patterns and playing along with their favourite songs.  While playing together they are bonding as a class. I have seen students help each other learn the chords during practise time and encourage each other while working on challenging chord transitions and then cheer for each other at the end of a song. 

What did I learn in the process? All students are able to participate regardless of their skill level. There were a few students who needed my guidance every step of the way due to a lack of confidence or challenges with fine motor skills. When encouraged to learn one chord or play one note from the chord instead of all three, they could be part of the song. Spirits are lifted and I have seen students who might struggle with academics shine when playing an instrument. When referring to the Mood Metre at the end of the class, most report a positive change in their mood and move their magnet on their class chart to reflect this. Students are inspired to research their favourite songs individually and are asking to pair up or work in small groups to play new chord patterns which is exciting.

The resources I use are the Ukulele Class Method offered by Essential Elements Music Class In Grades 4 and 5, I added Musical Futures Online which is an excellent resource providing playalongs for current popular music as well as classics. 

                     

This has been a very positive process and I am looking forward to what comes next. It was challenging to make this happen from a cart, but I found a way to make it work. 

When I walk into each classroom, there is always excitement, which is uplifting for me. Their playing is not particularly polished, or technically correct for everyone, but there is a joyful atmosphere in each room, which is lovely to see.  Next, I would like to examine intentionally harnessing the focus achieved after an instrumental performance, to investigate if student engagement is elevated in a Math class, for example. Alternatively, a student could use music as a tool to help them self-regulate when needed outside of their scheduled music class. Students are asking for access to instruments in their classroom, which is encouraging! Hmm, a possibility, perhaps for next season!  In the meantime, here is an example of where we are now in one G5 class. 5C - Happier Day 1

 

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When I heard that music would be delivered by visiting every classroom with a cart, that idea alone was overwhelming to me. How might I meet the needs of JK-G5 students and engage students in the wide variety of engagements they are used to? This is a blog post all on its own. My goal for this term ultimately is for students to feel joy when engaged in music class. We play many percussion instruments such as boomwhakers, xylophones, bells, drums etc. As it turns out the most valuable tool which helps inform my teaching plan both when I enter the room and also before I leave the room, is the Mood Metre

Last year, Marc Brackett, author of "Permission to Feel -Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive" presented a very informative and engaging professional morning for our school community. We learned about the RULER Aproach for Social and Emotional Learning, which includes the Mood Meter I mentioned.

Inside the cover of the book, "Permission to Feel",  there are many words representing emotions experienced in each of the four quadrants. In the Junior School after classroom discussions with students, they come up with words that best describes how they might be feeling in each colour.  A poster, like the one above, is displayed in each classroom and students have a magnet with their name or photo which they place on the mood meter at the beginning of the day and then they move during the day as their mood changes.

This has been such a valuable point of reference for me as I know right away based on the information students have provided whether or not my planned lesson is what the students need or capable of.

As I am gathering materials and packing up my cart, I have noticed that students are going to the mood meter on their own and moving their magnet to reflect a change from how they were feeling at the beginning of the lesson. I have only seen an improvement in how they are feeling, which is encouraging.

If I was still in my own classroom I wouldn't necessarily see this data. An unexpected bonus. My main goal for this term seems to be having an impact and that warms my heart.

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Grade 5 students love the opportunity to choose their own adventure in music. I am all for it, but there are obvious challenges that immediately come to mind. How can I make sure they stay on track? How can I keep all twenty-two students accountable, on track and help them achieve their goals? Did I mention there are two classes?

How might we manage and assess student-directed learning in Grade 5 music?  Immediately following the last F2F, I front-loaded what a"My Choice" type project could look like with both Grade 5 classes.  We talked about what that would look like and what would not be an appropriate use of the time.

In a Google Form, all students answered these questions. "What would you like to learn more about in Music? How would you share that knowledge, performance or composition?  All their responses landed in one of three components; Perform, Create and Explore. Now that I knew the directions the students wanted to go, I took a few weeks to think about what to do about it. We were in the thick of rehearsals and concert performance mode for the last couple of weeks anyway, so it was ideal to take a step back from this for a while.

On the first week back after the break, I gave the students a sticky note and asked them to write their "My Choice" goal and then post it on the chart under one of the following headings; Perform, Create and Explore.

Now that students had their goal in mind, I asked them to think about an action component. How would they share their learning? Who would hear their performance or their composition?

I created a "My Choice Plan" document that contained their goal, the action and the steps they could take to get there. After much thought about the best format for this activity,  I decided a hard copy would be the most effective for this. Students need to see this in front of them rather than out of view on a tab on a device in order to stay on track and accountable, especially in my progress conversations with each student.

They filled it out their document in pencil, which allowed for revisions to be made. It also serves as a means for me to offer feedback and to provide guidance for next steps. Some students wanted to collaborate with a partner, so this became part of their plan. Plans can change or take a new direction, within reason.

We have Fridays A and B where all classes have an additional 45 minutes of music every other week. My intention is to use this time consistently, but also have the flexibility to turn to this work on other days, if I am away on PD, for example. How can students keep track of their progress between classes so they can always move forward?

Google slides works beautifully for this. They created a Slide Deck to track their  "My Choice" Plan progress. Every class they create a new slide and include the date. On each slide they add links to their research, videos they looked at as well as writing a sentence or two describing what they did or learned about and what they will do next class to move forward.

There have been two classes dedicated to this so far and all students are engaged. Some have chosen a large goal like composing a jingle for York Radio, or a smaller goal to improve reading notation and achieve a perfect score on Breezin Thru Theory.  Students like this flexibility and feel that their goals are achievable.

I now rotate around the room or outside in the hallway as students work and I have one-to-one conversations about their goal and how best to achieve it. They ask for guidance about where to find information or how to use various tools or play a particular chord on ukulele etc. They ask me, or one another. Positive teacher-student relationships and student to student relationships are being strengthened. They are asking wonderful questions and sharing new discoveries they are excited about. Next week, the plan is to share their work-in-progress with a peer, get some feedback, which I will also contribute to and then decide what needs tweaking moving forward.

So far so good.

 

 

 

c21_logo_mediumWelcome to you Cohort 21 Blog. This journal is an integral part of your Cohort 21 experience. Here you will reflect, share , collaborate  and converse as you move through the C21 Action Plan process. 

This is your first post and an opportunity to share a little bit about yourself as a learner and leader. Please respond the to the following prompts below:

1) Reflect on your own personal learning journey and K-12 education. Identify one learning experience that you can point to as having made a significant impact on some element of your own growth and development. It could be that teacher and subject that really sparked significant growth or a trip that opened your eyes to a whole new world or way of thinking or a non-catastrophic failure that you learned so much from.  Briefly describe the learning experience and identify the various supports, structures, mindsets and relational ingredients that were put in place by the teacher or facilitator that directly contributed to your growth and success. 

About eleven years ago, I was fortunate to attend a Choral Conducting Symposium in Tuscany, Italy. Twenty-two music educators mostly from North America, but a few others from Europe and Australia were the chamber singers and we took turns to conduct the choir's performance of an assigned piece from the extensive repertoire. The morning workshop sessions were given by a lady who was a specialist in a holistic approach to vocal performance. It was very foreign to all of us and quite uncomfortable. Each morning, she chose one of us to be her "subject" as she demonstrated how to improve a vocal skill.  One morning, she chose me. Despite being very aware of being in the centre of a huge circle with all eyes on me, I went along with it as she was such a gentle character and I trusted her. 

She produced a tiny bottle of an essential oil, I forget the exact scent. It might have been tea tree oil. She asked me to smell it. Then she requested that I close my eyes, inhale deeply and then hold a few seconds. While I held in my air, she asked me to "sing where the smell went". There were a few giggles from my fellow participants, but I ignored them and listened carefully to the instructions. I then did what she said, while focussing intensely and produced the most beautiful sound I ever heard come from my own voice on a simple "oo". I opened my eyes and everyone was looking at me. astonished.

What she had shown me was a way to basically open up space in my head, in order to sing with a full-bodied sound. Once I discovered how to do this once, I didn't need the essential oil again to replicate the experience. The teacher was passionate about her subject and this was communicated to me because I was open-minded. I trusted her. She thought of an "outside the box" strategy rather than just using words, to teach me the concept.

The entire week was filled with moments like that. It was wonderful to be part of an ensemble, rather than always being the one directing. I had forgotten what it was like to be a singer in a choir as I hadn't performed in a choir since university. It really made me think more about how to explain vocal skills to my elementary students, by creating visual and sensory experiences for them.

Afterwards, the guest conductor gave me a lovely compliment about the tone quality of my voice and my students also noticed the difference in my singing back at school, which meant more to me.

2) What is the one Learning skill (MOE) or Approach to Learning (IB ATL) that you feel is MOST important in this day and age? How do you intentionally build it into your curriculum and develop it in your students throughout the year?

Communication is most important in this day and age. In my subject area, listening is number one on our essential agreements. Students need to learn how to listen to each other and in music, they get to practise this in every class. We practise this by listening to a piece of music at the beginning of class. This helps students to settle and focus, before beginning a rehearsal or performance as a choir or an instrumental ensemble. Students have also commented that a full-body listening activity at the beginning of the class helps to set them up for success where other skills are concerned, such as self-regulation for example. 

3) Insert an image below that best captures the essence of that Learning Skill or ATL. (Click on the "Helpful WordPress Video Tutorials" link in the left hand sidebar to learn how to insert it)

(Insert Image here - **Don't forget to give the image correct attribution to let everyone know where you got it from** )

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