2019-2020 Professional Goals Reflection

Despite the quarantine, I have made efforts to continue progressing toward realizing the goals I laid out for myself this year, although they have been adapted to meet the parameters of a changing time. My main focus for the 2019-20 goals has been with the chorus. Directing the choruses (chori?) for the MRV elementary schools has been tremendously rewarding and, recently, I have started a weekly chorus google meet where I'll continue to address "fundamental choral techniques that include breathing, projection, articulation, dynamics, solfege, singing in unison, 2-part, and three-part harmony, as well as relevant vocabulary, music theory, and literacy skills" . I realize that three-part singing is probably a bit of a stretch for this age group, never mind the current limitations that exist due to remote learning. The 2nd part of my goal: "taking on a wide variety of material that include rounds, canonic singing, art songs, songs from the Gospel tradition, and popular ("pop") material...[with] Students [being] given a degree of authority to choose some of the material for our Spring concert", continues to move forward as I send out Flipgrid assignments that I then "imovie magic" into videos that show students singing in round with one another. This is not a viable substitute for students truly learning to sing rounds, but it will give them an idea for what it sounds like. Although the Spring Concert is cancelled, students did put a considerable amount of time into choosing repertoire for this event. The choral festival that did take place addressed some of these goals as well. I'm still working to "create and sustain a positive choral culture"   as evidenced by the increase in remote participation by our choral students.
My second goal, regarding the curriculum work that was initially set out, has been doomed to fail by circumstances that, I believe, are somewhat out of my control. We, the elementary music teachers, have not had consistent structures - clear direction about which standards/performance indicators we're using, ample time set aside for us to dig into it, a clear path connecting this work with our various reporting systems - within which to work on this. There was one day last year in June where we were given the time to work for a couple of days and some promising starts were made. Maybe this will be addressed again? The remote experience has given me an opportunity to develop some activities on video that contain important curricular elements - skills and concepts - that can be seen very clearly. Perhaps making these videos, although time consuming, can be a part of my work moving forward and can serve as a template for critical curricular analysis that could help me to grow and develop this aspect of my work.
Truth be told, I love teaching elementary school music. I've been so lucky to have the opportunity to run the choral program this year and, although I know I may lose this position in order to equalize the work load between Carolyn and I, I will never stop focusing on choral techniques as a major thread of my upper elementary general music work. There's a positive note to end on!

2019-2020 goals progress reflection #1

In reflecting on the goals I set for myself this year regarding chorus - "addressing fundamental choral techniques that include breathing, projection, articulation, dynamics, solfege, singing in unison, 2-part, and three-part harmony, as well as relevant vocabulary, music theory, and literacy skills" - things are going very well. I believe that addressing these fundamentals have set students up for success as we prepare for the district choral festival and other material.

The next part of my goal - "taking on a wide variety of material that include rounds, canonic singing, art songs, songs from the Gospel tradition, and popular ("pop") material...[with] Students [being] given a degree of authority to choose some of the material for our Spring concert" - was more prevalent during the first third of the year, and has taken a bit of a backseat as we get closer to the festival and are working on really dialing in the festival material. That said, the festival will be over in a month and I will be able to get back to engaging with a wider variety of material including that which the students pick and therefore take great joy in singing.

I am still always "working to create and sustain a positive choral culture within the schools I teach." I had one event recently that brought into question my methods of creating and sustaining a positive culture. One of my groups learns so quickly and sings so well that I have been quick to overlook some rambunctious behavior and, therefore, remiss in establishing super clear rules for expected behavior. My bad. It reached a point where I was unable to present material because of the level of disruption and so I sent the whole chorus back to their classrooms with the expectation that we would start by doing things differently the following week. The following week they came back, I outlined my expectations and held them accountable for it, and we had a very productive rehearsal.

 I still feel that "the only limitation [besides my own inexperience] to what we'll be able to address is the time that is scheduled for [chorus].

I would like to spend more time pursuing "professional development opportunities like the VMEA clinics I attended this year."  I have joined "membership with the ACDA," and I'm engaging in "effective collaboration with our other district choral teachers", but I need to do more professional development to really feel like I'm becoming person who is truly of the choral discipline.

My second goal regarding the HUUSD curriculum initiative has been less successful so far, but I am still committed to doing it. The time we are given during shared staff meetings is inadequate for the scope of the work, and the group is not effectively facilitated. No, I am not the facilitator. We had a great start on it last year in June (June of 2019) working on this stuff as an elementary music committee and it shows a lot of promise, but I'm beginning to realize that if this work is going to get done, I'm likely going to have to do it on my own time.

My 2019-2020 Professional Goals

Goal #1: Chorus

In my new position (Pre-K through 4th grade general music and 5/6 chorus in the four Valley Elementary Schools) an increased emphasis has been placed on my role as the chorus teacher. Teaching chorus is something I've done to varying degrees over the years as the schedule and student participation has allowed, but it has never been a primary focus for me. I've always put more of my efforts toward band/instrumental and general music instruction and schedules have not always prioritized chorus as being of great importance. For example, in Moretown during the four previous years we've never had chorus formally scheduled into the day but, rather, a small group of interested students would come during their recess time and I'd help them to sing, learn, and prepare for the district festival and spring concert. This year, all four of the valley elementary schools have chorus scheduled into the week, and it is my job to teach it. With this new, increased emphasis on chorus within my position, I have prioritized this in my planning. I am digging into my resources and addressing fundamental choral techniques that include breathing, projection, articulation, dynamics, solfege, singing in unison, 2-part, and three-part harmony, as well as relevant vocabulary, music theory, and literacy skills. We are taking on a wide variety of material that includes rounds, canonic singing, art songs, songs from the Gospel tradition, and popular ("pop") material. Students are given a degree of authority to choose some of the material for our Spring concert and I'm working to create and sustain a positive choral culture within the schools I teach. The only limitation in what we'll be able to address is the time that is scheduled for it. One rehearsal per week is, in my opinion, not nearly enough but a start. My goal is to thoroughly and consistently address all of the aforementioned elements, to take advantage of professional development opportunities like the VMEA clinics I attended this year, membership with the ACDA, and effective collaboration with our other district choral teachers, and to work to create and sustain a choral culture in our schools. I'm not sure how it relates to a "Framework for Teaching" because I don't have the framework to reference, nor how I will "measure the attainment" of my goal beyond looking back at the year's accomplishments and seeing if I did all of the aforementioned things with fidelity to the best of my ability. 


Goal #2: HUUSD Curriculum initiative

I plan to help create the HUUSD music curriculum by participating in the district effort that is currently underway as follows: Using the HUUSD Elementary Level Performance Indicators as well as the Music Standards approved by the VT State Board of Education, I will, collaboratively with Lizzy Carlson and Carolyn Adams, to the best outcome that the time allotted to us during shared staff meetings allows, complete the work started in June of 2019 on the Kindergarten Music at a Glance, 1st/2nd Music at a Glance, 3rd/4th Music at a Glance, and the 5/6 Music at a Glance documents. When this work is completed, I will then populate the Kindergarten Curriculum Framework, 1st/2nd Curriculum Framework, 3rd/4th Curriculum Framework, and the 5/6 Curriculum Framework (as it applies to my role of chorus teacher) with the activities I have done with students. I will then compare my use of the Performance Indicators and the VT State Board Standards and observe what PIs and Standards I have not addressed in order to try and bring these into my teaching so that my practice might become more aligned with the aforementioned performance indicators and standards. I'm not sure how it relates to a "Framework for Teaching" because I don't have the framework to reference, nor how I will "measure the attainment" of my goal beyond looking back at the year's accomplishments and seeing if I did all of the aforementioned things with fidelity to the best of my ability.

2019 Goals reflection

We met as a music group in November with the intention of populating the provided Curriculum document only to come to confusion about what we were expected to do. It appeared that the curriculum work at the high school level was considerably different, and at a different point in it's development than that at the elementary level. This was frustrating for the group because it felt like another month of time was spent trying to simply figure out what was being asked of us, rather than on the tasks that affect us directly like our unified festivals, our common assessments, and further developing our band curriculum. With some clarification in the weeks that followed, we learned that populating the curriculum document was not the hard directive we thought it was, and we were asked to choose an activity to compare to the HUUSD Learning Expectations. 

So, I gave it a solid try with three of the activities I did this year. The first was a comparison of the LE's with a composition unit the 3rd through 6th grade started this year, the second with the common skills based assessments we do at the 2nd and 4th grade level, and the third was with the student-driven process of selecting music for this year's concert.  

See a detailed application of the PS.02.02 Creative Expression rubric to the composition assignment. Scroll down to the second rubric to see my write up. A further extension of this assignment would include demonstrating the use of some basic rules for writing harmony as it applies to adding a second instrument. With this next assignment, or with a deeper revision process of the original assignment, I could apply PS.02.03.

I looked through these performance indicators to find a skills based one that could apply to the 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade common assessments for singing and instrumental, but couldn't find anything that is a direct hit. The skills based one (PS.02.02) is all about creating art, which is great, but the wording is certainly taken from a visual arts perspective. (Maybe PS.02.03 with some tweaking of this language to make it more relevant to skills based instruction in music?) PS.02.07 could work for students to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their own performance according to our existing singing rubric. 

See my attempt to apply PS.02.06 to the process 3rd through 6th grade students engaged with in order to select the pieces for our Spring concert. Scroll down to the 6th rubric. This rubric is much more applicable to visual arts but could work for music.

It is my feeling that these rubrics need some tweaking if they are to effectively guide music instruction. These ones are leaving out the specificity that music assessment requires. I understand that they are intended to apply to all subjects and, in my opinion, they are written for and by visual arts teachers.

My 2018-2019 professional goals

Proficiency Based Learning (hereafter referred to as PBL) has been an emerging initiative in our district for three years with varying degrees of implementation. As facilitator of the music Professional Learning Group (hereafter referred to as PLG) during that period, I have consistently attempted to understand what was being asked of teachers surrounding the PBL rollout, and I have consistently tried to build this work into our agendas. These conversations, among our PLG, have never amounted to much and we have instead gravitated to focusing on the topics considered to be of more consequence to our programs like further aligning our band curriculum, administering and tuning our common assessments at the 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade level, and putting together our annual festival series for band and chorus.

We have had little traction with the work of PBL implementation. There has been no clear and guiding vision for what PBL should look like embedded within our music programs, there has been no useful and practical material to help us set goals for this work and, among the music teachers, it has been unclear how PBL is actually different from the way we have been assessing our students. Our focus for music curricula is largely skills based, especially at the elementary level, and proficiency is what we have always assessed. 

Recently, there has been some guidance that has provided us with a ray of cautious optimism about the PBL work for our group. We have received a K-12 curriculum document designed for and populated by the Art PLG that could serve as a template to guide our work. Within it there are performance indicators taken from the Core Arts standards, as well as places to populate sample tasks and learning targets. We are planning to attach rubrics to this document as well. There is a considerable amount of work ahead to do this work (considering the time we have to do it) in a way that will make it meaningful and useful. The current idea is for us to begin with the High School level and work backwards because this will inform what our elementary students should be prepared to do by the time they leave 6th grade. 

My 1st goal is to work with my present summative assessment activities - the 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade common assessments - as the substance I will use to populate this new PBL document in order to view something familiar through a new lens. My hope is that this will inform my instruction in a new way and serve to propel a positive momentum toward using PBL to enhance my work with students. My 2nd goal is to keep an open mind about developing PBL. There is a weariness among many of my district colleagues, not just music folk, surrounding the PBL initiative that can be infectious. This 2nd goal involves choosing to be positive about the potential that can come from the work of implementing PBL rather than being exasperated by the scope of what is being asked of us as it relates to the relative dearth of time we have to do it. I think keeping an open mind about developing PBL and trying to look at it from a fresh perspective is a worthy goal. 

After the goals meeting with Kaiya on 11/9/18: The 4th Tuesday of the month is time set aside for me to work on the HUUSD Learning Expectations, while the focus of the job alike group should be to work on the Curriculum Document with the music group as it aligns with the Core Arts Standards. Before the end of December, I should choose, design, and implement one Creative Expression standard from the Learning Expectations document with students. (Maybe one a month after that?) This work has been presented to me as being largely experimental for this year to see if it is a helpful path toward implementing proficiencies. I should clarify this work with Lizzie Carlson and Carolyn Adams. With the Curriculum Document, I need to find the Core Arts Standards' Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings document and as a group we might begin by populating the Curriculum Template document with that information. ?

Reflection on 2017-18 Goals

June 2018

Process teaching was alive and well within my practice this year.
5th and 6th grade students successfully learned and created some
of the most advanced material I’ve been involved in as a music teacher to date.
The piece we finally performed, “Loathsome Troll” had multiple components that were
taught separately and with a deliberate process approach so characteristic of Orff teaching.
It began with chants, melodies both sung and played, body percussion patterns that became
xylophone parts, then more focused xylophone instruction, all in unison at first, and also
in the unusual 11/4 time signature and E phrygian mode. When these parts had solid representation
among the students, we were able to layer them successfully as contrasting parts through weekly
(or near weekly) repetition and practice. This product became transition music that featured poetry
and choreography created by students based on Greek Gods and Goddesses. As far as my general
music practice is concerned, the outcome was a professional pinnacle to date.

There were four or five other equally engaging units that I tried to develop with our 5th and 6th
grade students. I started all of this material in September, and by February I realized that we would
run out of time to develop a performance piece by May’s concert if we were we to stick to the
current curricular agenda, so I narrowed the focus of the class. In this way, I dealt successfully
with the shortage of contact time I have with students, and I have more insight into what the program
could be were I to see students with more frequency and regularity. My professional challenge, and no
easy task, is to bring students to a high level of learning despite a dearth of contact time.
I believe the answer lies in taking more of a K-6 approach in addition to a September to June approach.

I have set some challenging goals for next year (2018-19) that involve a greater emphasis on
storytelling through creative music and movement, and my mind is set on discovering more
efficient way of building the necessary skills, K-12, that will serve as the components for these
greater learning outcomes.

Goals for the 2017-1018 school year

Upon completing my Orff training this past summer, I'm aspiring to unpack "process teaching" as it applies to my work with students. This term, "process teaching", refers to the approach that a teacher takes in developing material with students, the outcome of which is dependent upon student creativity. Process teaching reminds me mostly of reverse design where the teacher, in planning, works backward from an imagined outcome in order to break a lesson down into it's most understandable components so that relevant concepts are experienced by students before they are intellectualized, so that these experiences can be built upon at a pace that allows for student skill development, and so that students have multiple opportunities to be creative and, in so doing, determine a big part of the outcome of the unit. There is a lot here to do well, and master Orff technicians really have process teaching down.

One challenge for me is having enough contact time with students. Most of my colleagues from the Orff training cohort see their general music students at least twice per week, and some more often. I believe that frequency has an impact on how well students remember learned material from class to class. The review time required with less frequent classes, makes it take longer to teach and learn a unit. Older students tire of staying in the same material for long stretches - 6 to 8 weeks - and they get bored, prompting me to move on to new songs and units before much master has happened. When more than half of my classes at Waitsfield are held on a Monday, contact time gets cut even shorter with three day weekends there.

One action plan item I am concerned with is music program equity. Crossett Brook has figured out a schedule - for band and chorus, it's really in how lunches are arranged, and for general music it's in scheduling the class in multiple days per week blocks -  that allows students to be involved with multiple music classes per week in addition to their private, pull-out instrumental lessons with little impact on academics. Students are moving through material more quickly and thoroughly with the advantages of greater frequency and, I believe, they are able to make more meaningful musical connections as a result of having more contact time.

More to come...