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!
