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Emma
West Lake Middle School
Apex, NC
Emma is a second-year teacher at West Lake Middle School. She teaches 6 classes. She received her bachelor's degree in Music Education at Appalachian State University and is in the process of receiving her Master's in Music Education at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Essential Questions: (to get an idea of what the classroom looks like)
-What did a normal day in your classroom look like pre-covid?
I arrived at school around 6:45, I had morning duty from 7 o'clock till 7:45 ish, usually bus duty. I had a planning period and then smart block, which is a time for small group, remediation, and enrichment. Each subject gets a day, and I would usually use my day to allow the students to play the piano or conduct bigger group rehearsals with multiple classes. I then had two 8th grade chorus classes back to back and then two sections of 7th grade chorus back to back. Then, I had an 18 minute lunch break followed by two sections of 6th grade music exploratory back to back.
-What does a normal day in your classroom look like now?
-What restrictions are in place for the school you are teaching at, specifically revolving around singing?
We are able to sing with the use of a specific singing mask that the county ordered us. The students must be at least 6 feet apart to sing, which is not consistent with the normal social distancing guidelines for the school, which have been changed to three feet. They can sing indoors for up to 30 minutes and outdoors for up to 60 minutes. If they do not have the proper singing mask, they are allowed to hum but they can't sing. They all have to face the same direction. Those are the big ones.
-Is your classroom all online, hybrid, or all in person? Has that changed?
In March 2020, the first thing that Wake County did was go to what is now being referred to as Emergency Remote Learning, which is all asynchronous. We had the option of doing a synchronous thing if we wanted to. The county had us provide two lessons a week, and it was essentially optional for the students. It wasn't really required so most students didn't participate, but I provided all the stuff and gave feedback for the kids who did it and was holding synchronous meetings for the kids that wanted to come. We were that way until about August, when we started up again, which is weird for a year-round school. This time, we started all online, but this time it was not optional and it was on a daily synchronous schedule. We were on that version of life until October, at which point we switched to hybrid, so we had 3 cohorts of students who would do weekly rotations in the building. So one week we would have cohort 1, the next week cohort 2, etc. However, we were still on 6 feet of social distancing guidelines. So, for me, I teach all 3 cohorts in 1 class. And so I was always in a situation of being hybrid. I had some in the building in some online for the core teachers their classes were so big that they couldn't fit all of them in 1 room. So they would have half their class in their classroom with them and the other half in the next room over on the Google meet. They had to use the elective teachers to go and supervise those extra overflow rooms and so it was really intense and absolutely chaotic. We did that until about December, and when we came back from Christmas break, everything was bad, the numbers were bad, and so they put us back on remote learning until mid February, and then they put us back on hybrid learning until yesterday, and now we're on full in-person instructions, but still with virtual academy. So, we are now at the point of, like, if you're in person, you're in person and if you're virtual, you're virtual, which has been a blessing.
Teaching Related Questions
-How has the content you are teaching changed?
Well, everything was really rehearsal-based. Warm-ups, literacy, repertoire, the normal choral setup. Since the pandemic started, I have done almost entirely no repertoire, because my students' priority is not performance. And so when I do have any sort of performance, like virtual performance, it has been for selfish purposes of I want to hear my choir perform. We do lots of literacy, listening activities really focusing on skills and analysis. Definitely have done some contextual relevance, standards dealing with technology and You know, personal and cultural connections to music and things like that. Those have definitely taken more of a focus this year than performance. I am moving back into teaching more vocal technique now that with at least some of my classes, I can actually hear what they're doing. So, that is a thing but, yeah, it's been honestly primarily literacy-based.
-Have there been any positives to teaching in an online format?
The discipline issues have all but disappeared, but it's really because we just aren't reaching those kids, and so I don’t really want to celebrate that. Like, they’re just not showing up. There have been some students who are much more comfortable and much more successful in remote learning. I think I am better at educational technology than I used to be, and I think the kids are better at educational technology than they used to be. There are positives for the kids because they have a lot more autonomy, which sometimes they don't need yet at this age. Things about the school system that are whack, like, not being able to go to the bathroom when you need to, or not being able to eat when you need to and having to wake up at the crack of dawn every morning. We don't treat children like people for some reason when they're in the education system. Dumb dress codes. A lot of those things I think were positives of remote learning is that they just didn't have to be in this, like, extremely regulated environment. But from an ensemble standpoint, in terms of doing chorus online, no.
-What has been the most difficult part about teaching music in these times?
The biggest issue is that, I can't hear them and so, you know, there's always this question of Are they doing it? Are they doing it right? Or am I building bad habits? There’s also an emotional difficulty of not having any sort of reciprocity with them, especially when they have their cameras turned off, which for me, all of my 7th and 8th graders have their cameras turned off. I often only get a handful of people participating. It can really feel like you're putting yourself out there and it's just like taking more and more and you're not really getting much back. It can also feel like pulling teeth, trying to get people to participate. We also have so many students who are one way or another not engaging. I have students on my roster who I’ve never met, who have never come to a Google meet, who have never submitted an assignment, who never responded to an email. I mean, I legitimately don't know who these people are. There are also people who sporadically come to class and don't submit things, and you don’t want the kids to fail. But I have done everything that I know to do. I have posted personalized notifications to our learning management system. I have sent emails. I have sent announcements. I have called parents. I have texted parents. I have contacted admin. I've contacted counselors. I've asked kids when they do show up, like, ‘Hey, can you stay on with me? We can work through this together.” and they don't stay on. Teaching is so social, and it’s already so challenging, and when you take away being able to interact with the kids, it’s just so demoralizing. It was really hard to have the energy to do what we needed to do.
-How has the pandemic shifted your approach to teaching in the music classroom?
It has definitely opened my eyes to individualized assessment. Like, post-pandemic, continuing to assess my students’ literacy skills on an individual basis, and not just assume that because my ensemble can sightread that all of my students can sightread because that is just not the case. It’s also just changed my mindset on teaching. I am just so incredibly grateful when I do get to have my students and I get to sing with them. That is something that I took for granted because it’s not something that I ever imagined I would love. Some of my general educational philosophies have shifted a little bit too. I already was allowing my students to be in control of their own bodies, like letting them eat in my class and go to the bathroom when they need to go. But I think that that has been even more enforced.
-How do/did you keep your kids engaged in a virtual setting?
Routine. We always have a presentation. I always have an agenda. I always have an intro video that they're watching and coming in. I always give them time where we do roses and thorns so they can share things that are positive things that they're struggling with. Some classes are into it, it really depends on the group. I use pear deck, which is a form of interactive presentation. I make a presentation in Google slides, and they can do text responses. They can have multiple-choice responses. They can have a website embedded. They can have drag responses. They can draw responses. There's all different kinds of ways that you can make the slides interactive. It is all right there in your presentation. I can say something like, draw your notation symbols, and write a measure of rhythm in 4/4. Lots of music games.
Philosophical Questions:
- Do you think there was anything you could’ve been taught in undergrad that may have prepared you more for the pandemic?
Yes, how to teach music in general. Upon reflection, what I was taught was how to program, rehearse, and run a concert, and that’s not what we’re doing right now. I feel like my methods courses for chorus should have focused more on music learning theory. Like, I knew what it was and we kind of covered it a little bit, but it was only covered in elementary methods, and nobody talked about it at secondary. I really wish that they had taken us through the learning sequences and taught us what to do if you're in a secondary situation and this learning sequence didn't happen at the elementary level, like here’s how you adapt to it. I also wish music technology would have been covered more.
-Post pandemic, do you think the music classroom will go back to how it was? Will this pandemic shift how the classroom changes forever?
I hope that we can go back to what we had but enhance it with what we now understand. For example, I teach in a multi-track year-round school, so I have the issue of kids just like, disappearing for 3 weeks at a time. So, now I know that I can open a Google meet and kids can attend rehearsal from home if they want to. I hope that we continue to bring in clinicians and composers from anywhere in the world because they can be online. Audience members that normally would not be able to come and see a concert can in some cases be a part of things that they normally wouldn't be a part of. Of course, copyright is always an issue. But I hope that connection to people who otherwise couldn’t be involved stays. I also hope that this kind of focus on individualized assessment and practice continues. These are things that I hope to personally make happen, you know, in my classroom, regardless of what happens elsewhere.
-What has been the biggest takeaway from this year, teaching-wise?
That I loved my job before this more than I understood, and I hope that I will sooner, rather than later, I will have the chance to rehearse in person again. I will not take that for granted again. I love my kids, and I am just so grateful for the little things. My 8th graders finally sang today, they’ve been refusing to sing all semester, and when they sang today I almost cried a little bit. It’s just been a huge shift in perspective.