Here are my responses to the survey.

What are the top two or three goals that Michigan should focus on?

1. Fixing the poverty problem. Teacher quality has a minimal impact on student academic performance when compared to the impact of poverty.

2. Drastically cut back on standardized testing. Instead, promote things that foster creativity in our students AND teachers. Increase emphasis on the arts, allow time for teachers to collaborate with those both inside and outside the district.

What current policies get in the way of that goal?

1. Teacher evaluations are too reliant on student growth, which is measured by standardized test scores. The tests are a poor metric, which means the evaluations are flawed. Come up with an evaluation tool that doesn’t encourage teachers to teach to the test, but rather one that asks teachers to get their students thinking and creating.

2. Right to work. Teacher working conditions are the same as student learning conditions. Right to work shows that the state doesn’t value teacher input when it comes to determining those working conditions.

What policies are needed to expedite our progress toward that goal?

1. Policies that address the social issue (poverty) will go a long way toward fixing many educational issues.

2. A repeal of right to work legislation.

If you were the State Superintendent, what are the first three things that you would do?

1. Get rid of as much standardized testing as possible. Long testing days make kids dread coming to school, and these tests don’t teach anything. Give some autonomy back to the teachers, and encourage them to spend this new extra class time teaching and creating with their kids.

2. Encourage districts state-wide to increase their salaries. Teaching is a great profession, we should not struggle to make ends meet when we decide to enter this profession.

3. Encourage the state legislature to get rid of the EAA. This state-run district has been a disaster from the start. Spend some of that time and energy working to address the poverty problem.

Comfort Zones are, really, a trap. The teachers that inspire and touch lives – Comfort Zones don’t exist. Those teachers reach for the stars every single day, and bring their kids along the journey.

This year, I wanted to reach out to other directors and challenge them to get out of their Comfort Zones. This year, I wanted to get my students to do things they never thought they were capable of.

Google Hangout 

Google Hangout is quite amazing. Even 10 years ago, conference calls were only for the “big wigs” of companies and never mentioned in a school setting.

I’ve started a program in Arkansas to help bring the Band Director community together, while keeping the kids engaged. This is definitely in Beta Testing right now. I’m meeting with some band directors that are interested in Google Hangout (all 13 of them) this weekend to discuss expectations and collaborate for this new program that, I’m hoping, will be a fantastic success.

Concept:

• Band Directors will be able to have LIVE audiences evaluate their performances with just a touch of a button, while give the audience evaluation/analysis experience.
• Students will be able to lead discussions and introduce concepts to other band settings from around the state.
• Band Directors will be able to share knowledge face-to-face instead of at Band Functions that happen only a couple times a year (of which we can actually discuss and not get caught up in supervising and judging try-outs).

I’m really hoping this program MAKES us get out of our Comfort Zones and that it’s a positive experience (with Technology on our side).

Neat Things:

Did you know that Google Hangout allows you to collaborate in COMPOSING! Traditional notation and Digital Production! SERIOUSLY! You can look at each other FACE TO FACE and see the composition screen to collaborate. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Did you know that you can have Q&As? What if we did a 5 minute lesson about a concept and have a Q&A segment BEFORE the students come to class the next day.

You can record your computer screen and share it on YouTube for students to access if they don’t know how to do a program. WHAT!?!

Buddy Program

My percussion class is so fun and excited, but most students get a little overwhelmed with the class due to the expectation of immediate success.

So, I decided to create the Buddy Program. This is giving the students opportunity to help each other and gives the older students responsibilities and experience in serving others.

Older students are paired up with younger students (for me 7th grade students paired with 6th grade students). They filled out a questionnaire:

• How do you get home?
• When can you give/take lessons?
• Do you have access to Face Time/Skype?
• What music do you listen to?
• What are your hobbies?
• Student/Parent Signature
• Parent Approval of what information can be shared between students

Initial Handout

**essentially, it’s like eHarmony for Band (as my 6th grade percussionist pointed out)**

I will do a “gathering” in our homeroom class and have the students meet each other. They will exchange information that was approved by parents ahead of time and set up their first Lesson together. I’ll go over expectations and steps to turn in Lesson Plans (see below).

The “Buddies” are given a lesson plan template. They decide on what they want to accomplish, how to succeed, and what practice goals will be for the upcoming week. They will turn this in to me through Google Classroom and be graded on their answers.

Buddy Program Lesson Plan Template

My hope is that this will bring community between both grades and allow for student leadership with enough freedom to give them responsibility, create friendships, and take ownership of their success and their “Buddy’s” success.

I’m so excited about what this will bring to my classrooms and the achievements that will follow. Ultimately, though, I’m pumped about these students thinking about others instead of themselves and learning how to be compassionate during this process.

With all this said, think outside the box and get out of your Comfort Zone. Impact lives. Let students be the leaders they CRAVE to be. Teach life lessons in the process. Have fun with it.

Now, for some Netflix. : )

I divide my 2nd grade class into 2 halves.  I play for them 14 excerpts of music.  (Total time:  about 8 minutes.)  After each excerpt, I call on a student from one of the groups to read one of these sentences I’ve put up on the whiteboard:

1. The dynamic level of the music is forte.
2. The dynamic level of the music is piano.

They must use the words forte and piano.  (In other words, they may not use the descriptions loud and soft.)  And they must use complete sentences.  And they must use the phrase “dynamic level.”  If they don’t follow these rules, their team does not earn a point.  If someone else from their team calls out the answer, their team does not earn a point; and the other team has a chance to earn a point with the same musical excerpt.

Forte:  Verdi Requiem – Dies Irae

Piano:  Verdi Requiem – Agnus Dei

Piano:  Mahler, Symphony #2, 1st mvmt

Forte:  Mahler, Symphony #2, 1st mvmt

Piano:  Bernstein, “Cha cha” from West Side Story

Forte:  Bernstein, On the Town

Forte: Saint-Saens, Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila

Piano:  Saint-Saens, “Aviary” from Carnival of the Animals

Piano:  Mussorgsky, “Ballet of the Unhatched Chick” from Pictures at an Exhibition

Forte:  Mussorgsky, “The Great Gate at Kiev” from Pictures at an Exhibition

Piano: Tchaikovsky, Symphony #4, 3rd mvmt.

Forte:  Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture.

Forte:  Handel, “Praise the Lord” from Solomon

Piano: Handel, “Nightingale Chorus” from Solomon

I based this game on Gordon’s MLT:  Children learn what something is by learning what it is not. Or to say it in less esoteric terms, kids learn by making comparisons—not by being told by some authority, “This is so because I say so.”  That’s why I make a point to juxtapose forte with piano.

My forte examples are loaded.  I really stacked the deck.  These loud examples are notoriously loud; in other words, each musical example is known primarily for its loudness:  the double chorus in Solomon, the concluding passage in the development section of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony, the final passage from the 1812 Overture, the final movement from Pictures at an Exhibition, the Dies Irae from Verdi’s Requiem, and of course, Bernstein cutting loose in On the Town.

Notice that the piano examples are usually from the same work as their forte counterparts, and always by the same composer. I did that to ensure stylistic similarity between excerpts.  Also notice that the piano examples are fast and slow.  I did not want kids to come away with the false notion that loud music is always fast, and soft music is always slow.

When I’m playing these excerpts, I sometimes have to adjust the volume level on my iPod dock to make sure that soft is really soft; but basically these examples speak for themselves.

All too often, charter schools are a tool used by education reformers to take power away from unions, and to put public money in private hands. Many charters are run by for-profit corporations with little or no educational experience. All across the country, charters under-perform when compared to their public school counterparts, despite cries to the contrary from supporters of privatization.

In my home state of Michigan, charters have been established in some areas in place of “failing” public schools, despite the fact that the failure of those schools has largely been manufactured by the government. Some charters have mysteriously closed overnight, leaving students and parents in a bind. In Ohio, the charter system is filled with corruption, mismanagement, and failure.

The failures of the charter system are readily apparent, and yet I can’t bring myself to completely condemn these schools. If you know where to look, you can find absolute brilliance among all of the failures and embarrassments. How do I know?

I’m a product of a charter, myself.

There are however a few key differences between my alma mater, and many of the disasters you read about in the press. For one, our charter is held by a public university and not a for-profit company. The school also holds true to Albert Shanker’s original vision of what a charter should be – an educational laboratory whose charter should only be renewed if the school remains successful.

If more charter operators embraced these characteristics instead of merely praying that the magic of privatization and competition improves their school, you’d see better results. Allow me to highlight a few key principles that my alma mater got right, things that set them apart from many other charters.

Teacher autonomy. The administrators trust the people they hire to do their job, it’s that simple. There was never really any micromanagement of teachers, which in turn meant the staff felt empowered to try new things.

An emphasis on the arts. By the time I graduated from high school, over two-thirds of our student body was involved in a music ensemble. The rest of the school was involved in a visual art of some kind. Even kids who needed some extra help in another core class would not be pulled out of the arts. Engagement in the arts was part of the school philosophy from day one.

Small class sizes. I think the average class size when I was a student was roughly 17-19 students. This meant each student received a lot of direct instruction, and each teacher was able to really understand the strengths and weaknesses of each student. Even today, 11 years after my high school graduation, I feel strong bonds to many of my teachers as result of the high level of interaction each day.

Embracing the Socratic method. Very few classes are ever simple lectures. I don’t recall any fully teacher-centric classrooms. At least a portion of every class revolved around discussion. Research shows that if a student has to explain their point of view, they gain a deeper understanding of the material.

Student autonomy. The end of each school year brought about something called “Project Term”, where students could pick their own educational direction for four weeks. Gone were the traditional core classes, replaced by opportunities to travel, perform plays, cook, learn photography, and many other things. For four weeks, students had the chance to practice their language skills in foreign countries, put their musical skills to the test by writing and performing a musical, and exercise their writing skills by creating short stories and novellas. It was project-based learning at its very finest.

Here’s the thing though. Many of the things that made my alma mater wonderful and unique should not be unique. Simple things like teacher and student autonomy are good ideas for any school environment, but in many cases they’ve been replaced by an emphasis on standardized testing.

If the reformers truly want to “fix” public schools, the answer is not to open more charters, to create competition between schools. The answer is to find a school that is already doing things well like mine was, and to spread those ideas around to already existing public schools.

Even though I have a deep love for my own charter school experience, one of the most important things to me is seeing each community have a strong public school district. I’d be thrilled to see the large amount of failing charters that don’t fit Shanker’s vision close down, keeping only those that are successful and willing to collaborate with other schools. Washington’s supreme court ruling is a step in the right direction, I just hope it doesn’t end up closing the door on some very high quality schools like mine.

Update (August 31, 2015):  I cobbled together the studio recording with the movie soundtrack on Youtube.  The studio recording has the first verse only; the movie soundtrack has both verses, but includes some annoying dialogue during the first verse.  Using Garageband, I spliced the two together and compensated for the different recording levels as best I could, but I’m afraid it’s not perfect.  Anyway, here is the complete version.

This melody (in the mixolydian mode) may be my favorite melody in the world.  Walter Schumann (not to be confused with Robert or William) is most famous for his “Dragnet” theme (Dum—–dah Dum Dum).  But I will always think of him as the composer who released this glorious melody into the universe.

I have nothing whatsoever to say about them–except that they involve subdominant patterns in major and minor.  I have no idea if these exercises will work.  I don’t know if the easy patterns are easy, or if the difficult patterns are difficult.  The audiation difficulty levels (found in the 1984 edition of Gordon’s Learning Sequences textbook) suggest that they are, but I really don’t know.  I haven’t taught subdominant in almost 15 years.  Back in those days, I had to focus on tonic, dominant, and cadential patterns, which were the pattern functions I investigated in my doctoral study (but that’s another story).

So I have no idea what I’m doing.  I’m completely clueless.  Whoopie!

If you have a moment, please read the post at the top of the screen entitled “Please Read This Second.”  In that post, I describe how I abandoned LSAs, and how I gradually reintroduced them into my teaching.  I also talk about how I would teach LSAs to students in a disorganized way.  This involved, among other things, doing call-and-response rhythm activities with divisions, elongations, rests, ties, upbeats, sycopations, the works.  I’m pretty adroit with those rhythm syllables, and it’s fun to show off with them, but boy oh boy, did I leave my students in the dust!  This year my older students will get a heavy dose of Du-ta-de-ta-du, but now they’ll be ready for it.  I can’t wait!

Third graders have it rough. Division beats are not easy. Just as they have done since first grade, students stand and rock side to side to macro beat while they chant patterns. It has taken me many years of trial and error to find “easy” division patterns that most of the class can do. If roughly 4 out of 5 students can do the pattern, that’s good enough for me. The first patterns in Rhythm Exercises 3-1 and 3-3 are a cakewalk for my rhythm superstars. Those kids have always been the acid test: If the rhythm superstars have trouble with that first pattern, it’s back to the drawing board. “Time to try a different pattern,” I’d say to myself. Finally, last year, I found patterns that 1) my high achieving rhythm kids can do easily, and 2) most of my other students can do after some repetition and practice.

Notice that the divisions occur on the third beat of the pattern (with the exception of the final pattern in 3-1). Again, after many years of trial and error, I found that this is the easiest way to introduce division patterns in both duple and triple.

Division patterns in triple meter are especially difficult. If the rhythm exercise is in duple meter, I might start the class period with it. No introductory song is necessary. But if students are working on Rhythm Exercises 3-3, 3-4, 3-6, and 3-8, I might start with a song in triple meter (in the same tempo as the exercise). I might trot out a song the kids did in second grade such as “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” or “Tumbalalaika,” or a third grade song such as “Let’s Go Fly a Kite.” As the class sings, a few kids play macro beats (on triangles, perhaps), a few other kids play triple micro beats (on claves, perhaps), and I and a small group of students play an ostinato that has division beats. Kids always seem to do better with exercises in triple meter if I set the stage with a song.

The jury is still out on Rhythm Exercises 3-5 and 3-6.  Last year, my students found them really difficult.  I have a feeling I’ll be simplifying them a lot this year.  Perhaps the easy pattern should have divisions on the first macro beat, not the second and fourth.  I’ll keep you posted.

Some students last year found Rhythm Exercises 3-9 and 3-10 easier if they chanted patterns; others found it easier to create with rhythm instruments. We’ll see how it goes this year.

You’ll notice that the whole 3^rd grade year is strictly dominant. But—and this is really important—I always juxtapose tonic with dominant. Before and after individual students sing dominant patterns, I establish and reestablish, and re-reestablish tonality with sung directions that always resolve with a tonic function and a cadential pattern. I don’t just sing Ti Re Ti, Ti Re Ti, Ti Re Ti forever. And of course, throughout the year, I alternate between major and minor tonalities.

I like to turn Tonal Exercises 3-1 and 3-4 into a game, just as I did with similar exercises in 2^nd grade. I’ll repeat what I wrote in a previous blogpost:

First establish tonality and key, and then sing a series of tonic major patterns with the syllables Ti, Re, Fa and So. Next, tell students that when they hear the syllables Ti, Re, Fa and So, sung in various combinations, they are hearing dominant major patterns. As you do this, show them the words dominant major and the syllables Ti, Re, Fa and So on the board. (Very rarely will students see tonal syllables; this is one instance.) Next, tell student that there are 3 ways you can create dominant major patterns.

1. You can sing syllables in any order (and then sing an example such as So, Re, Fa, Ti).
2. You can repeat syllables (and the sing an example such as Ti, So, Re, So, Fa).
3. You can leave out one or two syllables (and then sing examples such as Re, So, or Ti, Fa).

How do you turn a dominant major pattern into something else? You add a syllable that doesn’t belong. Just to make sure the class understands, sing a few examples such as So, Fa, Mi, Re, or So, La, So, Fa.

On your overhead projector, blackboard, whiteboard, or whatever you have, write two sentences:

• You were performing dominant major.
• You were performing something else.

Divide the class into 2 teams. Reestablish tonality and key. Sing a pattern with tonal syllables. Call on individual students from each team alternately to tell you whether the pattern you sang was dominant major or something else. My students MUST answer in the complete sentences written on the board. It’s a pet peeve of mine: they must say, after I’ve sung my pattern, and after I’ve called on them at random, “You were performing something else,” or “You were performing dominant major.” Score one point for each correct answer. I usually make it a five-point game. And of course, continually resolve the dominant patterns with a cadential pattern, so that the dominant patterns retain their function.

Tonal Exercises 3-2 and 3-5 are garden-variety LSAs. Basically, you teach patterns with solfège the same way you teach with a neutral syllable:

• Before you start a tonal exercise, sing a song with the class in the tonality and key that the LSA is in.
• Sing patterns in a strict tempo, but not in a meter.
• In between patterns, sing with varied melodic rhythm. But never sing melodies with tonal solfège. If you do, then kids might mistakenly think that tonal syllables stand for rhythm content. Use tonal solfège only with tonal patterns, not melodic patterns.

As I said in a previous blog post, I’m not a big fan of hand gestures during tonal LSAs. But I do indicate with a conducting cue that the children are to breathe and then sing on my downbeat. Typically, as the exercise progresses, kids don’t need my hand gestures as much. They know when to breathe and when to sing because the exercise takes on a kind of rhythm of its own. The trick is to sing the next pattern right after they are done performing the previous one. Here’s how it should happen:

• You sing a pattern.
• Then, a second later, you gesture for them to breathe and sing it back in echo.
• And then, immediately after they’ve finished singing, you sing another pattern.

It’s tricky and subtle. You must give them that second or two of audiation time. But too much time gives kids a chance to memorize the pattern and imitate it, and that’s not what you want.

Dominant LSAs take longer than tonic LSAs to complete. They just do. You must keep resolving those dominant patterns with 1) tonic class patterns, or 2) sung directions that end with a cadential pattern. If you don’t, then dominant stops sounding like dominant, and the exercise becomes, frankly, worthless.

Tonal Exercises 3-3 and 3-6 are variations of the inference exercises in John Feierabend’s Conversational Solfège. I sing tonic and dominant patterns, but I ask the kids to echo the tonic patterns only. All of this is done with a neutral syllable. I tried asking them to echo dominant patterns only, but I found that the exercise works better when they echo tonic patterns and stay silent when they hear dominant. I’ll repeat what I wrote in a previous blog post: Don’t be too tough on the kids. If one student gets it wrong, just move on to the next student. Generalization is not “teaching time.” Kids will make mistakes.

Tonal Exercises 3-9 and 3-10 are a mixed bag. Most kids had trouble with them last year. Depending on how well the kids do this year, I may decide to simplify them. I might tell students, for instance, that the final note they sing will always be Do (or La in minor). That way, they’ll be responsible for improvising the first two notes only. We’ll see.

I’ve become very humbled in this process of presenting, because it gets me out of my comfort zone. I’m naturally a social person, I LOVE people. So it was never an issue for me to present. But the humbling part is to hear my audience; their needs, their questions, their issues, and even a lot of them helping me answer questions during my presentation or able to problem solve something I could not. They constantly challenge me and I absolutely love helping others make their lives easier. I DEFINITELY learn more presenting than I do any other way. I tell people all the time, “If I could just sit with adults and collaborate to create new ideas to use in the classroom…that would make my day!”

These people were up on a Saturday to hear about Creative Concepts in a Band setting! Only cool people do that!

With all that said, I would LOVE to share a couple things I’ve presented on this past summer. These definitely stand out to me as helpful tools!

Chrome Extensions

Chrome is a miraculous thing! It has made so many things easier for me during the school year. Just open Chrome > three horizontal bars (top right hand corner of the browser) > Tools > Extensions > More Extensions

Split Screen

This has been a HUGE time saver. Entering grades is a pain, especially when you are transferring them from one tab to another. This actually SPLITS the browser screen. No more switching back and forth. This is also great to use with Padlet and a video to evaluate!!!

QR Code Extension

Want kids to scan a QR code without you having to print one out? This extension automatically puts one on the screen for you!

Plickers

Plickers is a really awesome concept! Each student is represented by an image (you determine it) and whatever way the student turns the card it represents a multiple choice answer (ex. upside down = B multiple choice answer). You can have up to 40 images and can REUSE the images for another class. These are scanned by your phone or tablet and can be from quite a distance!!! CRAZY!!!! This is also great to take attendance!

Google Classroom

I’m super pumped to be using Google Classroom this year. Being able to communicate with students, receive assignments digitally, and have students interactive with each other in a safe environment will be AMAZING! Check out this video!

AppSheet Add-On

AppSheet is an add-on in Google Forms. This allows your form to be made into an app! Students can download it from a link you give them (cannot be found on the App Store). This is great if you have section leaders take attendance for you! It’s timestamped and EVERYTHING!!!!! Cool, huh?

For All Rubrics

I’ve talked about this before and it’s amazing. But they have just recently added a feature where students can sign up for your class either with a link or with a code. This means that you DO NOT have to import a roster! Can anyone say Time Saver? : )

Live Video Lessons with other Schools

I’m very excited to be starting this project! I’ve gotten quite a few Arkansas Band Programs taking part in this experience. We will be collaborating to create a community between bands across the state. This means students will lead lessons to other school districts, evaluating other band performances (GREAT concert assessment prep!), and show off what they have been doing in their school! This is going to be amazing and I can HARDLY wait to see what is going to happen with these students…and dare I say, these Band Directors! Video conferencing with band directors to collaborate, discuss what works and what doesn’t, and take education to a whole other direction. 2015-2016 is going to ROCK!!!!

With an ending note, for the first time since I’ve taught, I finally have my own room (before I was traveling to 4 different classrooms – even 6 at one point). So, my decorating and prepping has been crazy these past 2 weeks in preparation for my kiddos to experience a fantastic year!

Planbook.com made into QR codes for kids to scan for lesson plans for the year (it updates live- so just one QR code is needed).

Yes, I’m a Star Trek nerd and proud. I even integrated it with music! (realized I need to switch Go and Boldly…I was so exhausted when I taped those up : / )

I’ve got my Doctor Who to protect me in times of distress.

I did an Open House Photo Booth! Yes, those are practice flags in the background…shhhhh…

Desk ready, binders prepped, bulletin boards done, classroom rules ready for students to create, and a space ready for learning. BRING IT!

I hope everyone has a fantastic year! I encourage all of you to do something outside your comfort zone. Create an environment to let kids become involved and interactive. Love on them, listen to them, and let them be the little adults they so desperately want to become. Make mistakes, fix the mistakes, and learn from them. Have patience and compassion for those that challenge you. Make this year unforgettable for these kiddos, because they deserve it!