Season Four
Episode 96
Teaching Choir Amidst COVID-19 with Beth Philemon
Beth's Bio:
Beth Philemon is a National Board Certified Teacher and choral conductor based out of Raleigh, NC, where she is currently pursuing her Masters in Business Administration with a focus in marketing and entrepreneurship from North Carolina State University. After ten years of teaching choir in public schools, she found a personal and institutional gap in the understanding of how to run school choir programs like the businesses they are and she hopes to educate others how to effectively promote, manage, and build choral music programs through the art of business. Conversely, Beth believes the world of business has much to learn from choral singing and she is passionate about delivering opportunities for community involvement in choir.
In 2018 she founded CHOIR BATON, a collaborative online community about life and choir. CHOIR BATON seeks to engage others through social media takeovers, the CHOIR BATON podcast, and online resources, under the mission of #morepeoplesinging. CHOIR BATON sends weekly newsletters to the community and information about how to sign-up for an Instagram takeover. Sign up at bit.ly/ChoirBatonEmail or follow along @choirbaton on Instagram. While on Facebook and Twitter, Beth's main love is Instagram where you can see what shenanigans she's up to @bethphilemon. And because she's in business school, know you can also connect with her on LinkedIn.
TRANSCRIPT OF THE SHOW
Jessica: Thank you for sharing about choir music today. I'm really - I'm just so happy to have you hear to talk about choir and especially during this time about online teaching. I think it's going to be so helpful.
Beth: Awesome. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.
Jessica: Yeah! So you're super passionate about choral music and you've created this site called Choir Baton and you've also got the Instagram page Choir Baton and I just love your passion for making sure that more people are singing. I think that's so important and I'd love for you to share why you believe being part of a choir is so important.
Beth: Absolutely. I've - wow - that's such a great question. I did not grow up singing really in a choir. I sang in church and in small groups and that, but it wasn't until I was in high school that I had my first legitimate choral opportunity and it changed my life because it instilled personal confidence within me and then within the same context too I was singing with people that didn't look like me. That didn't believe like me. That weren't the same socio-economic levels as me. And yet we're all coming together for this goal that not impacts us, but impacted the audience as well and it's just an amazing experience to be a part of that with others.
Jessica: When I look back on the teachers who were the most inspirational and the most encouraging to me I can go all the way down through the line and see that they were all of my choral educators. So I just think it's so important. I love the idea of more people singing because I feel like so many people nowadays, even they'll say to their kids, 'oh my kids can't sing' or 'I'm not a singer' or 'I'm not comfortable.' And I really believe that everyone has a voice. And that it's just so important that people realize that they might not be comfortable singing or maybe they haven't had the choral experiences that some of us have had, but just building that confidence in that.
Beth: Absolutely. I could not have said it better like that is a unique part of my journey in this is that choir music has helped me find my voice and I'm still finding even my voice in the choir community as well realizing that I have a different voice and a different story and that's okay because one of my other favorite sayings is that my voice is enough. Your voice is enough. And it's in singing voice and life voice as well and that's so true.
Jessica: Now that we're in this online education platform, you know, I'm going back Monday so the idea of rethinking what that's going to look like for students and how to build their comfort with their voices in an online setting - because that's going to seem very different when they're doing it from their homes by themselves, but kind of collaboratively as well. You know? Because it's like you're with people, but you're not with people so it feels very different from a choral setting where they're next to you. And I love the resource that you created. I was looking all through it and the videos you created and it's practical and it's not overwhelming, which I have felt very overwhelmed with all of the things - like try this and look at this and do this and I just needed somewhere practical to start with my students and I'm in a general music education setting and so it's not necessarily a choral setting, but we do do singing every class, you know. And so I'd love for you to share when we're thinking about teaching online, the practical things that we should consider when beginning this virtual choir rehearsal setting.
Beth: Right. Well and I love that you said that you teach general music and the course was for choir. But music is music is music is music is music. I think that's one thing we have to remember. And along those same lines: teaching is teaching is teaching is teaching is teaching. And you don't - you meaning you and listeners and everyone - I feel so passionately about the fact that just because you are now using this online mode you do not have to change what you're doing in your classroom in structure and in format. And what I mean with that is, you know, the course is really - and thank you for your kind words about the course. Like all of that happened so quickly, I didn't even really have a chance to think about it as I was doing it because it's things I have thought about for years and like, truly years. And then within a matter of 24 hours I was like I feel like this is what people need to hear and you just do it all and then you think I hope that was good and useful.
Jessica: It was. It is. Yeah.
Beth: Well, and the purpose was to not be overwhelming because that was the other thing that I began to be overwhelmed when I began to see all the different resources and to really - I wanted people to think about as you're switching to this, you really - you first off can do this and you're going to fail and you're going to do stuff badly, right. One of my sayings through this is you didn't learn to teach in your classroom in a day. You're not going to learn to teach digital music in a day and that's okay. But then secondly, is that everything that you're doing in the classroom you can do online. It's just going to learn differently. Where I think that people are going to have the hardest problem with this adaptation is that you aren't needed all the time in this music making. We're control freaks right?
Jessica: Yes!
Beth: Yeah! Like 'let me,' 'no-no,' 'sing that that way.' and part of that is feedback and that's all well and good, but it really takes a lot of control out of our hands. But we have to be moving, in my opinion, we have to be moving education more towards that way anyways because of what society is requiring of people in the workforce. So I think that's really good and I think that's where people are going to have the struggle like you aren't going to be in charge al the time of what you're going to do, but now and then directing back to how do you begin to think through this. You want to think about who are my students? Who am I? What do they need from me? What's the structure that they get from me and like, right even in the general music class like what happens when they walk in? What's that process look like? And really nailing that down first. Does that make sense?
Jessica: Absolutely. Because I think very practically so I need like besides just start with this phenomenal lesson plan and this - I don't know I'm not using my words well - but you know, just this broad big thing and okay we're going to do something amazing. Going wait - what do my students need? And what do they have? And start with that. I just keep thinking start small. Start with little steps, you know, because if you start with little steps you can grow and build, but if you try to do this big amazing thing at first I feel like for me I would possibly fail and feel even more discouraged. So I like to think what do my students have. What are the resources they have? How are they feeling? Because they're at home and their home lives are, you know, that structure at home is going to look different than what's going on in a classroom setting outside of the home and there's other distractions and there's other factors there. And then what do they need from me. Because I know how I'm feeling and I've been positive and I've been discouraged and I've been sad and then I've been hopeful and I think they're going to feed off of that as well and be feeling those things so emotionally and socially they're feeling some things as well and yes, the curriculum is important, but we also have to remember that if we start with those small steps in helping them build confidence and then doing the music making from there.
Beth: Absolutely and you really nailed in on some key things like what do my students have. And I think what's really going to bite us music educators in the bottom is that some of us haven't asked that. We don't know what kind of technology our students have or we've assumed that they've had stuff and they don't. Or worse, we assume that they know how to do stuff or that they know more than us and they don't. My hope and prayer is that from this we begin to really talk about how are we teaching digital literacy within the classroom because I was shocked last year when my students - seniors - we're talking like 3.5 / 4.0 seniors didn't know what a pdf was or how to create one or how it's different form a Word doc or anything like that and that is huge. So then once you kind of figure out that - and if you don't know that about your students then you've got to realize that moving forward in future years that needs to be something you're aware of and you're knowing how to build that into your understanding of your students and how you can potentially begin to integrate some technology with them as well because this is coming like it or not. It's not going to shutdown choir. It's not going to shutdown music making. But we have to be prepared for the change.
But then exactly what you said, it's also not about the lesson. It's about what's the function of the technology? How's technology going to function in what you are already doing in your rehearsals and enable you to do that from afar? And then you don't need 35 different technologies - you just need 1 or 2 of them to be able to do that.
Jessica: I was thinking that as well as far as the tools we're using with our students. There's been so many - and I love this - there's been so many companies who have given free downloads or free subscriptions and I think those are all so fantastic, but I know for me, I need to start with the things I'm comfortable with and maybe try one new thing. And go, okay I haven't used Solfeg.io or I haven't tried Soundtrap yet so I'm going to choose a lot of the tools that I already know how to do and already know how to implement and then choose one new tool to try with students and once I've tested that out, depending on how long this goes, pull in some other things. But I think it's important not to try every new thing and feel like we have to be these professional people who understand every single tool at our reach and instead just start with what you know and maybe add something new and go from there. Because, just like you said, our students - we can't assume that they know how to use all of these. If we're not comfortable using the tools, it's too difficult to guide our students through using those tools and then talk about a major learning curve - not just for you, but for them - and there's already quite a bit of stress over how am I going to do what I do in my classroom and put it digitally.
Beth: Absolutely! And ultimately we want our students to be successful and what is the way that we can bring a small amount of success to their lives through the conduit of music every single day? And that doesn't look like everyone needing to download Sight Reading Factory. And now this also does not look to be a successful choir - does not mean in a virtual era like we are in right now, does not mean you have to make a virtual choir track. So I was talking with some music educator, choral music educator friends and one of them is just finishing up his DMA and he was saying that for their course work to finish out the semester they have to write a paper about the two major works that they would have been performing. And at first I was like, "Ugh that sucked." I want to be able to sing and I want to be able to do this. I mean I get it and I'm not saying it's bad, but he said, "Beth, you have to think too. We as choral musicians - part of the beauty of what we do is singing with others" and there is a place to sing alone and that is valuable and we do need to do that because I firmly believe not enough choirs focus on that, but on the flip side we also have to realize that as cool as some of these virtual choirs are, they aren't actual choral music making. They're devoid of some of the amazing synergies that you get during a rehearsal and so leaning in to other activities such as writing a paper have you still interacting with the music and the score just in a more tangible way rather than you practicing through practice tracks for music you might never ever perform.
Jessica: Right, right.
Beth: And I really want people to hear that because I, I don't think I even talked about virtual choirs in the course because I think they're cool and all, but I don't think people need to feel as if their only being successful as a virtual choir teacher if you're only making a virtual choir track. I love technology! Love technology and I have no real desire to be able to do that. Nor is it like in my current skill set or in the best use of my time and so I really want to caution choir teachers to not feel like they are failing if they don't do it or that they have to and so they're doing it and they're getting frustrated and all of this other stuff. There's so many other ways that we can have students interacting with music and also have a tangible result of the work that they've put in too.
Jessica: I think we need to keep in mind too - and I agree - I think we need to keep in mind what's best for our students. Exactly like you said. What is the best use of our time to really help those students continue with the music making and you know, having a click track and being able to get these students to create that virtual experience and create those really amazing, beautifully done videos is fantastic. I know for me that is not my strength and so I don't know that that's in the best interest of my time and I do find it hard not to compare and go, 'ugh - I should be doing that' or 'Oh that's the only way that this will be successful in what I'm doing with my students.' And there's so many things that I think we want to keep in mind that are going to be extremely successful about teaching online and we need to celebrate those things with our kids and see the growth in them. And there are going to be things that just don't go very well and we need to celebrate those hard times and go okay, here's what I learned from that. Just like any normal lesson plan where you think, where you have in mind the structure of your plan and maybe it doesn't quite go the way you think it's going to go and then you rehash it and you rethink it and you reevaluate it and change it for the better. But I think a lot of the amazing moments that are going to happen are not going to be those big things that everyone else sees. They're going to be those small things that happen in the online experiences with your kids, you know.
Beth: And isn't that what it's like in the classroom though too?
Jessica: Yeah - yeah!
Beth: Right. It's not in those big things that everyone sees. Like the most beautiful times you have in a classroom are that one perfectly tapered decrescendo that your kids or everyone is actually standing with their hands by their sides for one song or like - like those are the wins. We know that will never happen on a concert stage that everyone's going to see. No kid can ever keep their hands all the time by their sides, especially if they're in middle school or elementary school or freshman or seniors or anyone. Yeah I love that.
Jessica: I think so many times in my classroom like even before break. Before break, it was a Wednesday and we were preparing - all of my select ensembles were going to perform at three schools the next day and then we had our culminating, we call them, Music Sharings on Friday and it all got cancelled at 10:30 at night. And we've been working since September because the select ensembles meet in the mornings and just at first it was just devastating to go like oh all of their hard work, I mean my hard work as well too, but all of their hard work and all the things that we've been preparing and I thought there were so many moments leading up to that concert that were just amazing. Where the students in our Orff ensemble where they created this piece and we ended the piece and it was complete silence. And these are middle school students, you know.
Beth: So that never happens.
Jessica: Yeah, right? So it was complete silence and you could hear them breathe and everyone was like 'Wow.' Where they were like that was amazing! And just those moments where you end the piece or like you said that decrescendo or they're standing with their hands at their sides. All of those things that we can celebrate in the classroom with them that an audience is never going to see and I think the same can happen online, you know.
Beth: Absolutely. Absolutely. And so this is also something where I, again, I hope that moves us forward is that one of the last things I put in the course that is not unique to my journey and my sharing and that is of daily gratitudes. And it's taking something specific that happened to that day in that rehearsal and writing it down. And I still have copies of mine from my last year in the classroom full time because I look back on that and that is such a tangible piece of evidence of things. And I think that is the great example of things that we can bring into the classroom, the digital classroom, that whether it's that you collect them on a whole thing or you know, each kid writes them down and you come back together and you share them when you come together at the beginning of the next school year or something like that. That's a really great way for us to track that tangible growth and tangible wins every single day too.
Jessica: I love that idea. I'm going to incorporate that into my online teaching sessions when I start next week because just giving a student something to find that is going well and to work with gratitude - and that's actually - gratitude is our theme of the year for our school. Ah! Okay - yes! Thank you for that.
Beth: Yes! It will revolutionize - it will revolutionize everything. So and it has to be specific to that period, right. It's not like...when you make it specific, you have to really find the gratitude in the little things. And it's just - it's unbelievably powerful. One of my last community choir rehearsals that I did two weeks ago - and so these are all adults - and I had them up and moving and in circles and I thought they're really going to hate me for having them do this because it'll take moving around. In theory, right. In theory. And I did the daily gratitudes at the end of the rehearsal and one of the ladies was like 'my favorite part was getting up and singing in circles.' And so many wins! And then for me as a pedagogue too, I was like, "Yes they liked that" and I wasn't asking them to tell me what they liked. But that has informed so much of my teaching too.
Jessica: I love that idea. And that's something simple that we can add that would bring just a little bit more joy that's not a burdensome thing. I love it! So thinking through ... we've talked about the things we should think through in just getting to teach online. So how about the structure of a virtual choir rehearsal. And I know this is going to look very different for every teacher, but just an idea of how do you structure an online rehearsal?
Beth: Right. Right. So I think there's a couple things you need to consider. And if people don't know, so I was in the classroom for a while and now I'm actually a full-time MBA student and the irony of all of this is I am now as a student having all of my classes shifted online, but prior to this semester, or this semester actually, I had one online class. So actually I had one last summer too. So I've kind of had a taste of what it's like to be on the student end of online learning, which has also framed my approach to some of this as well. And then I also feel the student's pain - and the teacher's pain of my professor's. Some of them are all set to go online and some of them aren't.
So a couple of things. One of them is this word asynchronous vs. synchronous. And synchronous meaning it's happening at the same time and asynchronous meaning you can do it whenever. And I think you really need to lean into who are your kids and what do they need when looking at this, but it's a very important thing for music teachers especially that are also wanting to have like "we're all doing sectionals at the same time." A synchronous example would be "well we meet at 11:10 M-W-F. Class is going to be at 11:10. I better see you there." And that is a synchronous example.
And then an asynchronous example would be "We normally spend 3 hours in class each week. Expect you to spend - I'm going to say 2 hours because think of all the time we waste in classes with just transitions and stuff. And I expect you to spend 2 hours on your material." And then these are your deliverables and these are your activities. Pros of the synchronous style - meaning you're doing it all at the same time - is that you have that set schedule and it is in theory, in theory is continuity because it's the same time every day and you get a chance to interact and they get a chance to interact with each other. Concerns I have with that is that our lives are different - they're not the same - so while yes, that might have been the same time every single day, it's different like you're at home, you're not at school and you're also trying to recreate something as though it is the same even though it's not the same. Also kids have- some of them have siblings they have to take care of or they have limited technology resources and they can't get online at the same time and that sort of thing. So there's a lot of concerns about that, but that also does provide a level of accountability to take care of students that might struggle to do the work in general. So they can at least take care of the work that way. So pros and cons on that.
And then with the asynchronous meaning you do work on your own, I think there's a lot of pros with this because you have to deliver an outcome. So many times in a typical choir rehearsal we devise what they have in that rehearsal space and it's a lot easier to not plan kind of like and just see what will happen or just where that goes. And there's pros and cons to that, but if you're asking students to complete something on their own time, you're also going to have to have a tangible result for what they're doing and we don't have enough of that, in my opinion, in choral music. We assume that students know a lot and they really, really don't. And so that is going to take a lot more focus and planning and like thinking through some things. Now the con being what if a student doesn't complete it? Well how often is Sarah in the front row of your choir not singing along? Or mouthing the words or something like that? And I don't care whatever like any choir teacher might think 'oh that's not my kid listening' - I know you wouldn't think this - but 'oh my kid they're really singing', but no there are kids faking it in your class. Sorry to break this to you, but there are kids faking it in your choir class. I know because I was like that faker kid at times. It was just me and I wasn't doing it consciously, but I could do it and get away with it without even thinking about it. But anyways this - you will then be able to have tangible evidence as to whether Sarah, or Beth - I'll use my own name, is faking it. Does Beth really know her part? Does Beth really know where 'do' is in a piece that starts in E Major and be able to have that tangible work and simultaneously if you have communicated the expectations and the outcomes clearly to the students and they do not meet that objective, then you have tangible evidence to take to a parent and administrator and say this is why Beth is not getting an A in choir. It's because they are not doing this demonstrated work and that is a problem I think that we have in choir in general and whether you're virtual or not. We're like if we just have done a very bad job of doing that and then to our credit, like, there's not been a lot of resources out there for us to do that and that's something I'm passionate about working on, but I think those are some things to think about and also with asynchronous learning, students can do it more for their schedule and dig into things. I think you also need to be creative with not expecting them to rehearse the music every day for 30 minutes. It's like one day they are writing in their music and like numbering - are there numbers measured?
Ooh! This is one of my favorite simplest activities that you're working on with a choir and you don't necessarily, you can't track if they're singing it or not and you need something tangible is have them write the text out. Have them write the text in poetic form. That's what the composer started with, right? And you can do it online. Now I still think they should hand write it, but they could upload it or they could type it or maybe they could do some kind of cool collage with the text. There's so many opportunities for you to literally just have students extract the text from the music. It's what the composer started with. We think that we know what the text means when we're looking at the piece of music, but there's too much other crap on there for you to fully see it. And that's like what a simple assignment! And let's think - you're looking at five different pieces of music. Have them write out the lyrics to five songs and that's like ten minutes of activity that they can do on their own, fitting it into their schedule for the week as well. And that's a great example of an asynchronous activity.
So another extension with once you have students take the text out and they're writing what it means and they're doing all this kind of cool creative things with it. Another musical step you can have them do is identify the syllables of each word. And it sound basic and it is. You'll be shocked at whether students really understand syllables and if it's a two syllable word, one of the syllables is stressed and the other one is unstressed and vice-versa. So what is the stressed syllable impacts how you're going to sing the music so if you're singing (singing:) About. Right? Then I'm stressing 'Bout.' But how many times do kids sing (singing:) About. They stress it equally or they go (singing:) about. And maybe you want that last one and now the first one, but then they need to think this is a two syllable word. Which syllable is stressed? We can inform the musicality of it through the text stress and the text stress then comes into what are the syllables. So having the kids take text and say this is a 2-syllable word, this is a 3-syllable word, this is a 4-syllable word and then dividing it and all of this is on the course too. You can download my worksheets for this. It's in one of the score annotation module parts. And then is the first syllable stressed and the second syllable unstressed? Or vice versa? And then using that to inform how they're going to sing something as well.
Jessica: That's awesome. And then you have other resources too?
Beth: It's in the Choir Baton Teaching Membership that is basically me just giving resources and tutorials of how I teach it, what works for me because so many times too we go to these conferences and you're just inundated. You don't remember a quarter of what you wanted to remember and you just want to have a conversation or a launching pad of what do I do and how do you do it because then that helps me do it as well and teaching is very vulnerable. Music educators are very vulnerable to show others what we're doing and how we're doing it. And so I just said, well, I'm just going to do it because I just felt so passionately about it and so like I just uploaded a whole set of worksheets. It's like 18 pages and it starts by literally have kids write noteheads on a line. And five years ago I would have been like that is so stupid. They can do that. And a lot of them can and a lot of them can't, but there's not worksheets out there for you to be able to do that.
Jessica: Yeah. I love it. Much, much needed. Yeah.
Beth: Well, it's all about...it's all about wanting to serve and wanting to help and wanting to get more people singing.
Jessica: I think the last thing I really am curious about is any and you have this in your course, tips and tricks for implementation, you know. And some of these, again, I keep coming back to the word practical, but really they're things that we should be doing anyway with our students, but just I think it's so important to start where people can go, 'Okay I can do that. It's manageable.'
Beth: Absolutely. So this is cliché, but it's true. You have to think about how you're communicating. And I think it's easy to get so caught up in like 'well you can go here and get this.' I think more than ever you're communicating with parents and students in one or two places. If you do not do that, that will not set you up for success and that might be dictated for you by your district or it might be left up to every teacher so figure out how you're going to communicate with your students where they're going to find out the information that they need first and foremost. I think... So that is Number one.
Some basic tips. If you want a recording of a student and you want to just hear them sing and you don't have time for part tracks or you hate part tracks or they're just not in your jam, one of the easiest ways you can have a video to assess a kid is have them take their phone and sing do-do. (singing the scale up and down) I mean can they sing a major scale by themselves? Not all of them can. A lot of them can't and then when they're doing it, how well are they doing it? I mean is it in pitch? So then let's say check-check-check. Now let's have them practice it with dynamics. Is it going to be forte? Is it going to be accented? Is it going to have a crescendo? Is it.. you know, like that simple assessment is really a great jumping off part. Now what I would do, because I'm not a fan of the Google Classroom, and if you're Google Classroom, go for it - you know how to do this all better, but let's say you're not Google Classroom and you're like 'crap - how do they turn it in?' Simplest thing! You go to Google Forms and you create a form. And you create a place for them to create their first name and last name. You do a dropdown so they select what class they're in. Don't let them type in the class - the least that they can type in, the least that they can type in, the better that's going to be for you to organize, right. So have their name - all of my students had numbers as well so if they screwed up their name I could at least get it alphabetized by their number. So then if it's a do-do major scale, also having that as a dropdown. Like they're just a click like this is what I'm selecting and then they just upload the file and that might be tricky for some, but it's also pretty simple for others. And then from a grading aspect you get the Google Form - just take it to an excel and you just go click- click- click- click- click- and just listen to all of them and they're all right there for you. I think that is one of the simplest ways that you can utilize online assessment. You're not using crazy platforms. Like that in my opinion is just the way to go in regards to ease.
Now if you want kids to be practicing sight reading, I think sight reading factory is cool for what it is. It's not my jam. Like personally I would probably struggle with sight reading because, and I just gonna share because you probably have students like that too, I'm afraid I'm going to mess up. I'm not sure where I'm gonna start. I'm gonna sing the wrong thing. I don't feel like it's interactive enough. I'm just staring at a screen and singing. Hear me - I love sight reading factory. It's like a bad relationship right - it's not them; it's me.
But so so then for students like me, so then like flat.io is baller because what I'm going to do in flat, and if you're unfamiliar with flat, it is a web-based music notation program that you don't have to download anything to access. It's just like signing into a website and you can access stuff and it's incredibly intuitive. And if you don't know, they have great help sections as well. And I would, if I want a kid practicing literacy, but sight reading factory isn't my jam, I have them go into flat and literally just put in their voice part. And think about all literacy part things they're doing. They're having to set up the time signature. They're having to set up the key signature. And then figure out the part and it's matching, right, but that's all music is is just pattern matching and they can match it like that. And they're interacting with it. They're creating something that's tangible that they can say "I did this" and then you can take the mp3 and they've made their own part track. Like.. and for me I think those are two of the easiest ways that I would be utilizing technology to do stuff.
And then third thing, again, goes back to the text and it goes back to having them write out the text of the song. Having them go through that. And then I use something called a song sheet. Do they know who the composer is? Do they know what the key signature is? Do they know what the time signature is? How many measures? Like I think this is a simple question... how many measures are in this piece of music? Well, that's important because we know that when we get to college we study form and form is dependent upon the amount of measures. So how cool for us to begin to build that in as well. That is a starting question for talking about form with students, but they don't know that. They think that it's just cool because they're counting 'oh there's 32 measures.' And that's a win! Right? You're also giving them simple wins as well. So song sheets and writing in their music and the text thing we've already talked about. Utilizing flat. And then just simple recordings of just hearing them sing that they can upload through a google form are three ways in which I would begin to build assessments in in. And you're not worrying about a virtual choir. They're singing. They're making music. They're learning. You are getting feedback that you have that you can use and they can also begin to track their experience with.
And sidenote - I'm also very passionate about portfolios and I think if... Do not - hear me - do not try to give portfolios amidst this time, but these are artifacts that you can begin collecting that if you go next year. Oh I think I might do a portfolio! You say, "hey kids - you still have these videos and you can track this is what I sounded like in 6th grade and this is what I sound like in 7th grade."
Jessica: A great project to look at for future use for sure.
Beth: Absolutely. And that's another thing you can say to kids too. It's building that buy-in too. We're not just scooting around. We're not just coming up with crap right now just to pass the time. There's an end goal. There's a reason for this and you're building something right now that even though we're in a wonky times, it does have a purpose. It is all connected.
Jessica: I'm gonna read you something that you wrote. And so this is a quote from your website, but I think it just ties in to everything you've shared and I am certain you did not write this like more recently. I'm sure you wrote this a long time ago, but in looking at all of the things you had created and everything this really stood out to me. And it was in pretty big font in site anyway, but just as I read it, I feel like this really summarizes everything you just spoke about and I'm glad I saved it on the form as we were talking only because I feel like this needs to be said, but as we wrap up I was like, I think this is such a great thing. So you wrote:
"In an age of unprecedented technology and digital connectivity, I value how choral music connects people face to face. Yet I also want to show how we can utilize technology within the art. I believe rehearsals should include multifaceted approaches to learning about musical notation, basic harmony, history, and varied repertoire. I believe rehearsals should contain structure, pacing, professionalism, and laughter. I believe music is a conduit to reach people, both singer and listener. And I strive to create meaningful rehearsals that generate meaningful performances." - Beth Philemon
And just in reading that - I mean I'm reading it to you - those are your words... to me it's so moving that you wrote that with such passion and everything you've shared in this episode and the things that you share on Instagram and everything really speaks to what you wrote there and I just think this applies whether we're in the classroom or whether we're doing it digitally. And everything in here can be done both ways, especially when you're like to show how we can use technology within the arts because who knew this is where we would be. I mean, you know, three weeks ago I felt like it was so far removed from us that oh, we were untouchable and now here we are and so just thank you for those words and I hope it encourages people who are listening because it just ... it's just so practical and yet it's meaningful and we can still create that structure and still create the multifaceted approaches and bring professionalism and laughter and music. So thank you so much for your passion for this and I hope that listeners will go to websites: to Bethphilemon.com and to choir baton.com and check you out on Instagram because I feel like you have so much to share as a student and a teacher and for someone whose been on that side now of learning digitally, you know. I think you bring a new insight into it that we all need. So thank you!
Beth: Thank you. It's so crazy. A - having someone read that back to me is very powerful and moving. I wrote that almost six years ago, which is really crazy to think about now. Yeah... And I've never believed it more than what I believe right now. So thank you for sharing that and I hope that, you know, come hang out with me on Instagram. I love talking about music. This is a testament to you, Jessica, for having me on here today and I appreciate connecting with you.
Episode 96
Teaching Choir Amidst COVID-19 with Beth Philemon
Beth's Bio:
Beth Philemon is a National Board Certified Teacher and choral conductor based out of Raleigh, NC, where she is currently pursuing her Masters in Business Administration with a focus in marketing and entrepreneurship from North Carolina State University. After ten years of teaching choir in public schools, she found a personal and institutional gap in the understanding of how to run school choir programs like the businesses they are and she hopes to educate others how to effectively promote, manage, and build choral music programs through the art of business. Conversely, Beth believes the world of business has much to learn from choral singing and she is passionate about delivering opportunities for community involvement in choir.
In 2018 she founded CHOIR BATON, a collaborative online community about life and choir. CHOIR BATON seeks to engage others through social media takeovers, the CHOIR BATON podcast, and online resources, under the mission of #morepeoplesinging. CHOIR BATON sends weekly newsletters to the community and information about how to sign-up for an Instagram takeover. Sign up at bit.ly/ChoirBatonEmail or follow along @choirbaton on Instagram. While on Facebook and Twitter, Beth's main love is Instagram where you can see what shenanigans she's up to @bethphilemon. And because she's in business school, know you can also connect with her on LinkedIn.
TRANSCRIPT OF THE SHOW
Jessica: Thank you for sharing about choir music today. I'm really - I'm just so happy to have you hear to talk about choir and especially during this time about online teaching. I think it's going to be so helpful.
Beth: Awesome. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.
Jessica: Yeah! So you're super passionate about choral music and you've created this site called Choir Baton and you've also got the Instagram page Choir Baton and I just love your passion for making sure that more people are singing. I think that's so important and I'd love for you to share why you believe being part of a choir is so important.
Beth: Absolutely. I've - wow - that's such a great question. I did not grow up singing really in a choir. I sang in church and in small groups and that, but it wasn't until I was in high school that I had my first legitimate choral opportunity and it changed my life because it instilled personal confidence within me and then within the same context too I was singing with people that didn't look like me. That didn't believe like me. That weren't the same socio-economic levels as me. And yet we're all coming together for this goal that not impacts us, but impacted the audience as well and it's just an amazing experience to be a part of that with others.
Jessica: When I look back on the teachers who were the most inspirational and the most encouraging to me I can go all the way down through the line and see that they were all of my choral educators. So I just think it's so important. I love the idea of more people singing because I feel like so many people nowadays, even they'll say to their kids, 'oh my kids can't sing' or 'I'm not a singer' or 'I'm not comfortable.' And I really believe that everyone has a voice. And that it's just so important that people realize that they might not be comfortable singing or maybe they haven't had the choral experiences that some of us have had, but just building that confidence in that.
Beth: Absolutely. I could not have said it better like that is a unique part of my journey in this is that choir music has helped me find my voice and I'm still finding even my voice in the choir community as well realizing that I have a different voice and a different story and that's okay because one of my other favorite sayings is that my voice is enough. Your voice is enough. And it's in singing voice and life voice as well and that's so true.
Jessica: Now that we're in this online education platform, you know, I'm going back Monday so the idea of rethinking what that's going to look like for students and how to build their comfort with their voices in an online setting - because that's going to seem very different when they're doing it from their homes by themselves, but kind of collaboratively as well. You know? Because it's like you're with people, but you're not with people so it feels very different from a choral setting where they're next to you. And I love the resource that you created. I was looking all through it and the videos you created and it's practical and it's not overwhelming, which I have felt very overwhelmed with all of the things - like try this and look at this and do this and I just needed somewhere practical to start with my students and I'm in a general music education setting and so it's not necessarily a choral setting, but we do do singing every class, you know. And so I'd love for you to share when we're thinking about teaching online, the practical things that we should consider when beginning this virtual choir rehearsal setting.
Beth: Right. Well and I love that you said that you teach general music and the course was for choir. But music is music is music is music is music. I think that's one thing we have to remember. And along those same lines: teaching is teaching is teaching is teaching is teaching. And you don't - you meaning you and listeners and everyone - I feel so passionately about the fact that just because you are now using this online mode you do not have to change what you're doing in your classroom in structure and in format. And what I mean with that is, you know, the course is really - and thank you for your kind words about the course. Like all of that happened so quickly, I didn't even really have a chance to think about it as I was doing it because it's things I have thought about for years and like, truly years. And then within a matter of 24 hours I was like I feel like this is what people need to hear and you just do it all and then you think I hope that was good and useful.
Jessica: It was. It is. Yeah.
Beth: Well, and the purpose was to not be overwhelming because that was the other thing that I began to be overwhelmed when I began to see all the different resources and to really - I wanted people to think about as you're switching to this, you really - you first off can do this and you're going to fail and you're going to do stuff badly, right. One of my sayings through this is you didn't learn to teach in your classroom in a day. You're not going to learn to teach digital music in a day and that's okay. But then secondly, is that everything that you're doing in the classroom you can do online. It's just going to learn differently. Where I think that people are going to have the hardest problem with this adaptation is that you aren't needed all the time in this music making. We're control freaks right?
Jessica: Yes!
Beth: Yeah! Like 'let me,' 'no-no,' 'sing that that way.' and part of that is feedback and that's all well and good, but it really takes a lot of control out of our hands. But we have to be moving, in my opinion, we have to be moving education more towards that way anyways because of what society is requiring of people in the workforce. So I think that's really good and I think that's where people are going to have the struggle like you aren't going to be in charge al the time of what you're going to do, but now and then directing back to how do you begin to think through this. You want to think about who are my students? Who am I? What do they need from me? What's the structure that they get from me and like, right even in the general music class like what happens when they walk in? What's that process look like? And really nailing that down first. Does that make sense?
Jessica: Absolutely. Because I think very practically so I need like besides just start with this phenomenal lesson plan and this - I don't know I'm not using my words well - but you know, just this broad big thing and okay we're going to do something amazing. Going wait - what do my students need? And what do they have? And start with that. I just keep thinking start small. Start with little steps, you know, because if you start with little steps you can grow and build, but if you try to do this big amazing thing at first I feel like for me I would possibly fail and feel even more discouraged. So I like to think what do my students have. What are the resources they have? How are they feeling? Because they're at home and their home lives are, you know, that structure at home is going to look different than what's going on in a classroom setting outside of the home and there's other distractions and there's other factors there. And then what do they need from me. Because I know how I'm feeling and I've been positive and I've been discouraged and I've been sad and then I've been hopeful and I think they're going to feed off of that as well and be feeling those things so emotionally and socially they're feeling some things as well and yes, the curriculum is important, but we also have to remember that if we start with those small steps in helping them build confidence and then doing the music making from there.
Beth: Absolutely and you really nailed in on some key things like what do my students have. And I think what's really going to bite us music educators in the bottom is that some of us haven't asked that. We don't know what kind of technology our students have or we've assumed that they've had stuff and they don't. Or worse, we assume that they know how to do stuff or that they know more than us and they don't. My hope and prayer is that from this we begin to really talk about how are we teaching digital literacy within the classroom because I was shocked last year when my students - seniors - we're talking like 3.5 / 4.0 seniors didn't know what a pdf was or how to create one or how it's different form a Word doc or anything like that and that is huge. So then once you kind of figure out that - and if you don't know that about your students then you've got to realize that moving forward in future years that needs to be something you're aware of and you're knowing how to build that into your understanding of your students and how you can potentially begin to integrate some technology with them as well because this is coming like it or not. It's not going to shutdown choir. It's not going to shutdown music making. But we have to be prepared for the change.
But then exactly what you said, it's also not about the lesson. It's about what's the function of the technology? How's technology going to function in what you are already doing in your rehearsals and enable you to do that from afar? And then you don't need 35 different technologies - you just need 1 or 2 of them to be able to do that.
Jessica: I was thinking that as well as far as the tools we're using with our students. There's been so many - and I love this - there's been so many companies who have given free downloads or free subscriptions and I think those are all so fantastic, but I know for me, I need to start with the things I'm comfortable with and maybe try one new thing. And go, okay I haven't used Solfeg.io or I haven't tried Soundtrap yet so I'm going to choose a lot of the tools that I already know how to do and already know how to implement and then choose one new tool to try with students and once I've tested that out, depending on how long this goes, pull in some other things. But I think it's important not to try every new thing and feel like we have to be these professional people who understand every single tool at our reach and instead just start with what you know and maybe add something new and go from there. Because, just like you said, our students - we can't assume that they know how to use all of these. If we're not comfortable using the tools, it's too difficult to guide our students through using those tools and then talk about a major learning curve - not just for you, but for them - and there's already quite a bit of stress over how am I going to do what I do in my classroom and put it digitally.
Beth: Absolutely! And ultimately we want our students to be successful and what is the way that we can bring a small amount of success to their lives through the conduit of music every single day? And that doesn't look like everyone needing to download Sight Reading Factory. And now this also does not look to be a successful choir - does not mean in a virtual era like we are in right now, does not mean you have to make a virtual choir track. So I was talking with some music educator, choral music educator friends and one of them is just finishing up his DMA and he was saying that for their course work to finish out the semester they have to write a paper about the two major works that they would have been performing. And at first I was like, "Ugh that sucked." I want to be able to sing and I want to be able to do this. I mean I get it and I'm not saying it's bad, but he said, "Beth, you have to think too. We as choral musicians - part of the beauty of what we do is singing with others" and there is a place to sing alone and that is valuable and we do need to do that because I firmly believe not enough choirs focus on that, but on the flip side we also have to realize that as cool as some of these virtual choirs are, they aren't actual choral music making. They're devoid of some of the amazing synergies that you get during a rehearsal and so leaning in to other activities such as writing a paper have you still interacting with the music and the score just in a more tangible way rather than you practicing through practice tracks for music you might never ever perform.
Jessica: Right, right.
Beth: And I really want people to hear that because I, I don't think I even talked about virtual choirs in the course because I think they're cool and all, but I don't think people need to feel as if their only being successful as a virtual choir teacher if you're only making a virtual choir track. I love technology! Love technology and I have no real desire to be able to do that. Nor is it like in my current skill set or in the best use of my time and so I really want to caution choir teachers to not feel like they are failing if they don't do it or that they have to and so they're doing it and they're getting frustrated and all of this other stuff. There's so many other ways that we can have students interacting with music and also have a tangible result of the work that they've put in too.
Jessica: I think we need to keep in mind too - and I agree - I think we need to keep in mind what's best for our students. Exactly like you said. What is the best use of our time to really help those students continue with the music making and you know, having a click track and being able to get these students to create that virtual experience and create those really amazing, beautifully done videos is fantastic. I know for me that is not my strength and so I don't know that that's in the best interest of my time and I do find it hard not to compare and go, 'ugh - I should be doing that' or 'Oh that's the only way that this will be successful in what I'm doing with my students.' And there's so many things that I think we want to keep in mind that are going to be extremely successful about teaching online and we need to celebrate those things with our kids and see the growth in them. And there are going to be things that just don't go very well and we need to celebrate those hard times and go okay, here's what I learned from that. Just like any normal lesson plan where you think, where you have in mind the structure of your plan and maybe it doesn't quite go the way you think it's going to go and then you rehash it and you rethink it and you reevaluate it and change it for the better. But I think a lot of the amazing moments that are going to happen are not going to be those big things that everyone else sees. They're going to be those small things that happen in the online experiences with your kids, you know.
Beth: And isn't that what it's like in the classroom though too?
Jessica: Yeah - yeah!
Beth: Right. It's not in those big things that everyone sees. Like the most beautiful times you have in a classroom are that one perfectly tapered decrescendo that your kids or everyone is actually standing with their hands by their sides for one song or like - like those are the wins. We know that will never happen on a concert stage that everyone's going to see. No kid can ever keep their hands all the time by their sides, especially if they're in middle school or elementary school or freshman or seniors or anyone. Yeah I love that.
Jessica: I think so many times in my classroom like even before break. Before break, it was a Wednesday and we were preparing - all of my select ensembles were going to perform at three schools the next day and then we had our culminating, we call them, Music Sharings on Friday and it all got cancelled at 10:30 at night. And we've been working since September because the select ensembles meet in the mornings and just at first it was just devastating to go like oh all of their hard work, I mean my hard work as well too, but all of their hard work and all the things that we've been preparing and I thought there were so many moments leading up to that concert that were just amazing. Where the students in our Orff ensemble where they created this piece and we ended the piece and it was complete silence. And these are middle school students, you know.
Beth: So that never happens.
Jessica: Yeah, right? So it was complete silence and you could hear them breathe and everyone was like 'Wow.' Where they were like that was amazing! And just those moments where you end the piece or like you said that decrescendo or they're standing with their hands at their sides. All of those things that we can celebrate in the classroom with them that an audience is never going to see and I think the same can happen online, you know.
Beth: Absolutely. Absolutely. And so this is also something where I, again, I hope that moves us forward is that one of the last things I put in the course that is not unique to my journey and my sharing and that is of daily gratitudes. And it's taking something specific that happened to that day in that rehearsal and writing it down. And I still have copies of mine from my last year in the classroom full time because I look back on that and that is such a tangible piece of evidence of things. And I think that is the great example of things that we can bring into the classroom, the digital classroom, that whether it's that you collect them on a whole thing or you know, each kid writes them down and you come back together and you share them when you come together at the beginning of the next school year or something like that. That's a really great way for us to track that tangible growth and tangible wins every single day too.
Jessica: I love that idea. I'm going to incorporate that into my online teaching sessions when I start next week because just giving a student something to find that is going well and to work with gratitude - and that's actually - gratitude is our theme of the year for our school. Ah! Okay - yes! Thank you for that.
Beth: Yes! It will revolutionize - it will revolutionize everything. So and it has to be specific to that period, right. It's not like...when you make it specific, you have to really find the gratitude in the little things. And it's just - it's unbelievably powerful. One of my last community choir rehearsals that I did two weeks ago - and so these are all adults - and I had them up and moving and in circles and I thought they're really going to hate me for having them do this because it'll take moving around. In theory, right. In theory. And I did the daily gratitudes at the end of the rehearsal and one of the ladies was like 'my favorite part was getting up and singing in circles.' And so many wins! And then for me as a pedagogue too, I was like, "Yes they liked that" and I wasn't asking them to tell me what they liked. But that has informed so much of my teaching too.
Jessica: I love that idea. And that's something simple that we can add that would bring just a little bit more joy that's not a burdensome thing. I love it! So thinking through ... we've talked about the things we should think through in just getting to teach online. So how about the structure of a virtual choir rehearsal. And I know this is going to look very different for every teacher, but just an idea of how do you structure an online rehearsal?
Beth: Right. Right. So I think there's a couple things you need to consider. And if people don't know, so I was in the classroom for a while and now I'm actually a full-time MBA student and the irony of all of this is I am now as a student having all of my classes shifted online, but prior to this semester, or this semester actually, I had one online class. So actually I had one last summer too. So I've kind of had a taste of what it's like to be on the student end of online learning, which has also framed my approach to some of this as well. And then I also feel the student's pain - and the teacher's pain of my professor's. Some of them are all set to go online and some of them aren't.
So a couple of things. One of them is this word asynchronous vs. synchronous. And synchronous meaning it's happening at the same time and asynchronous meaning you can do it whenever. And I think you really need to lean into who are your kids and what do they need when looking at this, but it's a very important thing for music teachers especially that are also wanting to have like "we're all doing sectionals at the same time." A synchronous example would be "well we meet at 11:10 M-W-F. Class is going to be at 11:10. I better see you there." And that is a synchronous example.
And then an asynchronous example would be "We normally spend 3 hours in class each week. Expect you to spend - I'm going to say 2 hours because think of all the time we waste in classes with just transitions and stuff. And I expect you to spend 2 hours on your material." And then these are your deliverables and these are your activities. Pros of the synchronous style - meaning you're doing it all at the same time - is that you have that set schedule and it is in theory, in theory is continuity because it's the same time every day and you get a chance to interact and they get a chance to interact with each other. Concerns I have with that is that our lives are different - they're not the same - so while yes, that might have been the same time every single day, it's different like you're at home, you're not at school and you're also trying to recreate something as though it is the same even though it's not the same. Also kids have- some of them have siblings they have to take care of or they have limited technology resources and they can't get online at the same time and that sort of thing. So there's a lot of concerns about that, but that also does provide a level of accountability to take care of students that might struggle to do the work in general. So they can at least take care of the work that way. So pros and cons on that.
And then with the asynchronous meaning you do work on your own, I think there's a lot of pros with this because you have to deliver an outcome. So many times in a typical choir rehearsal we devise what they have in that rehearsal space and it's a lot easier to not plan kind of like and just see what will happen or just where that goes. And there's pros and cons to that, but if you're asking students to complete something on their own time, you're also going to have to have a tangible result for what they're doing and we don't have enough of that, in my opinion, in choral music. We assume that students know a lot and they really, really don't. And so that is going to take a lot more focus and planning and like thinking through some things. Now the con being what if a student doesn't complete it? Well how often is Sarah in the front row of your choir not singing along? Or mouthing the words or something like that? And I don't care whatever like any choir teacher might think 'oh that's not my kid listening' - I know you wouldn't think this - but 'oh my kid they're really singing', but no there are kids faking it in your class. Sorry to break this to you, but there are kids faking it in your choir class. I know because I was like that faker kid at times. It was just me and I wasn't doing it consciously, but I could do it and get away with it without even thinking about it. But anyways this - you will then be able to have tangible evidence as to whether Sarah, or Beth - I'll use my own name, is faking it. Does Beth really know her part? Does Beth really know where 'do' is in a piece that starts in E Major and be able to have that tangible work and simultaneously if you have communicated the expectations and the outcomes clearly to the students and they do not meet that objective, then you have tangible evidence to take to a parent and administrator and say this is why Beth is not getting an A in choir. It's because they are not doing this demonstrated work and that is a problem I think that we have in choir in general and whether you're virtual or not. We're like if we just have done a very bad job of doing that and then to our credit, like, there's not been a lot of resources out there for us to do that and that's something I'm passionate about working on, but I think those are some things to think about and also with asynchronous learning, students can do it more for their schedule and dig into things. I think you also need to be creative with not expecting them to rehearse the music every day for 30 minutes. It's like one day they are writing in their music and like numbering - are there numbers measured?
Ooh! This is one of my favorite simplest activities that you're working on with a choir and you don't necessarily, you can't track if they're singing it or not and you need something tangible is have them write the text out. Have them write the text in poetic form. That's what the composer started with, right? And you can do it online. Now I still think they should hand write it, but they could upload it or they could type it or maybe they could do some kind of cool collage with the text. There's so many opportunities for you to literally just have students extract the text from the music. It's what the composer started with. We think that we know what the text means when we're looking at the piece of music, but there's too much other crap on there for you to fully see it. And that's like what a simple assignment! And let's think - you're looking at five different pieces of music. Have them write out the lyrics to five songs and that's like ten minutes of activity that they can do on their own, fitting it into their schedule for the week as well. And that's a great example of an asynchronous activity.
So another extension with once you have students take the text out and they're writing what it means and they're doing all this kind of cool creative things with it. Another musical step you can have them do is identify the syllables of each word. And it sound basic and it is. You'll be shocked at whether students really understand syllables and if it's a two syllable word, one of the syllables is stressed and the other one is unstressed and vice-versa. So what is the stressed syllable impacts how you're going to sing the music so if you're singing (singing:) About. Right? Then I'm stressing 'Bout.' But how many times do kids sing (singing:) About. They stress it equally or they go (singing:) about. And maybe you want that last one and now the first one, but then they need to think this is a two syllable word. Which syllable is stressed? We can inform the musicality of it through the text stress and the text stress then comes into what are the syllables. So having the kids take text and say this is a 2-syllable word, this is a 3-syllable word, this is a 4-syllable word and then dividing it and all of this is on the course too. You can download my worksheets for this. It's in one of the score annotation module parts. And then is the first syllable stressed and the second syllable unstressed? Or vice versa? And then using that to inform how they're going to sing something as well.
Jessica: That's awesome. And then you have other resources too?
Beth: It's in the Choir Baton Teaching Membership that is basically me just giving resources and tutorials of how I teach it, what works for me because so many times too we go to these conferences and you're just inundated. You don't remember a quarter of what you wanted to remember and you just want to have a conversation or a launching pad of what do I do and how do you do it because then that helps me do it as well and teaching is very vulnerable. Music educators are very vulnerable to show others what we're doing and how we're doing it. And so I just said, well, I'm just going to do it because I just felt so passionately about it and so like I just uploaded a whole set of worksheets. It's like 18 pages and it starts by literally have kids write noteheads on a line. And five years ago I would have been like that is so stupid. They can do that. And a lot of them can and a lot of them can't, but there's not worksheets out there for you to be able to do that.
Jessica: Yeah. I love it. Much, much needed. Yeah.
Beth: Well, it's all about...it's all about wanting to serve and wanting to help and wanting to get more people singing.
Jessica: I think the last thing I really am curious about is any and you have this in your course, tips and tricks for implementation, you know. And some of these, again, I keep coming back to the word practical, but really they're things that we should be doing anyway with our students, but just I think it's so important to start where people can go, 'Okay I can do that. It's manageable.'
Beth: Absolutely. So this is cliché, but it's true. You have to think about how you're communicating. And I think it's easy to get so caught up in like 'well you can go here and get this.' I think more than ever you're communicating with parents and students in one or two places. If you do not do that, that will not set you up for success and that might be dictated for you by your district or it might be left up to every teacher so figure out how you're going to communicate with your students where they're going to find out the information that they need first and foremost. I think... So that is Number one.
Some basic tips. If you want a recording of a student and you want to just hear them sing and you don't have time for part tracks or you hate part tracks or they're just not in your jam, one of the easiest ways you can have a video to assess a kid is have them take their phone and sing do-do. (singing the scale up and down) I mean can they sing a major scale by themselves? Not all of them can. A lot of them can't and then when they're doing it, how well are they doing it? I mean is it in pitch? So then let's say check-check-check. Now let's have them practice it with dynamics. Is it going to be forte? Is it going to be accented? Is it going to have a crescendo? Is it.. you know, like that simple assessment is really a great jumping off part. Now what I would do, because I'm not a fan of the Google Classroom, and if you're Google Classroom, go for it - you know how to do this all better, but let's say you're not Google Classroom and you're like 'crap - how do they turn it in?' Simplest thing! You go to Google Forms and you create a form. And you create a place for them to create their first name and last name. You do a dropdown so they select what class they're in. Don't let them type in the class - the least that they can type in, the least that they can type in, the better that's going to be for you to organize, right. So have their name - all of my students had numbers as well so if they screwed up their name I could at least get it alphabetized by their number. So then if it's a do-do major scale, also having that as a dropdown. Like they're just a click like this is what I'm selecting and then they just upload the file and that might be tricky for some, but it's also pretty simple for others. And then from a grading aspect you get the Google Form - just take it to an excel and you just go click- click- click- click- click- and just listen to all of them and they're all right there for you. I think that is one of the simplest ways that you can utilize online assessment. You're not using crazy platforms. Like that in my opinion is just the way to go in regards to ease.
Now if you want kids to be practicing sight reading, I think sight reading factory is cool for what it is. It's not my jam. Like personally I would probably struggle with sight reading because, and I just gonna share because you probably have students like that too, I'm afraid I'm going to mess up. I'm not sure where I'm gonna start. I'm gonna sing the wrong thing. I don't feel like it's interactive enough. I'm just staring at a screen and singing. Hear me - I love sight reading factory. It's like a bad relationship right - it's not them; it's me.
But so so then for students like me, so then like flat.io is baller because what I'm going to do in flat, and if you're unfamiliar with flat, it is a web-based music notation program that you don't have to download anything to access. It's just like signing into a website and you can access stuff and it's incredibly intuitive. And if you don't know, they have great help sections as well. And I would, if I want a kid practicing literacy, but sight reading factory isn't my jam, I have them go into flat and literally just put in their voice part. And think about all literacy part things they're doing. They're having to set up the time signature. They're having to set up the key signature. And then figure out the part and it's matching, right, but that's all music is is just pattern matching and they can match it like that. And they're interacting with it. They're creating something that's tangible that they can say "I did this" and then you can take the mp3 and they've made their own part track. Like.. and for me I think those are two of the easiest ways that I would be utilizing technology to do stuff.
And then third thing, again, goes back to the text and it goes back to having them write out the text of the song. Having them go through that. And then I use something called a song sheet. Do they know who the composer is? Do they know what the key signature is? Do they know what the time signature is? How many measures? Like I think this is a simple question... how many measures are in this piece of music? Well, that's important because we know that when we get to college we study form and form is dependent upon the amount of measures. So how cool for us to begin to build that in as well. That is a starting question for talking about form with students, but they don't know that. They think that it's just cool because they're counting 'oh there's 32 measures.' And that's a win! Right? You're also giving them simple wins as well. So song sheets and writing in their music and the text thing we've already talked about. Utilizing flat. And then just simple recordings of just hearing them sing that they can upload through a google form are three ways in which I would begin to build assessments in in. And you're not worrying about a virtual choir. They're singing. They're making music. They're learning. You are getting feedback that you have that you can use and they can also begin to track their experience with.
And sidenote - I'm also very passionate about portfolios and I think if... Do not - hear me - do not try to give portfolios amidst this time, but these are artifacts that you can begin collecting that if you go next year. Oh I think I might do a portfolio! You say, "hey kids - you still have these videos and you can track this is what I sounded like in 6th grade and this is what I sound like in 7th grade."
Jessica: A great project to look at for future use for sure.
Beth: Absolutely. And that's another thing you can say to kids too. It's building that buy-in too. We're not just scooting around. We're not just coming up with crap right now just to pass the time. There's an end goal. There's a reason for this and you're building something right now that even though we're in a wonky times, it does have a purpose. It is all connected.
Jessica: I'm gonna read you something that you wrote. And so this is a quote from your website, but I think it just ties in to everything you've shared and I am certain you did not write this like more recently. I'm sure you wrote this a long time ago, but in looking at all of the things you had created and everything this really stood out to me. And it was in pretty big font in site anyway, but just as I read it, I feel like this really summarizes everything you just spoke about and I'm glad I saved it on the form as we were talking only because I feel like this needs to be said, but as we wrap up I was like, I think this is such a great thing. So you wrote:
"In an age of unprecedented technology and digital connectivity, I value how choral music connects people face to face. Yet I also want to show how we can utilize technology within the art. I believe rehearsals should include multifaceted approaches to learning about musical notation, basic harmony, history, and varied repertoire. I believe rehearsals should contain structure, pacing, professionalism, and laughter. I believe music is a conduit to reach people, both singer and listener. And I strive to create meaningful rehearsals that generate meaningful performances." - Beth Philemon
And just in reading that - I mean I'm reading it to you - those are your words... to me it's so moving that you wrote that with such passion and everything you've shared in this episode and the things that you share on Instagram and everything really speaks to what you wrote there and I just think this applies whether we're in the classroom or whether we're doing it digitally. And everything in here can be done both ways, especially when you're like to show how we can use technology within the arts because who knew this is where we would be. I mean, you know, three weeks ago I felt like it was so far removed from us that oh, we were untouchable and now here we are and so just thank you for those words and I hope it encourages people who are listening because it just ... it's just so practical and yet it's meaningful and we can still create that structure and still create the multifaceted approaches and bring professionalism and laughter and music. So thank you so much for your passion for this and I hope that listeners will go to websites: to Bethphilemon.com and to choir baton.com and check you out on Instagram because I feel like you have so much to share as a student and a teacher and for someone whose been on that side now of learning digitally, you know. I think you bring a new insight into it that we all need. So thank you!
Beth: Thank you. It's so crazy. A - having someone read that back to me is very powerful and moving. I wrote that almost six years ago, which is really crazy to think about now. Yeah... And I've never believed it more than what I believe right now. So thank you for sharing that and I hope that, you know, come hang out with me on Instagram. I love talking about music. This is a testament to you, Jessica, for having me on here today and I appreciate connecting with you.
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