MASSACHUSETTS VOL. 68, NO. 4 SUMMER 2020 MUSIC EDUCATORS A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

Special Issue REMOTE 2020

SPECIAL ISSUE: How We’re Doing, What We’re Doing, and Why

Sue Lindsay’s elementary instrumental students from Plymouth, Mass. spread the joy of music in a live online concert for a local assisted living facility.

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 1 2 | MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL VOL. 68 NO. 4 | SUMMER 2020 SUMMER 2020 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS MASSACHUSETTS JOURNAL EDITORIAL STAFF

Managing Editor Susan Gedutis Lindsay MUSIC EDUCATORS c/o P.O. Box 3886 JOURNAL South Attleboro, MA 02703-3886 508.830.0651 [email protected]

Business Manager Kristen Harrington /Advertising P.O. Box 811, Salem, MA 01970 CONTENTS 617.680.1492 [email protected]

Editorial Board Tom Reynolds, Advocacy 4 CONFERENCE 13 HIGHER EDUCATION 21 RESEARCH AND MUSIC TEACHER EDUCATION Tom Westmoreland, IN-ovations MMEA All-State From Plunking Student Teacher Faith M. Lueth, Choral Conference 2021 onto Zoom to Total Vacant, General Music By Noreen Diamond Burdett Reconceptualiza- Displacement Rhoda Bernard, Higher Education tion: A Range of During COVID-19 5 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Responses to COVID-19 By Ruth Debrot, David Neves, Instrumental Kel Cadence Kim, and ‘Twas the week- By Rhoda Bernard Andrew Goodrich, Sabrina Scotti Contemporary / Jazz end before we taught online . . . 14 INSTRUMENTAL 22 RESEARCH AND MUSIC Stephanie Riley, Technology TECHNIQUES TEACHER EDUCATION A Poem for Dr. Tawnya Smith, Research Hot Cross Buns, Filling Our Wells and Music Teacher Education This Time Hairspray, and By Kính T. Vũ Please send all Susan Gedutis Lindsay By Cecil Adderley manuscripts to: [email protected] Girl Scout Cookies: On Grief and the 23 MUSIC PROGRAM 6 FROM THE EDITOR LEADERS Manuscripts not included immediately Persistence of Music will be kept on file for future use. Ten Years, By Adam Grüschow Notes on the Deadlines: July 15 for fall, Oct. 15 for winter, Darkness, and Future from the Jan. 8 for spring/conference, and Beginnings: 15 MUSIC TECHNOLOGY April 15 for summer President Elect The Songs of Light Technology in By Dr. Heather Cote Please see the MMEJ page at massmea.org Ring Eternal for rate and spec information. the Time of By Susan Lindsay COVID-19: 24 IN-OVATIONS The Massachusetts Music Educators Journal Discovery, Humans, and Encouraging (ISSN 0147-2550) is issued quarterly to members 8 ADVOCACY the Limits of Gadgetry of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association, Inc. Student (MMEA is tax exempt, 51-0147238, under 501-C3). All Hands on Deck: By Stephanie Riley Nonprofit postage paid at New Bedford, MA ` Advocating for Music Composers: and the Arts During the 15 IN MEMORIAM “I Once Had This The annual subscription price of $4.00 COVID-19 Pandemic Student . . . Composer” is included in the membership dues. Jack Casey The Massachusetts By Joe Pondaco The MMEJ is available to nonmembers PreK-12 Music Educator 16 GROWING MUSIC IN MASS for a subscription price of $10.00. Facebook Group 25 EMBRACING THE NEW By Anthony Beatrice MUSIC EDUCATOR Send change of address promptly to: 18 GENERAL MUSIC NAfME, 1806 Robert Fulton Dr., Reston, VA 22091 The Creative- 10 VOICES The Grey Cloud, Driven Classroom Copies returned due to change of address the Silver Lining, By Kirstie Wheeler will not be reissued. Quarantine Reflections and Some Kick@ss 27 URBAN By Andy Loretz Media Check Out Taylor! Resilient Learners: By Taylor Nardone Reshaping the 11 CHORAL COVID-19 Experience C-Squared: 19 CONTEMPORARY / JAZZ in Urban Schools COVID-19 and Choir By Odell Zeigler IV By Stephanie Riley When We Get Through This 28 DISTRICT UPDATES By Gareth Dylan Smith

32 MMEA EXECUTIVE 20 MAJE BOARD AND STAFF MAJE Updates By Joseph Mulligan 31 ADVERTISERS INDEX

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 3 CONFERENCE

ATTENTION MMEA MEMBERS MMEA All State Conference 2021 By Noreen Diamond Burdett, Conference Coordinator We Need Your Feedback! It’s time to send in your Thanks for all of your continued support as the board proposal to be a clinician works to represent and advocate for you during these at the 2021 All-State Confer- challenging times. As the learning voice for music educa- ence! Go to the website tion for the communities we serve, you are represented (massmea.org) and click on during discussions related to the reopening of schools. the 2021 Call for Session As additional information becomes available we Proposals link. The deadline will share all of this with you. to submit your proposal is September 1, 2020, but don’t As we plan for next steps it is important that we hear from each of you wait another minute: prior to the conclusion of PK12 school end-of-year activities. We must col- Do it today! lect and organize your best practices as to how we may all move forward in an uncertain and challenging time. We want and need your input. As I am writing this in May, most of the details for the conference and Please use the following link: representative will share your festival are still up in the air, but comments with the board and those massmea.org/about/contact-us one thing is confirmed: Dr. Tim who are preparing for the reopening Lautzenheiser, Music for All, In the subject line, of schools in the fall. will be our keynote speaker! We place one of the following: We look forward to hearing from definitely need to be inspired and ATTN: Elementary Rep. you and hope that you continue to reinvigorated during this most uncer- —Sara Allen Santos; support your MMEA. tain time, and no one can do it better than Dr. Tim. For more information ATTN: Middle School Rep. on Dr. Tim and his work, visit —Andrea Cook; CHANGE OF ADDRESS https://www.musicforall.org/who-we- ATTN: High School Rep. Please note our new mailing address: are/bios/dr-tim-lautzenheiser —Meredith Lord; Massachusetts Music Educators Association Stay tuned for the Conference details ATTN: Higher Education Rep. as they emerge. Check the website at PO Box 920004 —Reagan Paras, and/or, massmea.org for updates. Needham, MA 02492 ATTN: K12 Admin. Rep. Stay healthy and be sure to —Christopher Martin take care of yourself. • Please place in the comment section all items related to your success dur- CALL FOR 2021 CONFERENCE ing these challenging times, as well SESSION PROPOSALS as listing your suggestions as to how you envision arts education in all The Call for Session Proposals for the 2021 of the possible formats it could be Conference is open offered in your community. Once now through Sept. 1 at complete, click submit and the http://massmea.org/survey. materials will be forwarded to the correct representative. Each

4 | MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL VOL. 68 NO. 4 | SUMMER 2020 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

‘Twas the weekend before we taught online . . . A Poem for This Time By Cecil Adderley, President, MMEA

Once the orders were given, The grounding of a baritone General music, modern band, You hum and you sing we prepared to work or bass, trumpet in your face, various ensembles, and private what’s new about that . . . from home, and move our a tuba playing a line, and lessons are all neat. didn’t you know music instruction online. others filling in the inner? teachers have to juggle, Faculty meetings, teacher sing, dance, keep an I wondered how families conferences, grading eye on all students would adjust to “new normal” assignments, fund raisers and We are experiencing and help the next. in such a short period of time. a new normal, but all have equipment to sign out. The training for this That first weekend, stepped up to the plate. You’ve done a great deal in a did not come easy. I worked around the house. Learning Zoom, Google short time and the tension I looked out the window, Classroom and Meet, continues to mount. We learned a great deal and walked around the yard. WebEx, GoToMeeting, about children, their needs and anything neat. and such. I was curious as to what’s No one is mistaking that the “new normal” for me, We’ve created videos your job has gotten harder. What interest some in and others who are now online, each week for our students one lesson, may not work New ideas, additional tech, thinking this may be hard. to view, for the next. more planning, what the heck! Continued with curriculum, We have learned to manage We all want the best for It was nice to see families and created something new. unique learners and helped our students. In our assigned walking together. them all to succeed. Some have offered enrichment classrooms introducing They kept their distances and maintained the class norm. the next unit. Ensembles are Teaching music isn’t just from others as instructed. different, so is teaching about a concert you attend Our homes are full of people Some waved when a private lesson. at the end of a term, we thought had left, and it’s they wanted, others passed looking like a college dorm. Breakout groups work one day, It’s an experience, a connection by without glances, full discussions for the next, the teacher makes each day We’re working from home, I thought of others kindness, without judgement . . . educating kids at the I still can’t believe that yet wondered why others kept we just want our kids to learn. same time too, I’m seeing some of these their feelings inside without students’ texts. giving the neighbors chances. Serving breakfast, lunch, We all hope that the new dinner, and trying to offer It is a new time for us all, normal is something ensemble classes, woo-hoo! and I wonder, when I see some You’ve kept their attention we will approach, meet families playing ball, walking, each minute you’re on. the challenge, revise riding their bikes and such. Non-teaching parents now see, Parents have e-mailed and succeed. Do you think we’ll hear as they try to fill our shoes. or called to seek tips on We are teachers, how to do the things some families singing together, Teachers are more patient we are bright, that you do. strumming a guitar, with their kids, and now they we are strong, ukulele, or a piano? Maybe are singing the blues. we are important, a recorder, notes from and we meet a need. a soprano, alto or tenor? You’ve planned, you’ve modeled and executed each lesson remotely. You’ve managed the classroom from afar, and without missing a beat.

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 5 FROM THE EDITOR

be expressed by words alone. We must Ten Years, Darkness, and Beginnings: acknowledge and fulfill our duty to emote and uplift. We must keep believing that the The Songs of Light Ring Eternal night is darkest before the dawn. The dawn will come and we will see the sun—but By Susan Lindsay, MMEA Managing Editor only if we, as artists and educators, lift the curtains both for ourselves and for others. As musicians, as teachers, as humans: We have access to the light. We must share it, In a decade of producing this quarterly journal for the music educators and keep her lit. of Massachusetts, this particular issue feels most important. Never did It’s what we do. • an anniversary feel so much like a new beginning. In this issue, we invited educators to reflect on what teaching through COVID-19 has meant—or may mean—for them. This issue shares their thoughts, feelings, and stories. I hope you will find time to read it all and get value from every article. The articles are written and shared with heart. These are times that defy a single descrip- an all-but-silent Secretary of Education tion, because we are many. Our experiences and a completely abominable, inexcusable, and viewpoints are, too. For those who have and horrific racial situation. While many Susan Gedutis Lindsay is happy to celebrate suffered illness or loss, it has been a time struggle to navigate through these insuf- her tenth year as MMEJ editor. She worked of grief. For those who suffer anxiety or ferable areas of deep grey, the difference for more than 15 years with online learning depression, it has no doubt been a time of between black and white has never seemed at Berklee Online, so this was a smooth blinding isolation and loneliness. For those more stark. transition in many ways. When she’s not whose homes are broken, it may have been a We must take heart. It does no good to teaching elementary instrumental music time of horror. For those who watch culture dwell too long in the darkness of these online and in the classroom, she is blogging. and politics, it may have been a time of times; we are contributing to the future Stay-at-home restrictions released the beast! disappointment, disbelief, anger. For those only when we use darkness to help define For almost daily observations—sometimes without income, a time of great fear. For the light. As the 2020 school year comes to arch, often satirical—on musicianship, those who have been spared these things a close, we can use our summer reflection positivity, and life, subscribe to Sue’s blog, and who are prone to making lemonade, it time to reinvent ourselves as educators. But www.jamandbread.us. Here are a few has offered time for reflection and renewal. remember: We are not reinventing what highlights of Sue’s pandemic reflections. For those who can give, it has been a time we do. We are only reinventing how we do of sharing and love. And maybe for a few of Music, Coronavirus, and Certain it. Things change. We will prevail if we us, it has been all of these. Death: Say Yes Written right after the change with them. conference. There have been many reasons to feel “In these challenging times,” “in these discouraged since we left our annual It’s Work/Worry Wednesday: Teaching unprecedented times,” “in these uncertain conference renewed with high hopes in Music Online, or, What About the Kids times”—enough! We’ve heard all the March. We are living the unknown; we are We Aren’t Hearing From? descriptions a million times. Writers don’t lost in what feels like an interminable grey lack creativity; it’s just that it’s hard to find Remote Learning: It Begins area. We’re teaching without leadership, words to describe the unexplainable. No And Ends At Love or rather, we are teaching in a time when one knows this more than the artists, the answers come from within, when leadership Here is a selection of learning videos Sue musicians, the poets. As music educators simply means acknowledging the unknown, Lindsay made with the Plymouth Public and as musicians, it is our distinct responsi- offering support and encouragement Schools Elementary Instrumental Program bility, our duty, our honor, and indeed our to individuals stumbling through the during the school shutdown. privilege, to create—and teach others to darkness in separate shafts of light, each create—the sound of feelings that cannot carrying their own flashlights. We have

6 | MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL VOL. 68 NO. 4 | SUMMER 2020 How Good To Center Down Poem By Howard Washington Thurman

As we look to restoring our weary online souls this summer and recover from the crazy remote spring, find clarity in these words MMEA from Howard Washington Thurman. Stands Against With full intensity we seek, ere thicket passes, a fresh sense of order in our living; Racism and A direction, a strong sure purpose that will structure our confusion Discrimination and bring meaning in our chaos.

We look at ourselves in this waiting These days have been challenging moment—the kinds of people we are. for so many in our community, with The questions persist: what are many things to consider as to how we doing with our lives?—what are the we will move forward. As we look motives that order our days? into our classrooms and out into the communities we serve, we must stand What is the end of our doings? and work together to eliminate the Where are we trying to go? racism and oppression which enabled Where do we put the emphasis the events we have recently witnessed and where are our values focused? to occur. The Massachusetts Music For what end do we make sacrifices? Educators Association welcomes all Where is my treasure and students and builds community as we what do I love most in life? foster inclusive music opportunities, Howard Washington Thurman was an curricula, and professional develop- African-American author, philosopher, What do I hate most in life and ment that celebrates exceptionalities, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. to what am I true? identities, orientations, and cultural As a prominent religious figure, he played a Over and over the questions beat backgrounds. leading role in many social justice move- upon the waiting moment. ments and organizations of the twentieth We serve as leaders and role models century. Thurman was also a mentor to As we listen, floating up through to all of the students who emulate our Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. all of the jangling echoes of our turbulence, behaviors, and whom later, we witness there is a sound of another kind— as they often display the actions and How Good To Center Down! reactions they were silently, or not so A deeper note which only the silently taught. We are the leading How good it is to center down! stillness of the heart makes clear. voice for Music Education for all in It moves directly to the core of our being. the Commonwealth, and we must To sit quietly and see one’s self pass by! continue to build and maintain the The streets of our minds Our questions are answered, arts communities where all can feel seethe with endless traffic; Our spirits refreshed, welcomed, can learn, and trust those who provide music instruction for Our spirits resound with clashing, and we move back into the every learner. with noisy silences, traffic of our daily round Sincerely, While something deep within with the peace of the Eternal in our step. hungers and thirsts for the Cecil Adderley, President, MMEA still moment and the resting lull. How good it is to center down!

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of why they can’t live without music and All Hands On Deck: arts education. There have been major cuts to arts education in Massachusetts in 1982 Advocating for Music and the Arts during the implementation of Proposition 2 ½, in the early ‘90s, and during the During the COVID-19 Pandemic Great Recession. Each time the arts have bounced back and this time we will come The Massachusetts PreK-12 Music Educator Facebook Group back stronger and transformed. Please By Anthony Beatrice, Executive Director for the Arts, Boston Public Schools consider joining this group and helping our community move forward.

Action Items for Right Now!

I think back to the 2008 Massachusetts All-State Conference Create an Advocacy Plan where the big bulletin board for job postings only had one little • Have students and parents respond piece of paper hanging off of it. This was the start of the Great to prompts about why music and arts Recession and my first year as a full-time middle and high school education is important to them. Make a YouTube video and share it out on music educator. Many of us had to go through many years of multiple social media channels. Try proposition 2 ½ overrides, frozen budgets, and nuanced advocacy to get your advocates to tag school strategies to keep our music programs from being cut. Back then committee members, town selectmen/ city council members, etc. This can be we did not have a forum to strategize with each other and instead done through a Google Form, FlipGrid, relied on ad-hoc surveys that would take too long for results to be etc. Check out this video from Kayla shared. Now that we have a double-whammy of potential budget Werlin’s Tri-M students at Longmeadow shortfalls married with new protocols for social distancing, this is High School. no time to be going through this in isolation. Our music education • If you have any recordings of students performing or teachers teaching online, community is talented, resilient, and always here for each other. put together a TV show for your local We just need a place online to give our community an access point public access channel. Check out for discussion and so began the Massachusetts PreK-12 Music this example from the Boston Public Educators Facebook Group. Schools Arts Special on the Boston Neighborhood Network TV.

Now over 785 members strong, the group arts organizations in the state and building • Have your parent boosters meet online is a living and breathing source for sharing advocacy tools. Additionally, we have been to coordinate an action plan. Groups information in real time while collaborat- creating a bank of quick video interviews that cater to just middle and high ing best practices in remote learning and focused on navigating these trying times school may want to extend their vision advocacy. The group began just four weeks with retired school leaders Dr. Kim Smith, to elementary general music, as this ago and is moderated by Jenn Dennett, Dr. Paul Livingston, Dr. David Nieves, is the cornerstone to a high-quality Jeffery Daniels, Margaret McKenna, Sara Northeastern District Chair Tom Bankert, sequential music education. Check out Santos, and myself. We had our first and Country Music Association Founda- this grassroots advocacy guide from the evening virtual Zoom forum with nearly tion Executive Director Tiffany Kerns. National Music Merchants Association 100 attendees featuring MMEA President to help: https://www.nammfoundation. As we move into the final weeks of Cecil Adderley, Arts for All Coalition rep- org/educator-resources/grassroots- school, we are learning about embracing resentative Jonathan Rappaport, and author advocacy-guide social emotional learning, building an of Music Education and Social Emotional advocacy plan that balances the fine line • Are there music teachers who do not Learning, Scott Edgar. The group includes of protecting what we have built while also teach in your district but live in the a spreadsheet of local newspaper articles displaying a sense of flexibility, as well as school community? Often it can pertaining to city/town budgets, national spending time researching information on seem self-serving if you represent your articles about school reopening plans from our budgets and reopening plans. Some of program at a school committee meeting. across the country, and a Google form for us may need to remind our communities A music teacher who teaches outside of everyone to fill out for the Arts For All your district but lives in the community Coalition, which is connecting all of the

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is across the board, you might want to be more humble in your approach, compared to if they are just targeting music/arts/physical education/health. • Listen for whether they will be incorporating COVID-19 response items into the budget. This could include personal protective equip- ment and increased transportation costs if they will only allow so many students on a bus, etc.

Don’t Just Say “SEL.” Actually DO “SEL”! • As our students and ourselves are undergoing so much trauma throughout this pandemic, districts are going to be looking at ways to embed social emotional learning practices in the school day. It is important that if you say you are doing SEL in your music class, make sure you actually are! Dr. Scott Edgar has multiple webinars avail- able on the NAfME website. Think about what you have done during can be a great advocate for your Learn More About Your School Budget remote learning in your classrooms program during the public comment that supports SEL. Is there a lesson portion of a school committee • Start forming school committee you can implement in the last few meeting. meeting watch parties with your colleagues to get a sense of your weeks of school that you can use to • If you are part of a union, start asking district’s budget status. As of this help you advocate for your program questions to your building reps. writing (June 1), Governor Baker has over the summer? Maybe coordinate your questions with not released budgets yet and so a lot • Read the NAfME Music and Social all of your music and arts teachers of cities and towns are considering a Emotional Learning Pamphlet. beforehand. 1/12 budget. It is a month-to-month Be on the lookout this week for a new • Start building a coalition with budget based on the FY20 amount SEL Arts Framework from Arts Ed NJ. other music educators in the area. but for FY21 without increases As stated on the website https://www. Oftentimes local superintendents (example of a $20 million budget artsednj.org/covid19: Developed by the form a bond (as seen when they call in FY20 and $20 million for FY21). SEL Arts Education Taskforce, the SEL snow days). If one superintendent does Most districts will need to make Arts Education Framework outlines something, it may trickle to the other adjustments to cover the shortfall. the intersections between the artistic surrounding cities/towns. Additionally, some cities and towns are requesting school committees process as represented by the visual and • Try not to repost scary news to supply options of a 1/12 budget performing arts standards and the SEL articles on your public social media. If plus a 2% or even 5% cut above that. competencies to enable arts educators someone tags you in something, send Municipalities might have rainy day/ to embed SEL into their instructional them a message and explain why it is stabilization funds and/or be able to practice. • a problem. We are trying to withhold shift resources from this fiscal year Anthony Beatrice is the narrative that music education is into next to help alleviate shortfalls. the Executive Director too dangerous during this pandemic. • If the discussion of cuts occurs, listen for the Arts for the to whether they are looking at across- Boston Public Schools. the-board cuts or targeted cuts. If it

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Quarantine Reflections By Andy Loretz, Plymouth Community Intermediate School, Plymouth, Mass.

As music educators, I think it’s fair to say that we are very future- I began to feel full-blown guilt. oriented beings. We are always looking ahead and planning for what’s You’re the one who thought this all next on the calendar. Our profession necessitates it. Especially from would be a relief. March through June I feel like I’m flying from event to event, deadline Guilt mixed with shame. to deadline, and milestone to milestone. Sometimes it feels more like How could I ever have felt relief at a white-knuckling than gracefully gliding. The meditative philosophy of time like this? “living in the present” is hard enough to do to begin with; as a music Shame mixed with grief. teacher, it is nearly impossible. While I absolutely love what I do, the I cannot even begin to fathom the pain reality of the constant planning, over-thinking, stressing, caring for, he must have felt when I had a panic and worrying about students—all while juggling personal life respon- attack due to mild stress. sibilities—makes this a very anxiety-inducing path at times. It became a cocktail of overwhelming and debilitating emotions. So when COVID-19 put a giant pause on lost their jobs? What about my students It has now been two whole months since our usual end-of-the-year marathon, I have who are stuck home with abusive family my former student’s passing. Every day to admit that a small part of me exhaled members? has followed the beat of its own drum. a sigh of relief. The relief of finally being The privilege of being able to have those Some days, the tune is lively and beautiful. able to focus more on the here-and-now. momentary feelings of relief was about to Other days, the tempo drags and I feel like The relief of spending more time with my smack me across the face. I’m playing in the wrong key. But what I husband. The relief of finally getting back have gained from these past few months to playing my primary instrument for my As my head churned with uncertainty is perspective. I would love to have back own enjoyment more regularly. The relief about the future, I began to experience the privilege of what now seems like the of erasing scribbles on the calendar. The what I thought were COVID-like symp- minimal stresses of a normal end-of-the- relief of setting my own pace, rather than toms myself: a high fever, tight chest pains, school-year routine. I would love to have frantically running from class to class with body aches, constant fatigue. Everything back the privilege of making music with a full bladder. but the tell-tale dry cough. I went to urgent my students face-to-face. I would love to care, only to realize my fever broke and But while exhaling tiny wisps of relief, I have back the privilege of seeing my former my chest pains were mostly gone. It was was inhaling deep gulps of new anxieties. student’s smiling face again. clear to both myself and the physician: it My thoughts snapped towards the future wasn’t COVID-19; it was a panic attack. I Every day is a privilege. Every day is a again: What if I catch the virus? What if had never had my mind unconsciously take privilege. Both prior to quarantine and my husband does? What if one or both of hostage of my body like that before, and it even now. While I’m still grieving and us lose our jobs? was horrifying. afraid of what the future has in store, I’m And like all teachers, my thoughts quickly learning to move The next day I found out that a former turned to my students. What about my beyond the fear and student (who moved on to become a music students who left their instruments at “live in the present.” major) died by suicide. He had severely school? What about my students who have If not for me, for my struggled with his mental health since I special needs? What about my students students. • met him, but he finally seemed like he was who don’t have access to technology at ready to blossom. The change in routine, home? What about my students who rely the anxiety of living through a pandemic, on school-provided free lunch? What about and the underlying mental health issues my students whose parents have already brought him to his breaking point.

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term TikTok in a discussion of job- C-Squared: COVID-19 and Choir related inspiration—but hey, I’m open By Stephanie Riley, Choral Music Teacher, Dennis-Yarmouth to anything!), I created an assignment Public Schools, and MMEJ Technology Editor where the students had to create chorus and conductor memes. I am pretty sure I haven’t laughed that loud, hard, and had tears from laughter at all during this pandemic. I feel that this gave my students a chance to reflect on their When you see neat little acronyms like C-Squared or catchy fun moments that we’ve had in class, poke fun a little at the teacher, and still sayings, you certainly don’t think they’ll involve a pandemic. allowed creativity. I had only asked my You’d think (hope and most certainly prefer) something super students for three memes apiece, but cool. However, in our case, we are using a catchy phrase to make practically all students gave me far more the best out of a challenging situation. “COVID-19” and “choir” than that! After the assignment was due, I posted a meme each day to the are an unmatched pair. We’ve had to reinvent how we teach our classroom for them all to enjoy. beloved subject in both reactive and proactive ways. And because Another SEL related activity, and I our ingenuity, we make the best of this situation across the state can’t take credit for this idea (thank and the nation. you Ginny Bailey!), was that I had the students create recruitment videos for In planning out the rest of the year, I’ve chorus, as our chance for the students to tried many things to keep my students go to the middle school for recruitment engaged and keep chorus relevant and day was no longer happening. Again, it meaningful. Some things worked, more got students thinking about the reasons than I’d like to admit failed, and other they love chorus, and the responses I things—well, the jury is still out. While got were heart-warming. Some students doing this planning, I had to constantly did the basic video while others utilized remind myself that this whole process is various apps on their iPads or equip- new, and it’s not going to be perfect as it’s ment that they had at home and used crisis learning and not true remote learning. their skills a little more and collaborated However, I firmly believe there is a lesson with peers from their class to do Zoom in every single thing we encounter, and that videos. belief has guided my approach. • Weekly check-ins. This may not be a Being the eternal optimist, I’ll start with popular approach, but based on the the positive: population I serve, I used our Zoom back and tell them to just go make a meetings each week as a check-in rather • Technology programs: I took advantage video and send the video and certificate than time for me to “teach.” I posted of the Sight Reading Factory subscrip- of completion back to me. That was videos of me teaching instead and gave tions that were offered to us and figured only the final piece of the puzzle. We’ve my students a chance to talk and “see” it was the perfect time to give this pro- focused parts of our time on analyzing each other who might necessarily not gram a try, as I have been fairly positive music a little more and digging deeper socialize outside our class, and I had that I’d be getting a subscription for my into theory—something many of us classroom this fall. My students liked tend to do on the fly during a class as having the ability to control the speed there are multiple things that we have to in which they worked, have feedback, get done in such a short time together. and those who are less comfortable with sight reading had the option to truly • Social Emotional Learning. The assign- start from the bottom up while my more ments that came out of this were advanced students had the option to probably the most heartwarming and work a little faster and be challenged. had the most return from students. Inspired by a TikTok video a student • Virtual Choir. Thank you, Mr. Whitacre, sent me towards the beginning of our for outlining two weeks of my cur- time at home (now seriously—I never in riculum. Of course I did not just sit a million years thought I would use the

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 11 CHORAL

an overwhelming response from my • Student frustration. Students have told students that they liked this approach. me that they want to do their assign- I did also use it as an opportunity to ments and certainly try their best, but ask questions about an assignment as learning how to navigate siblings (and well—which they usually do. parents) constantly around and finding a time and place that they’re comfort- • Killer Choral Playlist. You know how able making a recording without feeling our students are constantly requesting self-conscious of their family judgments pieces or telling us what we should or has been one of the biggest challenges. shouldn’t be programming? Well, here’s My challenge to my students is to look their chance. We do four concerts a to the future in the fall where it’s pos- year in the upper level choirs so I’ve sible that some sort of remote learning had them working their way through is going to need to be in place—I’ve programming a concert based on our asked them to look at their environment theme for each concert: We do a formal and figure out how they can set up a concert with traditional choral music, system or space that will work. Critical a holiday concert that blends all styles, thinking always manages to work its a March concert that has a nice mix of way back into any situation. jazz added into newer choral music, and we end our year with a pops concert. • Like all teachers across America, the This gives me the opportunity to biggest thing for me was missing the share how music is chosen, what the daily interaction and creativity with my “formula” is for various concerts, and students. There is absolutely nothing I have even gone as far as teaching and that will ever replace that, and I don’t discussing program notes and how to think we should try. Moving forward, I form. Insisting that we keep it and then write them. think we need to keep chorus relevant making it work will be the best thing we for our students so that when we do get can do for our art and our students. Things that have been difficult: the chance to get back to singing and To conclude, I think my biggest takeaway • Student participation. As I mentioned creating together, students have had this from this whole situation is “opportunity.” before, my SEL activities had amazing rare opportunity to explore the many Let’s seize it, mold it, learn from it, create it, return as compared to more technical little things that add up to this big and utilize it. Nothing in life is permanent. activities. Like any good teacher, I beautiful thing we call chorus. If we’re We’re just writing another chapter in our evaluate what’s going on and adapt my remote learning in any form in the fall, teaching career and musical career book. focus and approach. I think every single I know I’ll be better prepared and have And, I have no doubt we’re all going to teacher would agree that the emotional been penning new and adjusted cur- come out stronger, more connected, and state of our students right now is far riculum for my choirs. Keeping choir is more creative than ever. And that right more important so I’ve been formulat- essential even in a remote setting as we there is going to make our expertise so ing my lessons that way instead. need to continually advocate for our art much more valuable than it already is. •

12 | MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL VOL. 68 NO. 4 | SUMMER 2020 HIGHER EDUCATION

Our students have new opportunities and From Plunking onto Zoom new ways to learn. They now practice at home with play-along recordings, record to Total Reconceptualization: themselves, and send their recordings to their teachers for feedback. They also play A Range of Responses to COVID-19 for each other in their Zoom meetings—a new practice that has generated a lot of By Rhoda Bernard, Ed.D., Managing Director, Berklee Institute excitement in our students, who want to for Arts Education and Special Needs, Berklee College of Music show their peers what they can do. Our instructors have transformed their The urgency of COVID-19 and its effect on my work first hit me on teaching practices. To share just a couple Saturday, March 14 at about 12:30 p.m. I was sitting in a Berklee of examples, this summer’s remote session classroom on my lunch break between facilitating two sessions features Rock Band Fundamentals Lab, a synchronous class with additional practice- of the Berklee Music Education and Special Needs Study Group, at-home activities that will introduce which we were offering in person and online. Just as I finished my students to chord patterns, rhythm patterns, tuna sandwich, the security guard entered and informed us that and arpeggiation patterns for a wide range of rock and popular musical styles. Instru- we were required to leave the building. Berklee Public Safety had ment Sectionals will provide students with just issued an order to cease all in-person activities on our campus, in-person coachings and activities that are effective immediately. customized to their instrument and its role in the ensemble. And the Zoom gatherings That was the last time I was in Arts Education Programs at the Berklee will continue, as well, to foster community a Berklee building. Institute for Arts Education and Special and to provide opportunities to jam and Needs. Here my teaching staff and I have play with others (albeit without being able What I have noticed in the many weeks been required to reconceptualize our to hear the ensemble sound). since is that my job features a range of work. We are not teaching the same things remote teaching—from plunking what I At this point, we have no idea how long we the same way online. Rather, we have normally do onto Zoom at one extreme, to will be required to teach remotely. What I deconstructed our teaching into its various a total reconceptualization of my teaching wonder is, when we do return to in-person elements, and reconstructed those elements in order for it to translate to a remote teaching, will that mode of instruction into interactions that can be successful in a environment. be changed by what we’ve learned and remote environment. developed during this unprecedented There seems to be an association between While there are some aspects of our time? Will some of these newly developed the ages of the people with whom I’m in-person teaching that simply cannot take ways of engaging and supporting our working and where our engagement falls place remotely, we have been surprised students continue, even as we return to our in that range. With adult learners, like the to find that the remote environment has classrooms? These are the questions that arts educators participating in our Music provided some new opportunities for our my staff and I are pondering as we think Education and Special Needs Study Group, teachers and students. about and plan for the future. • as well as with my graduate students in our Master of Music in Music Education Take our Rock Band Ensemble program as Rhoda Bernard is with a Concentration in Music and Autism, an example. Before COVID-19, our two the MMEJ Higher I can plunk what we normally do onto Rock Band Ensembles met every Saturday Education Editor and Zoom pretty effectively. We can have very afternoon for 60-minute sessions where Managing Director, effective seminars together, where the they learned and rehearsed popular and Berklee Institute for students share screens and present, where I rock music together. While sheltering Arts Education and lead discussions with the whole class, and in place means that our students can no Special Needs, Berklee where small groups of students interact in longer play together in ensembles and College of Music. breakout rooms. hear the full group, they can play together on Zoom with all but one student muted. Remote teaching looks quite different with Though our instructors can no longer younger students, and especially with our coach the full ensemble, they can provide students with disabilities who study in our more individualized feedback and support.

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 13 INSTRUMENTAL TECHNIQUES

Not too long after she leaves, I get the call. Hot Cross Buns, Hairspray, School will be closed on Friday for decon- tamination due to a potential positive case and Girl Scout Cookies: of COVID-19. All after-school activities are cancelled for the evening. I am relieved that On Grief and the Persistence of Music I can now go home, but before I do, I go upstairs to the music tech lab and quickly By Adam Grüschow, Scituate Public Schools pack up all of our newly-purchased equip- ment. I didn’t want any kind of disinfectant The first hints of this unfortunate lockdown, for me, begin in late mist to potentially render them useless. I walk over the middle school drama club February. I’m frantically securing my hotel for the MMEA confer- students painting/building their set pieces ence, very much past the deadline. My high school colleagues and I for the musical in the hallway, grab my send the first of many Google Forms to our music families to “take essential work items, instruments, and Girl their temperature” on our upcoming Walt Disney World trip in Scout cookies, then make my final drive home. Fast forward to today. April. My elementary colleagues and I are losing sleep over how we It’s been difficult having to mourn the are going to help our 4th grade band students get ready for their milestones and rituals of the end of the year. first performance at our All-Town Band Concert in two weeks. Fast I really wanted to grow closer with our forward to Wednesday, March 11th. Symphonic Band students at Disney, but that will have to wait until next year (hope- fully). We won’t reach that final barline at The MMEA All-State Festival is behind I’m particularly sad that my two new 6th the spring concert with our amazing senior us, the Florida trip is still on, and the 4th grade bassoonists didn’t get their first class. The 4th graders, who only had a taste graders are finally ready and excited to chance to perform since learning the of what a full band would be like, will not debut the most epic “Hot Cross Buns” and instrument. The students in my afternoon have their first performance for an increas- “Anchors Aweigh” anybody has ever heard. music tech classes, mostly seniors, are ingly uncertain period of time, and I’m We meet as a department that morning and distracted and chatting about a rumored out of Thin Mints. I also know that I am decide that the concert just cannot happen. shutdown. As they work independently, I not alone. I am thankful for my incredible It would be irresponsible to pack 400 band circulate around the room helping them colleagues and especially thankful to be a students and their families into the gym. with their newest project and engaging in part of a larger music educator community At this point our Junior District Festival is casual conversation just a little bit more who since day 1, has been stepping up for already postponed and the Senior SEMSBA than usual. each other and weathering the challenges Festival is soon to follow. Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled together. Immediately after deciding to cancel, our for the evening, most of which have already In the end, I’m learning to cherish my 4th graders start arriving and drop their transitioned to socially distant phone 4th and 5th grade Zoom lessons. I’m instruments on the stage to begin lessons calls, but of course we have to be in the learning about a whole different side of my and a full rehearsal. After, I commute over building anyway [groan]. I decide not to symphonic band students’ musicality as to the high school for music tech class go home and stay at school to tidy up the they share their original compositions and and introduce a unit using brand new classroom. Our flute section leader, a senior, Acapella app videos. I love seeing that we hardware we just received from a generous is doing homework in the band room. She have students who are seeking out music community grant. My last class that day is hauling a cart of Girl Scout cookies and making in these times because music is is Symphonic Band, and we run through before she leaves she asks me if I would like what is driving them forward. They are our program for the concert that we know to buy any. I’m not carrying any cash so I determined to hold our music community won’t happen. Our closer was going to be decline, but she insists that I don’t need to together. They won’t stop the beat. • a fun medley from Hairspray, so when we worry about payment. I still insist that I get to “You Can’t Stop the Beat” I naturally will bring her cash tomorrow. She tells me Adam Gruschow is a pick up my phone and unknowingly, yet that she is thankful for all that band and co-director of 4-12 somehow knowingly, capture the last sounds her music teachers have done for her, so I bands and teaches 9-12 we would make together. The irony is not should just take the cookies. We exchange music technology in the lost on me. a pleasant goodbye, and we both almost Scituate Public Schools. jokingly acknowledge the possibility that Thursday, May 12th, is a middle school it might be a while until we see each other band day. We rehearse as normal, but again. mourn the concert that never happened.

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extremely well thought out and planned Technology in the and as many questions of “what if” or “how do we handle this” are explored with plenty of prep time in advance of the course being Time of COVID-19: launched. Discovery, Humans, and I am a big fan of technology: a puzzle to conquer, a new language to learn, a new the Limits of Gadgetry game to have fun with. It helps me do my By Stephanie Riley, MMEJ Technology Editor, job just a little bit better on a daily basis. Choral Music Educator, Dennis-Yarmouth Public Schools I love technological gadgets. Here’s the BUT: but, it will never replace the human interaction. It can never replace the feeling Though I am the Technology Editor for MMEJ, I consider you get when you sing or play together. It myself not a tech wizard but tech savvy. I have always prided can’t give you goosebumps, show you the myself at keeping up to date with all things tech related. I’ve “I finally got it!” emotions of our students (and teachers for that matter!). Technol- always been the one in my department constantly searching out ogy can’t show the worried look from a new ways to aid our teaching with technology, searching student when they don’t quite understand out ways to make our jobs a little more efficient, maybe even something or that their day isn’t going so well. Technology can never truly be add a little extra fun. Heck, I’ve even presented sessions on human. I would gladly give up technology how to flip the music classroom. The topic of technology today if that meant I could see my students is something I have always craved learning about. in person tomorrow for the rest of eternity and not have to worry about this type of So, COVID-19 hits and I’m immediately busy and overwhelmingly stressful remote situation ever again. hit with the thought of: Hey! This is the work schedule, and then find time (and After all, we’re musi- technological moment I’ve been preparing energy) to be the teacher I wanted to be and cians and we are some for my whole life! Joke was on me. While that my students most certainly deserved. of the most, if not best, I have stayed competent with technology Flipping the classroom and designing creative beings ever... and implementing it in my now virtual meaningful online remote learning are two created. • classrooms (I was using Zoom all year long very different birds. The biggest difference with my AP Students whenever I had to between the two is that with remote learn- stay home with a sick child), nothing could ing, you remove the human interaction prepare me for learning how to juggle my and physical in person check-in element of own four children and their remote learn- the design. Online models of learning are ing needs, my administrator husband’s very

In Memoriam Jack sadly died of COVID-19 related years ago, and was a true friend and illness. He had been living in a nursing supporter of schools in Massachusetts. MMEA is sad to home in Wilmington that was heavily We thank Jack for his contributions affected by the pandemic. Jack coordi- to the growth of music education in acknowledge the passing nated the MMEA Vendors area at our Massachusetts. Donations can be made of Jack Casey, cofounder annual All-State Conference for many in his honor to the: Save the Music K & C Music. years, and he and K & C served almost foundation at savethemusic.org. a hundred school districts in eastern Find more about Jack in his Obituary: Massachusetts with instruments and https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ supplies, and was well known across the wickedlocal-medford/obituary. state. He organized a major fundraiser aspx?n=john-casey&pid=196215640 for the Quincy Public Schools a few

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 15 GROWING MUSIC IN MASS

Growing Music in Mass Still Needs You

While everyone is staying safe and healthy, the Growing Music in The address is [email protected] Mass Foundation is making plans for the 2020/2021 year. The GMM Committee will looking at the grant applications in August, and will Grant applications for our giving evaluation. Falling into, but not limited meet to determine the grant recipients. Any initiatives are on our new website, which to, these categories, grants will be proposals submitted up to that meeting will can be found at growingmusicinmass. available at all levels of music education. be considered. org. On the website, you will find • Specific nontraditional instruments Also, while it may not be applicable right information about our giving initiatives, and ensembles (for example: folk or now, the Growing Music in MASS Founda- the Future Symphony Hall Scholars culturally inspired instruction) tion is committed to assisting students so and Classroom Innovations block that they can attend and participate in the grants programs. We encourage teachers • Composition-based or improvisation- All-State Festival. We will be designating to apply, even if you’re not entirely based instruction funds through the Symphony Hall Scholar- sure about the status of your district’s • New or expanded technology-based ship Program for this very purpose. By next programs for the fall. Here again is programs of instruction fall, when students have been selected, there are the block grant descriptions in a will be an application for funding student nutshell: • Student learning centers and indi- registration on the website. vidualized instructional programs Future Symphony Hall Scholars funding Finally, if members have contacts with or • Programs designed for special grants to schools are specifically referrals for possible donors—corporate, learners (as distinct from modifica- designed for instrumental and vocal/ charitable, or individual—please pass our tions or adaptations of regular lesson choral performance skill enhancement, program information on to them, or send planning) and typically fall into these categories: their contact information to us so that we • Developing methods, tools, and can reach out to them. Donor information, • Private, semiprivate, or small group strategies that measure student and the grant application is available on the lessons and targeted instruction growth and achievement website. • Master classes by visiting professional • Curriculum integration in which musicians, conductors, or musical music is a lead or primary compo- mentors nent • Sponsoring or attending perfor- Teachers developing and expanding mances and performance-related distance-learning programs would events qualify for Innovations grants. Because • Financial support for students teachers are out of the classroom and participating in advanced college, may not get this information before conservatory or music school the application deadlines, there will be programs a degree of latitude in completing and sending them to us. On our website, • Instructional and support materials there is a contact e-mail that teachers Classroom Innovations grants are should feel free to use should you have designed to allow member teachers any questions or if you are in the process to explore a range of strategies and of developing a grant-worthy program methods of musical instruction and that isn’t quite ready. Just let us know.

16 | MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL VOL. 68 NO. 4 | SUMMER 2020 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION Growing Music in MASS 2020 Donation Form

I’d like to donate to the Growing Music in o My company will match my gift. Please make check payable to: MASS family of giving initiatives The gift form is enclosed. MMEA Your name as it will appear in the All-State concert Donations may also be made through PayPal o Symphony Club - $5,000 and up program and MMEA publications: at our website, MASSMEA.org. o Concert Benefactors - $2,500–$4,999 (MMEA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, so your donation o Conductors Circle - $1,000–$2,499 is tax-deductible. Please put “GMIM” on the memo line so that we can track your donation.) o Musicians Guild - $500–$999 MAILING ADDRESS: o Patrons - $200–$499 MAIL TO: o Friends - $100–$199 MMEA P.O. Box 920004 o Donors - up to $99 Needham, MA 02492

TOTAL ENCLOSED: $ EMAIL:

Young musicians throughout Massachusetts thank you for your support! Fold and tear on dotted line to separate form.

Growing Music in MASS AND MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION DONOR LIST 2019–2020

CONCERT BENEFACTORS PATRONS $200 – 499 Howard Rockwin FRIENDS $100 – 199 DONORS UP TO $99 Linda Ethier – $2,500+ Enterprises Sharon Orchestras Algonquin Regional Dr. Cecil L. Adderley III Lori J. Anderson Rosalie Cohen Scholarship High School Irene Idicheria and Susan Gedutis Lindsay Paul and Doris Alberta Steven and Carol Fund at the Celebrity Tri-M Chapter 2137 Nathan Tiller Archambault Jody Marsh Series of Boston Paul and Gale Livingston Dr. Sandra Doneski MA MEA – Anthony Beatrice Johnetta Smith Central District Mark and Cynthia MUSICIANS GUILD $500+ Gerry’s Music Shop Napierkowski Amy Bedard – Dr. Tawnya and Karin Dr. Walter M. Pavasaris David French Barbara Green-Glaz Norwood Orchestras Smith-Hendricks Needham Music Inc. Music Company and Ron Glaz Frank and Sarah Casasdow Robert and Nancy Stoll Dr. David Neves Massachusetts Instrumen- Lexington Symphony Ruth Debrot Tom and Susan Walters tal and Choral Conductors Orchestra Ms. Joyce Neves Association Leslie Randall Dooley Greg A. Williams Richard Vaughan The Yemin Family

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 17 GENERAL MUSIC

The Grey Cloud, the Silver Lining, and Some Kick@ss Media Check out Taylor! By Taylor Nardone, Elementary General Music, Plymouth Public Schools

Sigh. Yet, somehow...I have hope. Perhaps this Taylor’s Initial Thoughts on School Closure is an opportunity to explore the different I’d be lying if I said I was getting used to realms of experiencing the multisensory this. Nothing about this is “normal,” and world of music. Perhaps the traditional truthfully, I do not want it to be. route of our teaching is not the end-all, be- Perhaps I am untrained in this field of all. Time will tell. Until then, we look back on a year of change. As long as my students online learning. Scratch that; I know I am untrained. When our schools closed found some joy in class this year, even if on March 13th, I (as well as many) didn’t just a passing moment, grasp the full severity of the situation. I am content. • Every day thereafter was a pouring out of Born in central Massa- information that only deepened the fears chusetts, Taylor Nardone A typical work day in quarantine. we all began to face. is a K-5 General Music/ I didn’t succumb to those fears until mid- Choral educator in April. I knew of the severity of the situation Plymouth, Massachusetts. (as I isolated myself in my 600-square-foot apartment), but I didn’t fully process the Click on the thumbnails below to check out effect it had on education until then. some of Taylor’s amazing videos.

Was I dissatisfied that so few students were On Facebook: participating? Yes. Was I upset about the Check out some of Taylor’s amazing curriculum I wouldn’t get to teach? Yes. Taylor, Featured on Edutopia How about the opportunities these students videos on Facebook missed? Yes. All of that, of course, saddened me. But, here’s what it really came down to: Online teaching has stripped away every- thing that brought me joy about teaching in the first place. I fell in love with being a music teacher because of the opportunity I had to watch students fall in love with music. The excitement came from what was left in my students faces as we explored the many facets of music making, listening, Walk Like A Mummy and feeling. Without being in person...it felt empty, void of any form of connection and community (the foundation of music education), and, well, just lifeless. I pondered these thoughts for a while and took some time to reflect. I’m ready to move forward. But, I’m left incredibly uncertain for the future of our jobs due to the almost guaranteed economic trickledown effect this virus will have in the coming years.

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blowing hard to create a new politics When We Get Through This that prioritizes ordinary people and our By Gareth Dylan Smith, Assistant Professor of Music, collective long-term survival. He sang the Music Education at Boston University delicate “Cardiff Bay” about creating pre- cious memories with his young son—this really hit me since, testing as this lockdown is, I know I must cherish every special moment with our daughter. He roared in the monumental “Proud Valley Boy” about Martyn Joseph1 isn’t quite a household name (well, he is in our home), Paul Robeson’s activism and charity bring- ing dignity and hope to downtrodden coal but he’s been a full-time singer-songwriter and social activist for the mining communities in the valleys of South last 38 years and I’ve been to at least two dozen of his captivating Wales in the 1930s. Joseph delivered both one-man live shows since the early ‘90s. Barring the couple of times a warm homage to, and searing critique of in my 20s when he politely and hastily signed CDs for me after a the United States in “Lonely Like America,” which depicts isolation of and within the show, I have never met him, but as I sat down to write this I realized country. After “Nye,” a soaring tribute to what a profound influence Martyn Joseph’s music has had on my the prime mover in founding socialized life. Through his music (live concerts primarily—his recordings lack healthcare in the United Kingdom, he played “When We Get Through This,” a the immediacy and charisma of the in-person experience), Joseph has brand new song of hope and love penned helped me figure out a lot about who I am and who I want to be; to for the present moment. It was an exhaust- understand my place in the world as one person with a lot of compas- ing and uplifting show. The sun even came sion but limited skills and loads of questions I maybe won’t ever find out just as it finished. answers to; and, perhaps more than anything of late, he has taught Joseph said in an interview in 2000 that “the prime motive in the instant that I pick me through example about how to be a British man in a complicated, up the guitar is a selfish one. It’s because long-term love affair with the United States of America. I need to deal with the world. I’m in the world and it’s horrible, and what can I 1The Find Martyn out more Joseph about Martyn I know Joseph and and love his musicis a The concert was amazing. I was—as do? I’m just getting this stuff out of my character—of both his own creation and always—in awe of Joseph’s masterful system as it were.” The fact that for him mine. I’ve no real idea what he’s like outside guitar playing, captivated and caressed by this feels selfish helped put some things in of a concert venue, despite the apparent his impassioned vocals, and floored by the perspective for me. There’s not a whole lot, bleeding honesty, palpable fragility, incisiveness and porcelain beauty of his as a musician and a professor, that I can seething worry, and uplifting joy that pour lyrics. What I frequently fail to articulate do while the world seems on some days abundantly forth from his trove of achingly in 8,000 words of scholarly prose, Joseph to be falling apart around us. I feel guilty compassionate and always powerfully achieves impeccably in four minutes of for not being the right kind of doctor, rendered contemporary folk songs (and, song. He also usually reduces (or maybe and I feel selfish for making lots of music lately, his Twitter account). Nonetheless, I increases?) me to tears. with colleagues, students, and my family. have forged a deep bond with the music and Music-making is so integral to who I am, Highlights of the April 26th concert persona of Martyn Joseph. What a comfort though, that on the days I don’t practice included the feisty, optimistic “Here Come and a joy it was, then, on another cold, drums I can be outrageously irritable and the Young,” about political winds of change rainy Sunday afternoon in late April, after short-tempered. When I recently said, more than six weeks of lockdown, to catch half-jokingly, that I seem mostly to be the live stream of a concert2 from Joseph’s wasting my time, my wife sagely responded, home studio in South Wales. There were “No art is a waste of time.” over 1,700 people in the audience, but of Many of us need to make music—to hear course I could see only three of us from the it, feel it, and connect with others through sofa in the TV room in my house. it. We owe it to everyone to make music. 1 Find out more about Martyn Joseph and his music We each have our own Martyn Josephs— musical mentors and de facto life coaches 2 View the concert live stream on April 26th here who help keep us grounded and present in

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 19 CONTEMPORARY / JAZZ MAJE these craziest of times. As music teach- ers, we can often be seen as that guru President’s Message (especially in hindsight), and our students By Joseph Mulligan, MAJE President need us right now at our most compas- sionate and kind and musical. Martyn Joseph reassures us all in his newest song: “You Got This. I Know You Do.”3 • Gareth Dylan Smith is Assistant Professor of Music, Music Education at Boston University, a board member of the I hope everyone is healthy and staying safe. I would like to first International Society thank all of the senior district hosts who were able to run our for Music Education, senior festivals just before this pandemic hit. The amount of a founding editor of the Journal of Popular extra work and planning that went into making sure that each Music Education, and ensemble got a chance to perform in a safe environment was no a drummer. Gareth’s small task. So a big thank you goes out to Dave Kaminsky, Ann research interests include popular music, Fiske, and Simon Harding. I would also like to thank Chief music learning, drum Judge Paul Alberta for everything that he has done to keep the kit performance, judging in MAJE top notch. distributed telematic performance, punk pedagogies, and eudaimonia. He is excited What I thought I might do is give you Through JEN I found Seattle Jazz Ed to get to work every day with future music some resources and ideas to keep virtual www.seattlejazzed.org.There, I found teachers in Massachusetts and beyond. learning going within your jazz program. the Seattle Jazz Ed Teacher Toolkit— Some of you may already know of these COVID-19 Resources. In this toolkit resources but some may not. As always you can find two online masterclasses Jazz at Lincoln Center is a great place to with JazzED educators and five sessions start. www.jazz.org of Guided Listening to Great Jazz Albums with videos and worksheets for They have done an outstanding job each album. They do ask for a dona- of posting material that both your tion, anything between $25 and $250, students and you can learn from. There depending on your school’s resources. is a weekly schedule of events such I have taken some of their ideas and as Jazz 101, JLCO Master Classes, and created my own resources as well. Wednesdays with Wynton. There is also the Jazz Live app from Jazz at Lincoln The schedule of events of MAJE will Center. Open up the app and you can be out in the fall issue as well as online 3 Watch the video for “When We Get Through This” here: see and hear past performances from at www.majazzed.org as soon as it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUfAtlhbpY8&t=10s Dizzy’s Club, Rose Theater, Essentially available. Ellington, Blue Engine Records, or Play If you have any questions or would Along with JLCO. like to get more involved in MAJE Another great resource is JEN (Jazz please feel free to contact me at joseph. Education Network). If you don’t know [email protected] • about JEN you really should check —Joseph P. Mulligan, MAJE President them out. They have been hosting two or three Facebook Live events every week. I joined Facebook just to be able to be a part of them. You don’t need to be a member of JEN to be a part of these events.

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effective outside of the physical classroom. Student Teacher Displacement My pedagogical goal was to design lessons that work in live classrooms and remote settings. I also thought about how my During COVID-19 previous experience as a private online By Ruth Debrot, Kel Cadence Kim, and Sabrina Scotti, Boston University instructor with adults could inform my work with elementary, middle, and high school students. I have thought a lot about taking lessons from my middle school The COVID-19 virus hit during the All-State Professional Develop- placement and adapting them for online adult students and vice versa. ment Conference in Boston. While at the conference, I heard that Although I have missed being in a physical concerts were being canceled. However, at that moment, I didn’t feel classroom and my daily interaction with like it would amount to anything serious. One week later I learned the students and staff, I have enjoyed that no one would return, in a physical sense, to their schools. having some time to connect the many ways I use music in my life. I have tried At the beginning of the spring term, ten student teachers from Boston to tie music education into my other job, performing video game music online. University had placements in the public schools. At mid-term, most In addition, I have been attempting to students had their second placements canceled entirely. Kel Kim and motivate people that I know to engage Sab Scotti shared their experiences. with music during these times, so they can —Dr. Ruth Debrot experience how music can be a vital role in their lives, whether it be listening, perform- ing, teaching, composing, or listening. I Kel Cadence Kim: Reflection Kel Cadence Kim is a believe that in the immediate future, there The first moment I realized I would be recent graduate from will be an increased emphasis on remote affected due to COVID-19 was when my Boston University teaching and learning in schools. This will, middle school placement was canceled. holding a bachelor’s in in turn, impact how we adapt music teacher This was before most school cancelations music education. She has education in the era of COVID-19, so all occurred and I was in shock believing that I always held a passion for that we learn now will be important to our was one of few to be affected. Then, as the all aspects of education teaching future. • school districts around me began taking and will be working Sabrina Scotti: Virtual Lesson Link their school year online, I realized that full time in higher education while pursuing everyone would be making drastic changes a master’s degree with Teachers College, Sabrina Scotti finished to their spring semester. Although the Columbia University. her undergraduate natural reaction was to panic about what Sabrina Scotti: COVID-19 degree in music educa- all of this meant, it was really reassuring Pandemic Reflection tion at Boston University. to know that I had a great community of In her studies, she has I thought student teaching would be an educators to rely on. tapped into her own opportunity to experience things I had not childhood, working with While it is regrettable that I will not be done in my pre-practicum courses. I chose video game music in the receiving this time back, I have been teach- student teaching placements that targeted classroom as well as academic research regard- ing myself to ask, “what now” instead of the skills I needed to improve upon the ing its potential benefits for young children’s “what if.” I wasn’t able to gain middle school most. These placements allowed me to have musical listening. Outside the classroom, she choral experience, but I had a wonderful guidance from professionals and to learn to makes video game music on YouTube and time in my high school placement and I be comfortable teaching the subjects and teaches students online privately all over the am continuously learning about remote ages I was not familiar with. As a result, I world in piano, arranging, composition, and teaching, which is an increasingly impor- feel excited to teach middle school. audio engineering. tant skill to have. Even though I did not have the breadth of professional experience While the pandemic cut my student I expected, I continue to grow, both as a teaching short, I used the experience as an student and educator. • opportunity to reflect and create lessons for remote music classes. I have taken the time Kel Cadence Kim: Virtual Lesson during the pandemic to think about how to adapt my lessons and make them more

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Filling Our Wells By Kính T. Vũ Assistant Professor of Music, Boston University

Simon and Garfunkel’s (1965) song The Sound of Silence “criticizes have relied on their professors to guide silence that perpetuates oppression” (Schmidt, 2016, p. 121), but them carefully along a detour, so too did our students serve as caregivers to the these lyrics, “echoed in the wells, of silence,” seem apropos to the faculty during this erratic journey. I might coronavirus pandemic that emptied America’s college campuses argue that this unplanned, coronavirus- during spring semester 2020. Once music-filled halls brimming with induced journey was well-provisioned in that care has never been in short supply the exuberant rattle of youth now sit vacant like deep, bone-dry wells. despite orders to social distance or evacuate As an assistant professor of music who lives on-campus and serves our university homes. a faculty-in-residence role at Boston University, I am privy to the This moment in time will not be forgotten, academic and residential lives of our learners. Now it feels so deafen- and I suspect that it will be etched into ingly silent where once the wells overflowed with the life-giving our collective memories for many years to come. It may be too soon to know waters of youth. how coronavirus will affect education in general and music education specifically. In It all began in mid-March when students courage as they negotiated the constantly moments of quiet courage, in our wells of evacuated campus or were unable to changing landscape physically, mentally, silence, I invite readers to reflect on what return following spring break. Most of and emotionally. I witnessed that quiet has come to pass, to savor the gift that is my neighbors in Kilachand Hall took up courage in students’ creativity nearly today, and to fill their wells with life-giving residence in their primary residences where every day. Courage revealed itself as music ideas that inspire generous helpings of care, they began co-living and co-working with majors developed peer teaching episodes wonderment, and joy that will serve each family members, extended family, and for remote engagement where ordinarily other in times like this and better moments in some cases roommates and friends. In they would have stood alongside fellow yet to come. • hosting weekly Zoom meet-ups with music majors to teach songs and dances. In students from my residential community, I some classes, students seized opportunities Kính T. Vũ is an learned how students coped with the ordeal to sharpen their technological skills by assistant professor of losing their campus and ultimately their creating original songs or remixes using of music at Boston freedom. Students were ready to return to digital audio workstations (e.g., Soundtrap). University, where he school within a week of shelter-in-place One music education major said something teaches music education orders. A sort of mezzo-piano lull settled to the effect, “We could design our online courses in general and into everyone’s remote existence; there peer teaching episodes as if this is actually instrumental music. His were no crescendos leading to graduation going to be a part of our future.” current research centers ceremonies or decrescendos of early-May on exploring connections between music Aside from the residential and curricular move-out. education and forced human displacement in changes experienced in higher education, Cambodia and Kính’s homeland Việt Nam. Pertinent to the academic rigor and the pandemic served as a necessary vigor germane to campus life, students reminder to care for one another. Care is REFERENCES experienced mixed emotions about the multidirectional. In education, it might Schmidt, S. J. (2016). “Within the sound of silence”: A critical examination of LGBQ issues in national history textbooks. shift from in-person to distance education. be assumed that care flows one way: from In J. H. Williams & W. D. Bokhorst-Heng (Eds.), While some of our learners (and their administrators to teachers and subsequently Re-constructing memory: Textbooks, identity, nation, and state professors) were reticent about the change, from teachers to students. Yet in my (pp. 121–139). Brill-Sense. many people appeared to take the new experience, pathways of care are rarely a Simon, P., & Garfunkel, A. (1965). The sound of silence [Song]. normal in stride. It might be fair to say direct line from top to bottom or bottom On Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. Columbia. that students, both in music education to top; they till and wend along oftentimes and in residence life, demonstrated quiet unpredictable routes. While students may

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ultimately decide what I think is important Notes on the Future for my students to know and we’ll work in small groups with whatever social distanc- From the President Elect ing measures we have to take. But we also WILL meet online as a full group to build By Dr. Heather Cote, Westwood Public Schools community. We’ll need to find strategies for the classes that are new to us, and those students that we’ll need to get to know. Anticipating I’m sure that most of you feel the same way that I do: We want that, I’m starting now by looking to the someone to tell us definitively what is going to happen when eighth graders that will be my freshmen schools reopen in September. Living in the uncertainty right now next year. My middle school director and I started a lesson together on a piece of music is a struggle. Yet, despite this uncertainty, we can and should begin that we can play when we’re back together. looking ahead to the fall. I made a welcome video to welcome them into the high school band, and gave them The hard work and dedication of our music performance classes look for the fall. What a choice board to do around the repertoire. teachers across the state has been amazing opportunity is there if you’re teaching As a result, I’m getting eighth graders who these past few months. We always strive to online? Or hybrid? Or in person? Take this I don’t know, sending me videos of them do the best we can for ourselves and our as an opportunity to consider what are transposing, and introducing themselves to students, even during this pandemic. Yet, the essential things that are important to me, and telling me they can’t wait to be in remember that there is no “best practice” you, your classroom, and your teaching. the high school band. I’m already starting right now in how to do this. We are living Our National Core Arts Standards reflect to create that community that will take me in a changing environment, learning to do skills related to Creating, Responding, into the fall. Sure, it’s not the same as doing something we’ve never done before. As we Performing, and Connecting. If we can’t my recruitment in person. But it’s finding near the end of the school year, it is ok to focus on one, such as performing, then new and different ways to reach out to new give yourself some downtime and reflection what opportunity is there to focus on other students and invite them into our high time. Take a deep breath, look back at what music skills? The “What” hasn’t changed. school band community. If students feel worked and what didn’t, and begin to make We’re still teaching music. What we have like they are a part of something, they are some choices on what you personally want to think about is the “How”; how will we more likely to be and stay engaged. to learn moving forward, as well as what do this? you think is essential for both you and your Remember, what we’re doing doesn’t We will likely look at Social Emotional students. change. We’re still going to encourage kids Learning (SEL) as being be a big part of to love music. We will need to meet the There is no “one size fits all” model for our return to the classroom. Instead of our social and emotional needs of our students. going back to school, and there shouldn’t primary focus being on a final product, the We will need to continue to be flexible and be. There have been a lot of amazing focus shifts to think about reflection and think about the opportunities ahead of us, resources shared out; take what you can self-awareness. We have the opportunity or we risk losing our seat at the table. The from all these resources, but you know to tap into “student voice,” giving them a arts aren’t going away. Music is a cultural your students and your district. Do what say in their own learning and their own necessity; it is fundamental to being YOU believe is right and works for your self-assessment. Whether we use choice human. I am not just a band director. I am own students. Don’t compare yourself and boards or ask student to set their own goals, a music educator. We your program to others. You’re going to we have opportunity for our students to all are music educators. find resources and hear strategies that you explore self-awareness, social awareness, and And we will continue to like and that you know you might be able creating connections. teach MUSIC. • to use in your situation. You’re also going I believe one of the most important things to come across things that just might not Dr. Heather Cote is the to consider is the community we create in be possible for you. Take it all in, but in the Director of Fine Arts at our classrooms. Should we start the fall end, consider what you feel is ESSENTIAL Westwood Public Schools. online, or in some kind of hybrid model, to your classroom, what IS possible, and we are going to need to think about how what you CAN do. to develop that community part, or how to The word “opportunity” keeps popping up start it. If we’re in the classroom, that com- in my vocabulary, as right now we have the munity looks different than in a virtual or opportunity to reimagine music education. hybrid model. If I can be in the classroom We may be reimagining the way our in any form, from a skill perspective, I’ll

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being her last year, I wanted to make her Encouraging Student Composers: story known. Amanda has written pieces and submitted them to composition calls “I Once Had This Student . . . Composer” for many years. Amanda is self-taught, and because her school does not have a compo- By Joe Pondaco, Duxbury Public Schools sition class, she and her directors supported her composing by attending the SEMMEA and MMEA composition forums. Last year, she wrote both the music and lyrics They don’t come often, but we have all had write these things and your groups perform for a choral piece entitled “Fly” as a present them before: that one student. Sometimes, them, guess what, your teaching composi- for the graduating senior class. This year, that one student is the 1st chair clarinet that tion. she got a recording by a professional choir, practices night and day to nail Ticheli’s which can be found on the composition Student composers are hard to find, but “Blue Shades,” or the string bass player with contest page of the SEMMEA website. I maybe they are already in our program. perfect pitch that plays in the orchestra, hope you take the chance to listen. Maybe they play in the percussion or viola band, and jazz band, and sings bass in section or sing in the alto section, and At Bridgewater-Raynham High School the choir. Other times, that one student though we don’t know it, at home, they are Amanda is co-drum major of the marching is that great mezzo-soprano that we pull writing band pieces, jazz charts, or EDM. band, director of the school’s student-led a out Copland’s “In the Beginning” for, or Maybe we don’t notice because they are just cappella group Fermata Nowhere, clarinet the lead trumpet in the jazz band that rips an okay player or singer and don’t stand section leader and first chair in concert out double Cs on request. Maybe, that out much in our groups, but only because band. She is also involved in the school’s one student is the percussionist that plays they spend their time composing and not jazz band, Science Olympiad team, and its marimba on Creston’s “Concertino,” piano practicing. Maybe they have not had the newly restarted wind ensemble. Up until on “Gumsuckers March,” and vibes on guidance they need to write their sym- this year, she was a member of the Handel “Bag’s Groove.” phony, but, in their bedrooms, they have and Haydn Society’s Vocal Arts Program That one student makes our program better been writing string quartets in Finale or and sung in its Chorus of Sopranos and by being an inspiration for others. They some fire beats in Logic with a proficiency Altos (CSA) and Chamber CSA. This year are in all of our groups, always practice, greater than any Berklee class could teach. she sang in the first-ever SEMMEA Treble rehearse like a professional, and top every Try asking your ensemble, “Do any of you Choir, and she has attended the SEMMEA audition in school and out. That one write music at home on your computer?” senior district festival and MMEA All- student’s enthusiasm raises the energy of our You may be surprised at what you get. State Conference for many years with her groups and the level of our program. That compositions. Whether or not we have found them yet, one student we remember for our entire student composers exist in our programs, It was not hard for Amanda to shine in career. Even years after that one student has and in my time working on the MMEA her music program. She is an exceptional graduated, we still tell stories about them composition council and SEMMEA student, performer, and composer, and, to our friends and colleagues that usually composition contest, I have had the with support from her teachers, has had begin with, “I once had this student . . . .” opportunity to work with many of them. great experiences in composing. Whatever When that one student is in our groups, All of these students have been that one Amanda decides to do next, she goes off we can identify them, and we know how student from programs across the state; into the world with the rare experience to support them, but what if that one great composers supported by teachers of having her music heard, and her story student is not a performer? What if they who recognized their talents and passions. told. That is an experience very few get, are a composer? What would we do with These teachers supported their students by but that more could. There are many more a student composer? They could write performing their pieces and encouraging composers like Amanda out there, and all original music for our ensembles, create them to submit their pieces to SEMMEA, we need to do is find them and give them custom warm-ups, or arrange easier parts MMEA, NAfME, and other composition the opportunity. Then the next time we for our younger groups, struggling sections, calls. I would like to tell you about one of talk to our colleagues, we can tell the story: or extra percussionists. They could copy those students. Her name is Amanda White “I once had this student composer . . . ” • out lost parts from the score or transpose from Bridgewater-Raynham High School, Joe Pondaco teaches that Eb clarinet part for Bb clarinet. What and she has agreed to let me tell you her instrumental music, music about creating saxophone parts for playing story. technology, and composition orchestral pieces? Some of you may be I have had the pleasure of knowing at Duxbury High School. He saying, “but I don’t know how to teach Amanda over the past four years from both is currently the SEMMEA composition.” Well, if you have the student the SEMMEA composition contest and the Composition Contest Chair MMEA All-State composer’s forum. This and the MMEA Composition Council Chair.

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The Creative-Driven Classroom Kirstie Wheeler, M.Ed, Assistant Professor, Berklee College of Music

Have you ever really thought about what got you into MUSIC experiment, and draw conclusions. The education? It’s most likely related to your need to create. Humans teacher is moving between students and groups, answering questions, stopping for are innately creative beings, yet somewhere along the way, education short directions and clarifications, facilitat- pushes them into a compliance-based form of learning. While all ing discussion and advising as needed. The educators should strive to bring more creativity into the classroom, students are actively engaged in the work. They are taking risks, making mistakes, music educators must embrace creativity because the arts are and creating products that they can then creative at their core. For most, the need to be creative played a teach to or share with their peers. significant role in choosing music. A colleague wisely stated that Assignments: Berklee College of Music is a different place because the students Compliant assignments involve answering arrive and already know who they are . . . they are musicians. At prescribed questions with desired “correct” other colleges, students arrive trying to figure out who they are answers. Creative assignments include a and what to pursue. Choosing to teach music means that at your structure that allows students to discover meaning and create individual responses. core, you are a musician. Musicians demand creativity. Students 2 need a creative process, and educators need to create space and Examples: opportunity for students to learn and produce in a creative COMPLIANT manner. So what does a creative-driven classroom look like?

learning. The resources are all available, action is strategy, and the final product is not prescribed.1 How do we create a creative-driven mindset classroom? Let’s look at three vital com- ponents to every classroom: environment, assignments, and assessments.

Environment • What does the room look like? CREATIVE • What is the role of the teacher?

In order to understand the creative-driven • What are the students doing? classroom, we must look at compliance vs. When observing a creative-driven creative-driven. classroom, the observer would see students The puzzle represents compliance-based working seamlessly between group and learning. The teacher provides a set of individual work. The room is full of tools resources and strategies. The final product that students can access freely to explore, is predictable, and the progress is measur- 1 Newman, Betsy (2013). able. The quilt represents creative-driven On Becoming An Entrepreneurial Leader: A Student’s Developmental Journey to a Creation-Driven Mindset. (Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. 2 Boston Globe (bostonglobe.com)

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Assessments: CREATIVE Compliant assessments include a prescribed product to answer a set of questions. The scoring is rigid and earns points for the “correct” answer. Creative assessments give a structure and questions, but not a prescribed product. Rubrics are used and developed in a way that allows students to express their answers and knowledge in any way they choose as long as they answer the questions. Examples: COMPLIANT

Our world is vastly different than it was three months ago and changing by the learning. Things will look different, and we minute. This leads to stress and instability. will have to adapt, but this is where music As you consider the creative-driven mindset, educators should soar! Please do not let “the remember that at our core, nothing has way we’ve always done it” stand in your way changed, we are still innately creative as you enter next year. Instead, dig down human beings. Our “classroom” might and unleash your creative spirit. Looking look different. Right now, it’s virtual, and forward, be brave, start small, and take it may be virtual or blended between brick risks...our students do! • and mortar and virtual in the fall. But, Kirstie Wheeler, M.Ed, remember, our need to interact and create is Assistant Professor remains constant. Virtual classrooms allow at Berklee College of for students to interact in small groups Music in Boston, MA. and then come back together. We can still She worked to develop create spaces that allow our students to elementary and secondary work in small groups and report back. This curricula for choral and can actually be an amazing use of remote general music in several learning. It flips the classroom and has districts. Receiving several grant proposals, students creatively drive the classroom and Kirstie brings technology, specialized music present information to their peers. Students programming and special education music will surprise you with their ability to programming to schools that are unable to manipulate and create when technology is provide these services. As a performer, she sings present from the littlest ones to the eldest with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, chorus ones. to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Combining all these ideas into one creative- Boston Pops. Kirstie is a certified McClosky driven classroom provides students with the Voice Technician, using her knowledge of opportunity to explore and create meaning. vocal physiology and pedagogy to prepare As musicians and educators, music students for a lifetime of healthy singing. educators, it is our privilege to engage their

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I was fortunate to have a virtual learning Resilient Learners: platform at the beginning of the school year. I started this platform to support Reshaping the COVID-19 chronic absenteeism in my school. I dedicated several hours outside of school Experience in Urban Schools to learn how to present music online By Odell Zeigler IV, Providence Public Schools effectively. I had no idea that a pandemic would come, but I was reshaping my students’ learning experience. I spent a few As I reflect upon the COVID-19 pandemic that immediately weeks giving a tiered tutorial; I shared with students how to navigate the various online suspended in-person music-making, I have gained more knowledge, programs we used, and students were recep- skills, and pedagogical tools to teach music effectively in the urban tive to the idea of making music virtually. I setting. I have seen in real-time the many silent factors that affect must share that SoundTrap happened to be African American learners’ academic progress. During this time, the students’ favorite online music program, and they did everything to make sure they music-making has been extremely helpful and conducive to students’ had access to this web-based music-making daily routines, which has catered to the social-emotional component software. From the onset of SoundTrap, a of learning. Having prior insight on various challenges within urban lot of my students downloaded the app to their phones and began exploring the education was valuable, but the different routes taken to overcome mobile view. The teacher can see each these challenges was of most concern and intriguing to see daily. student’s recent activity, and I noticed students actively engaged during all parts of the day and on weekends. I have Contrary to the learning deficiencies everything they have on the table to had students submit projects from work, presented in research, or the lack of student show their teacher(s) that education friends’ houses, native countries, etc. engagement during this time of virtual matters to them and that they will succeed. learning based on our attendance and According to Waxman, Gray, and Padron Their resilience did not stop here, before grade books, there is another view that gets (2003), there are students of color who the pandemic, students who weren’t distorted. This view deals with resilience succeed in school despite the presence of registered for my class downloaded the in African American learners. I want to adverse conditions, but they go unnoticed. application and would come by my room share how resilience and music-making go Collectively, research shows evidence with questions. This opened my eyes to hand and hand. I want to share what I have of successful and unsuccessful African how music-making was helping students learned and seen during this unprecedented American learners who are all derivatives all across the building. This continued, time of teaching music. It is easy to share from dilapidated homes, schools, and even more, when in-person learning was and talk about the students who have neighborhoods. In addition to these harm- suspended. I want to give a shoutout to a not been engaged in virtual learning, but ful aversive components, students shifted fantastic colleague, Gillian Desmarais, who the lights should be shined upon the their mindsets for virtual learning at the teaches music at Pioneer Charter School students who demonstrated resilience drop of a hat. I am proud of the students I of Science in Everett, Massachusetts. She and reshaped their learning experience. teach because this adjustment has not been was accommodating during my time of easy for anyone, but their willingness and learning this software. She openly shared Notably, research points out a prominent resilience has me in constant awe. Before the many activities that she created from factor that some students of color have, writing this article, I wrestled with the this music software. I firmly believe which causes successful performance(s). question of, “Is resilience a characteristic that these assignments kept the students This factor is resilience. According to the trait or a choice?” Regardless of how you engaged. They explored with podcast (Oxford-English dictionary), resilience answer the question, I believe we can compositions, commercial compositions, is the action or an act of rebounding or agree that choices made are reflective of ringtone compositions, create-your-own- springing back, rebound, recoil. According our characteristic traits, and our character music projects (students were able to to Williams and Bryan (2013), resilience aids us in making choices. This is not to create anything), etc. The point is that should be understood strategically in the say that all my students were resilient, but music-making did not stop because of the lives of resilient African American learners. they were willing to learn and grow. pandemic, but students found ways to Resilience is typically overlooked after make music because they were invested in students demonstrate this characteristic it. I must say that I received more submis- consistently. In reality, students are putting

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 27 URBAN DISTRICT UPDATES sions from the SoundTrap assignments as opposed to any other music To hear some of Odell’s students’ District Updates assignments during virtual learning. work, check out these audio files NORTHEASTERN DISTRICT Here is the list of all the music online on Google Drive. programs I synced with my Google As I write this reflection on May Classroom during virtual learning: Quaver Music, MusicPlayOnline, and 14th, I am sitting in the front Odell Zeigler IV is SoundTrap. These are a few programs a music educator in hall of Wakefield Memorial High I found to aid me with the curriculum Providence Public School as the acting doorman for map I have, and I was able to pick Schools. Odell is and pull from each application based staff to come into school and pick currently the on the concept I was teaching. up items from their classroom. director of the gospel The questions may be now, “How chorus at Providence Everyone must enter through the does music-making, and resilience go College. Odell is a main entrance, wearing masks together?” This is a good question! My musician on staff for RPM voices of Provi- and gloves, and sign in. I am goal as a teacher in the urban setting dence, RI and has worked with Mixed is to create a strong rapport with all Magic Theater Company along with other stationed ten feet away from the my students. I aim to convert all my musicians and performing arts venues sign-in table, where I can say students to become patrons of the arts. I throughout the state of Rhode Island. hello and ask how their families model for them that music-making should be a joyous task. I am passionate Odell holds a B. A. (Music Educa- are doing, using my tone of voice about my students finding themselves in tion & Psychology) from North to communicate to them the music and wanting to be a part of music Central College in Naperville, IL huge smile under my mask. class each day, which in return causes and holds an M.M.Ed from the them to be more excited about the sub- University of Rhode of Island. I miss them, and I am so happy to see them. ject. Once my students are organically REFERENCES Just two months ago, I spent a Tuesday converted, they become resilient about afternoon with my jazz ensemble at (n.d.). Retrieved May 25, 2020, from http://www.oed.com/ music class, and their resilience helps view/Entry/163619?redirectedFrom=resilience#eid Reading Memorial High School along with them reshape the learning and music- many other band directors, adjudicators, Waxman, H. C., Gray, J. P., Padron, Y. N., & Center for making experience. Whether in person Research on Education, D. C. (2003). Review of Re- and hundreds of students celebrating or virtual learning, resilient students search on Educational Resilience. Research Report. the hard work of the students and will always find a way to succeed. Williams, J. M., & Bryan, J. (2013). Overcoming Ad- listening to some great jazz throughout Academic achievement in the lives of versity: High-Achieving African American Youth’s the festival. This was the final day I met Perspectives on Educational Resilience. Journal of with the 2019-20 Wakefield Memorial African Americans is predicated upon Counseling & Development, 91(3), 291-300. the environmental factors around them, High School Jazz Ensemble in person. and we know that COVID-19 has added I miss them, and I can’t wait to see them. another threatening component to these environmental factors. Still, these Throughout the last two months I have students have conquered challenges by had countless video calls with district confronting issues with great vigor and colleagues, administration, and other music resilience. I know our attendance and teachers. What I have learned in these calls grade books may show students who is that the adults so badly want to fix the haven’t been engaged or active during pandemic for their students. They want virtual learning. Still, they will also show to make everything feel normal and the some resilient students who have exem- students to feel like they are still “going plified how they can become great learn- to school” every day. One of the things I ers while experiencing negative factors. • have learned from my video calls with the students and from my own two children at home is that we can’t “fix this” and that they all know, no matter what age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, or learning disability, that this is not normal.

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District Updates

NORTHEASTERN DISTRICT CONT’D CENTRAL DISTRICT Happy Summer! been my honor and pleasure to serve and I But the most important thing I have look forward to working with you in other learned from my students is that it is ok What a whirlwind this spring has been! In capacities in the future. that I can’t “fix this.” They need me to be my previous article for the Massachusetts there for them like I was every day until Central District Important Dates Music Educators Journal, I wrote about how March 12th. They need me to say hello and much I was looking forward to the MMEA • Spring Dinner Meeting Wed. June 10th ask how they are doing. Whether the video All-State Conference and Concert. That 5:00 pm will be held online through call is with the whole class or with indi- seems like a lifetime ago. From school Zoom. CD-MMEA members will viduals, they need me to answer questions, building closures, implementation of receive an e-mail invite and be asked or tell a band director joke and laugh with remote learning, cancelation of concerts, to respond in order to get the password. them. They need me to smile and let them musicals, performance tours, and events, Please e-mail me if you did not receive know that I miss them, and I can’t wait to countless online meetings and webinars, an invitation and would like to attend. see them. and the unseasonably cool weather • Beginning during the 2020-2021 I am so proud of the teachers in the this spring, this has been unique and School year, ninth grade students will Northeast District and around the state challenging time for music educators in be allowed to audition and participate who are continuing to be there for their Massachusetts. in the Junior High School Festival. See students academically, socially, and However, I find that I am uplifted by our website for more details regarding emotionally through this pandemic. Please all the inspirational teaching that I am eligibility. remember to take care of yourselves as witnessing from my colleagues across the well and don’t hesitate to reach out to your • Look for the updated CD-MMEA state. Music educators at all levels are family, friends, and colleagues. We all need handbook to be published on our demonstrating some of their best and most someone to lean on! website during the summer. creative teaching ideas during this time of I hope you all have a great summer and are remote learning. Teachers are finding new • If you have questions, concerns, looking forward to the fall. To all my music and innovative ways of staying connected comments, or feedback, please contact teacher colleagues—I miss you, and I can’t to their students. The spirit of sharing one of the CD-MMEA Executive Board wait to see you! and collaboration that I am seeing among members. We are always happy to help. teachers is making our profession stronger —Tom Bankert, • Finally, always check our website and more resilient. I am connecting and Northeast District Chairperson (cdmmea.org), for our updated hand- working with other educators outside my book, audition lists and information. school district more frequently and have truly enjoyed the experience of collabora- —Arthur Pierce, tion. No matter what happens in the future Central District Chairperson 2020-21 Tentative Northeast District Dates I hope that we can continue to support, encourage, and share best practices with NOVEMBER FEBRUARY each other long after the current crisis fades. 21: Senior District 6: Junior District Auditions Auditions snow day This will be my last article for the Massa- 22: Senior District Audi- tions snow day MARCH chusetts Music Educators Journal as Central District Chairperson. I would like to thank 17: Junior District, Day 1 JANUARY 19: Junior District, Day 2 all the students, parents, and educators at 6: Senior District, Day 1 20: Junior District, Day 3 the state and district level that I have with 8: Senior District, Day 2 21: Junior District 10: Senior District, Day 3 snow day worked with over the past two years. It has 11: Senior District snow day 30: Junior District Auditions

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 29 DISTRICT UPDATES

WESTERN DISTRICT

As I write this, we are in the reminds us that we can be a part “Music is very helpful during this seventh week of COVID-19 shut- of something more than ourselves and challenging time. For me, not only playing, contribute to our larger community.” but just listening to music is one of the down. Today is being celebrated —Colleen most calming things. There’s so many things you can do with music to make the as a Worldwide Day of Gratitude. “Music is helping me through most of the situation. For instance, My students and I created this this tough time by letting me hearing a song, and figuring out the notes practice the songs I’m having video to send love and gratitude so you can play it. Or even just playing trouble on, it calms me down to the helpers and caregivers in the songs you know well.” when I’m having panic attacks, and it helps — Gracie our community. me focus on my class work!” — Kadance “Music brings joy to me and others, LHS Music Says Thanks! “It’s been a positive distraction from what’s going on in the world. It allows me, if only and if people are feeling sad, I can play It’s beyond my imagination to picture for a few minutes, to escape the coronavirus a song for them and they feel better.” what our lives will be like as you read reality and be transported to a better —Ellen this in the weeks ahead, or six months or place.” —Bella a year from now. But for now I’ll let the “Music is the glue that binds us all together. words of students and colleagues from Music was here before this pandemic Western District speak to the power of and it will be here far after. Music keeps music to get us through. Thanks to Todd me connected to other people. It keeps Fruth (Amherst Regional); Daniel Rose me connected to my country roots.” (Agawam); Chris Unczur (Pittsfield); —Daegan Amy Westhaver, Colleen Grady, “The cello (which I play) has a soothing Scott Halligan, and my tune to it, and whenever I play it, own students (Longmeadow) it helps me calm down.” for the contributions below. —Megan “Music is helping me during this time to stay motivated and active. “Music helps me distract myself from every “Music has allowed me to have something Music is also helping me by keeping annoying thing that is happening.” to do in a situation where there is not me positive and helping me to think — Gaby a whole lot to do. It allows me to relax positive during this really hard and I find it really fun to play. I am “Music has been time in life. I think that it could be currently learning to play guitar. helping me cope helping others if they are struggling I did not have the opportunity to take with boredom. I was with COVID-19 right now, because lessons before this ‘extra time’ we rummaging through music helps people with their feelings.” have been given. I took advantage of the some old stuff in —Eva free guitar lessons that Mr. U suggested my basement, and “For me, discovering new music has been through Zoom.” I found an acoustic very entertaining, nothing feels stale.” —Jack guitar, so why not —Scott try to learn! Here is a photo of me playing “Music is the only thing that makes what I have learned, so far, of Hallelujah, in “Silence fills the room. Music chases out sense to me right now. I’m having a really case you didn’t know.” silence, My brain can function.” —Emily hard time dealing with the quarantine —David “Music has provided me with uplifting and understanding what’s happening and moving experiences during this but music keeps me grounded. It’s the only “When I hear my band pieces that our pandemic. During a time where thing that makes me feel.” class has played, it reminds of all of the fun we tend to feel isolated and alone, music —Leah times in that class that we’ve had. This is a challenging time for lots of people, but we just have to stay positive and hope that it all gets better.” —Grace

30 | MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL VOL. 68 NO. 4 | SUMMER 2020 DISTRICT UPDATES

SOUTHEASTERN DISTRICT Hello from the Southeastern I know I’m not alone in this grief. We are This pandemic has certainly tested our District! While I am always lucky enough to live in an age where we can abilities, but I can’t help but think music meet virtually, even when we’re apart physi- educators are up to the challenge. The happy to reach out to my fellow cally. I can share the thoughts and struggles communities of our physical classrooms music teachers, this particular and triumphs of my fellow teachers through will have to wait. In the meantime, we will article seems to have a special e-mails, social media, and virtual meetings. keep advocating, keep reinventing, and And while I think we all agree that these keep building those all-important bonds weight to it. methods can’t replace face to face contact, between our students and each other. there is solace in sharing the struggle. What a difficult couple of months it’s been Have a great summer everyone, and I hope for our country and our profession. There is Music teachers are perhaps the ultimate very much to see you in the the constant, oppressive threat of COVID- community builders. In the absence of our fall! music rooms, we’ve continued building 19 and what it means for our families, —Jillian Griffin, a virtual community for ourselves and our jobs, our health, and our life. There Southeastern District each other. We are advocating, we are is the cancellation of concerts, festivals, Chairperson and shows, and the loss of our final days organizing, and are doing it all while trying with our graduating seniors. There is the to continue to provide a comprehensive * 2020-2021 Dates upheaval of our daily lives, and maybe most music education for each and every one of 2020 Junior Festival (reschedule date): difficult for music teachers, the uncertainty our students. The state and district boards Friday, September 11-Saturday, September about the future. have not been idle during this time. We are meeting, planning for the future, and 12 For me, music has always been about sharing information and ideas. I feel lucky Fall General Meeting: Tuesday, October 6, community—the community of our to be surrounded by so many dedicated and Fireside Grille, 5PM-7PM ensembles, our classrooms, our schools, creative teachers. and our districts. Anyone who’s ever been Senior Auditions: Saturday, November 21 part of an ensemble knows that each one is On a personal level, I’ve enjoyed the Junior Auditions: Saturday, December 5 a microcosm of connections, hierarchies, renewed connection with my fellow history, and traditions. I love teaching colleagues. I’ve taken heart from reading Senior Festival: Friday, January 8-Saturday, repertoire and theory and vocal technique, Matt Harden’s coronavirus diary on January 9 (Snow date January 10) but it is the vibrant community of my Facebook. He has a gift for distilling the Junior Festival: Friday March 12-Saturday, music room that keeps me inspired and constant emotional tangle of this pandemic March 13 (Snow date March 14) keeps me moving forward. COVID-19 feels down to something clear and hopeful. I as though it has separated me from that feel lucky to have taken part in the virtual * All dates and locations are tentative at this community in a sudden and devastating chorus of music educators organized by point until we have more information about way. Kirsten Oberoi. I’ve loved hearing Matt school openings and events in the fall. Cunningham and countless other educators share their performances on social media This summer is sure to bring a lot of changing information, so please check the WESTERN DISTRICT CONT’D for no other reason than to fill the hole of community music making for themselves website and social media often: “Listening to music and singing along— and their peers. There are many others www.semmea.org sometimes in harmony!—is one rare who have kept me going—too many to https://www.facebook.com/semmea activity that my two teenagers and I can name them all. The outpouring of creative experience and enjoy together.” endeavors coming from professionals, —Amy students, and educators has been truly overwhelming and beautiful. It is the bright ADVERTISERS INDEX Here’s to making music spot in this difficult time. We are making together once again. Stay music, not to tick off educational standards, Longy School of Music IFC safe, everyone! raise money, or win competitions, but University of New Hampshire 1 because it is important, and we miss it, Westfield 2 —Kayla Werlin and this quarantine would be intolerable Yamaha IBC Western District Chairperson without it. David French Music Co. BC

SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 31 MMEA Executive Board & Staff

Board of Directors Representatives PRINCIPALS ASSOCIATION ALL-STATE CONFERENCE support personnel Michael LaCava Dr. Noreen Diamond Burdett Executive Officers ELEMENTARY AUDITIONS COORDINATOR Sara Allen Santos TRI-M LIAISON AWARDS Michael Lapomardo PRESIDENT Meredith Lord Dr. Noreen Diamond Burdett MIDDLE SCHOOL Dr. Cecil Adderley DATABASE MANAGER Andrea Cook MEMBERSHIP Rick Lueth PRESIDENT-ELECT Subcommittee Cynthia Grammer HIGH SCHOOL Dr. Heather Cote Meredith Lord Chairs Council Chairs IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Staff Members HIGHER EDUCATION Dr. Sandra Doneski CONSTITUTION/BY-LAWS BAND COUNCIL Reagan Paras Dr. Heather Cote & Support Margaret Reidy CLERK K–12 ADMINISTRATIVE REP Personnel Sara Durkin NOMINATING CHORAL COUNCIL Christopher Martin Dr. Sandra Doneski Catherine Connor-Moen TREASURER PAST DISTRICT CHAIR staff members Thomas O’Toole GROWING MUSIC JAZZ COUNCIL Rebecca Damiani IN MASSACHUSETTS INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jeffrey Holmes Thomas Walters Michael LaCava District Chairs Administrative ORCHESTRA COUNCIL DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD INTERIM ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Kristy Foye CENTRAL DISTRICT Liaisons Dr. Noreen Diamond Burdett Dr. Noreen Diamond Burdett Arthur Pierce GUITAR COUNCIL NAFME E. DIV. PRESIDENT ADVOCACY CHAIR P.O. Box 3886 Harry Wagg EASTERN DISTRICT Keith Hodgson John Mlynczak South Attleboro, MA MUSIC COMPOSITION COUNCIL Chris Noce 02703-3886 LOWELL MASON AWARD Joseph Pandaco NAFME E. DIV. PRESIDENT-ELECT NORTHEAST DISTRICT Dr. Noreen Diamond Burdett MMEJ MANAGING EDITOR Susan Barre GENERAL MUSIC COUNCIL Tom Bankert Susan G. Lindsay ADVOCACY AWARD Cathy Ward NAFME E. DIV IMMEDIATE SOUTHEAST DISTRICT Dr. Noreen Diamond Burdett MMEJ BUSINESS MGR. PAST PRESIDENT IN-OVATIONS COUNCIL Jillian Griffin Kristen Harrington Marc Greene Tom Westmoreland WESTERN DISTRICT Committee Chair DESIGN PRODUCTION Kayla Werlin SUPERINTENDENTS ASSOCIATION PROGRAM LEADERS COUNCIL ALL-STATE AUDITIONS Megan Verdugo Dr. Kim Smith Christopher Martin Michael Lapomardo CMMEA CHAPTER PRESIDENT RESEARCH & MUSIC ALL-STATE CONCERT Julie Carvella TEACHER EDUCATION Sarah Grina Dr. Tawnya Smith

32 | MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL VOL. 68 NO. 4 | SUMMER 2020 SUMMER 2020 | VOL. 68 NO. 4 MASSACHUSETTS MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL | 33 Massachusetts Music Educators Journal P.O. Box 920004 Needham, MA 02492