Return of #GeniusHour Part 2

Student projects are already starting to take shape and I've gotten to start working on my inventory project as well.

Student projects:

• We've started blogging! Building on last year's experiences, I wrote this post to help provide guidelines for writing blog posts. (Thank you to Aubrey Yeh for sharing and helping me gain some feedback to share with students!!!) From reading through what they've shared so far, it does seem to be helping. Blogs were a big thing I wanted to improve on from last year and they're looking better already. The students would LOVE some feedback on their writing and projects. Please check out their posts and leave a comment. It would be really cool if you mention where you're from in the comment too!
• There's a pretty interesting array of projects being worked on so far. Since the 8th Graders did this last year with a focus around anything musically related, we opened up to anything in the arts. Some students are excited to be working on things that interest them even more than what they were able to do last year.
• With two weeks of in class working left, time is going to go faster than they realize. I'm going to get the presentation sign up posted for them next week so that they can start planning accordingly.

My project:

• I've actually started getting instruments added to the inventory I laid out here. This is going to be a challenge as tedium is not a strong suit for me. However, it needs to be done and will be a huge help in the long run.
• Our district technology specialists came through big time and found me an extension to add links to the folders I create to a Sheet! From there I'll use another extension to create the QR codes. 
• I'm really wishing I had a label maker to do the QRs as I go along. Things could start to get confusing when instruments I haven't made it to yet get added to those I have. Right now I'm going to focus on getting everything into the system and doing the QR's at the end. 
• Borrowing a cart so that I can move instruments down to the media center as the students are working is going to be a must if I want to get this done in time. Time to talk with the custodians to see what I can use for a bit.
• I am planning on presenting at the end too since I'm following along with the project guidelines the students are following. Since I gave them such a hard time about Thinking Outside the Powerpoint, I really want to come up with a fun way to share on a not particularly fun subject. I'm open for ideas on a cool way to present my learning!

Recording Exchange

Through the magic of Twitter, we were able to connect with a band in California that was playing one of the same pieces as us last year. We exchanged recordings and the students were able to give and receive some really good feedback. I've tried this to a degree with other pieces, but students were able to give much more meaningful comments on music they were familiar with.

I would really love to do that again this year. I tried posting in the Facebook Band Directors Group but wasn't able to connect with anybody playing the same music. A lot of other teachers were interested in doing the same thing but ran into the same problem. I'd like to try one more time and hopefully a few more of us can connect with other ensembles to share.

If you're interested, please fill in your information on this awesome site created by the one and only Aubrey Yeh! Hopefully we can get some more directors and bands connected and get our kids thinking and sharing!

My #GeniusHour Self Evaluation

What an awesome adventure this was! I am already very much looking forward to trying this again, especially now that I've got a better handle on how the students will go through the process.

If you'd like to see some of the other posts about the great things kids did and how this all started, check these out:
Genius!
All They Can Say is 'No
I Wish EVERY Hour Was #GeniusHour

Here are some additional highlights and things that need improvement for the next time:

Highlights:

• Most students gave very positive feedback about the whole thing. Common themes in their evaluations were how much they enjoyed the freedom of choice in groups, topics, and presentations.
• While there was some overlap, we learned about a very broad range of topics. Everything from programming Arduinos, to the financial backing needed for a Broadway show, to the history of Korean music, to music's impact on the body and mind, to making reeds, mallets, xylophones and even music boxes! Many students also worked on composing and performing new music, with several even working on secondary instruments.
• Finding mentors was a challenge for many groups, but those that were able to get feedback learned so much! The excitement of receiving an email or blog comment was a great thing to witness. 
• If you really want to see kids work hard on their writing, have them write for someone who's not you! They wrote, rewrote, peer edited, and rewrote again before blogging, emailing, or responding in either of those platforms. We discussed so much about email and blog etiquette...in band!
• Most students were excited to come in and work every day. Not only that, but most were very self directed because they were interested in what they were working on. My concerns about doing this in such large classes were mostly unnecessary. Minus the occasional quick verbal redirect, students were engaged right through the end of the year and it was a lot of fun to watch!

Kicked off #geniushour presentations w/ performances, demonstrations, and some cool tech! #leadwithHART #RCSarts pic.twitter.com/G2O6EaiFtq

— Hart MS Bands (@HartMsBands) June 15, 2016

Needs Improvement:

• Needing more time was a common complaint. We had several days a week to work during the last month of school, but parts did feel rushed, especially because we should have spent more time brainstorming project ideas together. Many students said that they didn't know what to choose and wished they would have picked a different topic than what they ended up with.
• One thing I didn't take into account was the summer break schedule at most colleges and universities. Many students reached out to professors for help, but since we didn't start these until late May/early June most were not around to respond. Because we'll likely do this again in the spring next year, we'll have to start things earlier so that they can hopefully make contact before many professors leave for summer.
• While many students really enjoyed the freedom of the set up, it made many students uncomfortable. Several said that they wished I'd given more ideas for projects, but I really tried to avoid that so that they'd pick something they were really interested in and not just go with something I said because it was easy. Giving more time to brainstorm together next time will be a definite must. Doing more structured brainstorming would be helpful too, but I'm not sure what that would look like. Ideas?
• I mentioned this in a previous post, but we really need to do more talking about blogging before they start writing them. The format was very unfamiliar and while some took to it pretty naturally, many struggled with it.
• Presentations posed a few challenges:
• I needed to come up with the max time limit sooner in the process as students prepared their final presentations. Many had to make alterations to fit in the available time slot.
• We needed to discuss more about what a presentation should/should not be. Many were so focused on creating a final product (ie:  composition) that they didn't really present any learning, just perform. The idea that this was supposed to be more about their learning process rather than a final "thing" was a newer idea for many and something I needed to be clearer on.
• Too many slides with too much text. I really tried to drive home the idea of "what kind of presentation would you enjoy watching?" but the slides are just too deeply ingrained. Maybe in the fall, we can do some kind of Ignite style presentation to help at least get past the idea of writing whole paragraphs of information and then reading the slides to us. Then we could do Genius Hour again next spring and they'll have some other ideas for how a presentation can look.
• Because presentations took  place during the very last couple days of school, there was no time to discuss their self evaluations. Next year I need to allow for a little more time at the end for students to complete them during school and to give us time to debrief after everything is done.

Lots of composer/performers today too in #geniushour! pic.twitter.com/hpPkrH7T9s

— Hart MS Bands (@HartMsBands) June 17, 2016

For our first try, this was (as I kept saying every time someone asked me about it) SO cool! While there were some problems I should have better anticipated, there are just some things you have to try yourself no matter how many great people share advice and ideas. 

Even though it's almost a year away, I want to plan and prepare so that I can set students up for more success next time around. What do you think? Suggestions to help with processes that need improvement for next time? Other thoughts? Please share in the comments!

Adventures in Chamber Music

Great crowd and great music!#leadwithHART #RCSarts #musedchat pic.twitter.com/gvStmw8J5U

— Hart MS Bands (@HartMsBands) May 20, 2016

What a night we had on Friday!  After months of work, our students performed at our first ever Chamber Music Night! It was not without its bumps, but there are just some things that have to try first to get a feel for the best way to make them work. 

Friday's event started about a week after I got the job this summer. I was meeting with my new teaching partner, Lauren. She is the band director at the high school across the street and also teaches one of the four sections of sixth grade band at the middle school. We were sharing ideas for where our program would go and she started telling me about some of the very cool composition and chamber music projects her students were doing. This turned into:

• What if the high school students could actually hear their compositions performed?
• What if the middle school students played them?
• What if the high school students had a culminating event to share the music they'd been working on?
• What if we did one big blow out event?
• What if we did it at the park downtown in the spring?

And so Chamber Music Night was born! Lauren's student created their midterm compositions with the middle school students in mind. About six weeks ago, we shared a folder through Google Classroom with all of their compositions for the middle school students to start going through.

The whole process was as student driven as we could possibly make it. Students created the music, students selected the music and chose their own groups, students practiced together with minimal teacher intervention, and students performed. It was absolutely wonderful witnessing students as young as sixth grade having musical conversations. As we grew closer to the event, they even had the opportunity to perform for their classes and receive student (and some teacher) feedback.

We had a beautiful night! Families came prepared with picnics, set up on the hill, and enjoyed the performances. But while the preparation and weather went pretty smoothly, the event itself admittedly did not. Our sign up list was set up on the minute within a three hour block. Students with longer pieces signed up for multiple time spots in a row, however with all of the middle school and high school student participating in at least one group, we ran out of sign up spots. We started at 5PM and quickly ended up about 30-40 minutes behind the schedule. For those who have experienced it, the situation felt much like running a Solo and Ensemble room that was running late.

Most families were very understanding, but some were very justifiably frustrated, especially those whose students had selected a specific time because of another event that evening. We worked hard to keep things moving (which they really did, as one group left the stage another was coming on. No down time.) but the last performers didn't go on until about 8:40 when we were supposed to be done at 8:00.

Now that we've done it here are our alterations for next year's so far:

• Sixth graders will double up on parts (duet will be four people, trio will be six, etc). Even though we were really going for the responsibility of individual students on individual parts, this will help both their confidence for their first small ensemble performance, and it will be a big help on time.
• Keep high school performances to three minutes or less.
• We need more pieces composed for groups larger than two. Many of the pieces written were duets so we needed more groups to allow for all students to perform.
• Pieces composed by the high school students cannot be longer than 16 bars (in 4/4).
• Possibly start earlier and end a little later.
• Plan some breaks into the performance schedule so that we have a chance to get caught up if necessary.

The work that went into providing our students an authentic performance experience was well worth it and we're already excited for possibilities next year's Chamber Music Night will bring.

Suggestions for keeping things running smoothly? Ever done something like this before and have words of wisdom?

So I Had This Idea...

...and I can't wait to try it again!

If you'd like to see the whole story, check these links:
So I Have This Idea...(pt 1)
So I Have This Idea...(pt 2)
So I Have This Idea...(pt 3)
So I Have This Idea...(pt 4)
So I Have This Idea...(pt 5)

I learned so much through this process and I'm hoping my students did too (still waiting on their post-concert reflections to come in).  Here were some highlights as we wrapped our preparations up and performed this week:

• It was neat watching our Nick, our student conductor, come into his own as he great more comfortable up front. My favorite day was when he started things off saying that there were some issues the day before that he wanted to fix. He took us through some problem areas and was very open to coaching from the noisy baritone player in back (AKA: Me).
• I did finally cave and rehearse one small chunk of the piece to clean it up for performance. There was a spot in 3/2 that was really challenging the group and making it difficult to stay together. I went through it a few times and then had Nick take them through to make sure it was solid.
• The performance went really well even though I messed up Nick's last name when announcing him and may have botched a partial or two while I was playing.
• Seventh graders are already talking about teaching a piece and wanting to be student conductor next year!

This was definitely a fun experience, but there are things I want to do differently next time around:

• Either start sooner or do this for a different concert (or maybe both!). State testing and state band festival made it hard to keep any real continuity to our rehearsals.
• Choose music that they're less familiar with so that they have to actually teach/read/listen instead of just going by ear since they knew all the John Williams pieces in our medley.
• Select our student conductor sooner so that they have more time to practice with the ensemble.
• Start playing my instrument of choice earlier on so that I don't screw up all of the students' hard work!
• Use a longer piece so that we can have smaller groups once it's broken up. As in many group projects once the groups got to be more than three students, the others didn't have much to do (or could sit back and let the other members carry the load). 
• Find a way for students to be more reflective as we go through the process rather than just at the end. Maybe student blogs or have students share immediately after their group works on a part.

Thanks very much to those who have been following along and helping me brainstorm, think out loud, and giving feedback as we've gone through this! It's been a lot of fun!

We're on to Genius Hour in a week or so. If you'd like to follow our adventure, click here!

So I Have This Idea...(pt 5)

Well, our concert is in just over a week and here's where we stand:

• Only two students applied to conduct at the concert. I was both surprised and disappointed that only two did the process even though so many students expressed interest. Both candidates are high quality, but the fact that they were the only two who applied was surprising.
• Since a student will conduct, I've decided I'm going to play. While flute is my main instrument, I admit I've suffered from bass envy most of my musical career. I'll be playing baritone (both to improve my own chops as well as reinforce one of the smaller sections of the band) while our student conductor leads.
• As it goes with most group projects, some groups have shared their material better than others. The approach the first group took of splitting up and checking with individual sections has been oft copied throughout this process. I was rather impressed with the last group that taught as they actually worked to teach their part rather than just go through it. This group happened to have a few students who study privately and they all shared some ideas to help the band count the triplets they were encountering in Star Wars. 
• Sitting as a part of the band has reminded me of two things:
• Playing music is fun! I don't get to actually play my instrument all that often anymore. Even though baritone is not my first instrument, it's been a lot of fun just playing as a part of the band.
• Sitting while the person (people) at the podium talks for a long period of time is boring. I try to keep rehearsals fast paced, but even with that intent things can get bogged down when trying to fix a part or get a point across. If I'm sitting there with an instrument in my hands, I want to play it, not look at it. 
• A tiny part of me is enjoying some of the frustrations that students are encountering when they're trying to share information, and the band is talking/making noise/just generally not paying attention. While I don't necessarily like that the band is being so inattentive at times, I'm hoping it will help them all better understand some of the things said and done from the podium during regular rehearsals.
• After I get a second opinion on the applications, I'll appoint our student conductor next week so that they can rehearse with the band all week prior to our concert Thursday night.
• I really want to do this again, but now that I've experienced all the disruptions this time of year holds (including five days lost for state testing), I think I'll either try  it earlier next year (maybe the December concert) or start it sooner next spring.

Thoughts? Comments? Ideas? Please share below!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

So I Have This Idea...(pt 4)

Just a quick update as we've been interrupted by Spring Break, state testing, and finishing prep for State Band Festival in the few days we have been able to meet. Once we get to May, we'll really start focusing on this project and music again.

• We had our first group that really struggled late last week. While I tried to be understanding because of the breaks in regular playing, they were fairly unprepared which made for some major frustrations and ill-spent time. They'll be trying again next week.
• After doing a short survey on Google Forms, we'll be going with an application process.  The questions I have as a part of the application so far are:
• What is the job of a conductor?
• I want to be student conductor because...
• I think I'm best qualified because...
• How will you handle issues that may arise with your friends if you have to make corrections or ask them to be quiet?
• Sometimes things go wrong in a performance. What would you do if the band became seperated during the concert.
• Students will also submit a video of themselves conducting a recording of the piece. I'd rather do them in person, but with so many students relying on the bus for transportation, it makes doing things before or after school challenging. 
• I'm going to get input from a few other teachers once the applications are in.

Anything else I should include in the application process? Other thoughts?

Read here for:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Are They Really Collaborating?

As music educators we often tout the collaborative efforts needed to put together a performance.  But how often are our kids truly working together? Listening and adjusting is a vital part of making music. But if they're just doing what we tell them and not thinking musically on their own, it's compliance, not necessarily collaboration.

Having students who can anticipate issues on their own and use different resources to problem solve on their own is a huge step toward encouraging independent musicians.

Here are some ideas on ways to have your students start collaborating:

• Get them talking. Have students teach and remind each other about fingerings. Ask them to review the new rhythm they learned yesterday with someone nearby. Stop after a part doesn't go the way it should and have them talk it out to figure out what went wrong without you telling them. A quick turn and talk (or a silent turn and show) can go a long way.
• Make small ensembles the norm. Give them a class period every now and then to put together something short from their method or chorale book or play a chunk of their concert music. Our sixth graders have done this a few times this year. Currently, we're putting together a chamber music night where ALL our middle school and partnering high school students will play in small ensembles at our local park. Middle school students are choosing their own groups and music. Many are actually picking short pieces written by the high school students just for them!
• Let them work in sections. Teach them what a sectional should look and sound like and let them try it out. There will be speed bumps, but even middle school students can benefit from working together in sections. It works better when there are practice spaces for them to use, but we even make it work by spreading sections around the class (in a group of 55) and giving them time. It's noisy, but they work.
• Have them figure out new music. Going through a sight reading process is beneficial, but why not change up the routine? Some of my favorite days this year have been when learning new music with the sixth grade (our beginners). We'd get to a new line in our method book and they'd get ten minutes to figure it out with their section. Challenging them to see if we could make it through without stopping when coming back together really motivated them. When they got new concert music, they had time to work together to mark their music and look up new terms with their personal devices. 
• Three before me. In any of these activities, students are not allowed to ask me a question until they've asked three other students. Get them relying not only on you, but on each other to problem solve.

Walk around the room while your students try these. It's a great way to gauge your students' progress and understanding of musical concepts. There are few things as awesome as hearing your students have musical conversations and truly collaborating!

What are some other ways you get students working together? Please share in the comments!

So I Have This Idea...(pt 3)

Check here for Part 1
Check here for Part 2

Students began teaching their sections this week. (Slightly) Organized chaos would be a good description. My first thought was how HARD it is to totally step back and let them try. So often I wanted to interrupt and ask the class to quiet down or offer a hand with their conducting. But I resisted and kept my role to observer. Aside from the difficulty of relinquishing control, here were some other points I noted:

• Conducting a basic beat is pretty much like breathing. I don't have to think to do it, it just happens. However, as we all start somewhere, I realized what a challenge it is for my students. Keeping time for the group as they read their parts was tough for a lot of kids, which made it difficult for the band to stay together as they worked on new sections.
• Students don't realize or trust their own musicianship. There were times when group of instruments or two were very obviously off. But instead of doing something with just section, students would just go back to the beginning of their chunk and have everyone do it again. When I went up and conducted through the first part of the piece, I could see many students turn and look at the section that was off though. They can hear it, they just don't trust themselves to fix it.
• I'm going to need to start the process of finding our student conductor sooner than I thought. Being reminded of the challenges of learning how to conduct has made me realize they're going to need more time to practice with the group than I was originally thinking. I haven't decided yet though if I want it to be an application process for interested individuals or if I want it to be a nomination process. I'll ask the students but in discussions so far, it seems like a fairly even split between the two ideas.
• Each group had a different approach. Some had group members split up and teach different parts of the band their part. Others worked it out all at the same time. It was neat seeing how they worked to their strengths and watching them consult others in the class for questions instead of asking me!

We're on Spring Break this coming week, but we'll be back at it after!

So I Have This Idea...(pt 2)

A couple of weeks ago, I shared about an idea that I had to have my students go beyond choosing a piece for the Spring Concert and actually teaching it. After getting feedback from students through a Google Form and class discussions here's where we stand:

• Students got John Williams Blockbusters a few days ago.  At first, I wanted to choose something completely unfamiliar to force them into more reading more music instead of just playing what they know. However, after thinking it over some more, I went with something more familiar that they'd be excited to play and work on. 
• They met in sections to determine things parts that may prove challenging and choose a "contact person." This Contact Person is who the student groups will go to if they have a question about something to do with that instrument so that students are getting their information from each other instead of me. I was picking up on a little bit of drama as students worked this part out, but it seems they all got it sorted so far without my intervention.
• I broke the piece up into chunks by rehearsal number and student groups (that they chose) picked the section they'd work on by entering their names on a Google Sheet I created with the rehearsal numbered sections.
• After I scanned the score into Google Classroom as a PDF, students started working together to determine how they'd teach their section. So far, I've have very few questions directed at me and have witnessed students going to each other for help.
• I did offer some very basic conducting and score reading lessons over the last couple days so that they'd have a better idea what they're looking at and how to work through their part.
• Once a few chunks have been taught, the plan is that I'll take notes on how they teach a part and conduct as we put parts together. When we get closer to the performance in May, we'll go through a nomination process to determine a student conductor.

Next week we'll start working through the piece starting from the beginning. So far it's been really cool to see and hear students using the musical knowledge they already posses to start working through things! It's also been enjoyable to relinquish control and brainstorm how to make this work best along with students. I'll post again next week after we've gone through some of the sections together.

See Part 3.

So I Have This Idea...

...to have my 8th grade band students choose and teach/rehearse a piece for our Spring Concert in May.  I really want to do this, but I also really need to do better about planning it out than I have with other projects that have started with "I have this idea..."

They've picked pieces for our concerts twice this year, and we've been working on how to spend time when working in sectionals. It will take some work on things like score reading and basic conducting, but I really want to make it happen thanks to a discussion on Student Agency in on of my absolute favorite weekly Twitter chats, #WhatIsSchool. (I find that a lot of my "I have this idea..." statements come after a great chat. If you're not a regular on Twitter, you should check it out!)

Here are some of the logistics questions bouncing around in my head:

• Students will go through the same process of selecting, describing, and voting on a piece like we did earlier this year. I will make sure they're making their selection with the knowledge in mind that they'll be teaching this piece.
• Students will break themselves up into small groups of 3-5 students. I haven't decided yet if I should assign chunks of the piece, if I should break it up and then let students select the part they want to work on, or stay completely hands off and let them figure it out among themselves as to how it will be broken down.
• We'll have designated class days for groups to work on figuring out their section of the piece and how they'll teach it.  I'll take questions, but only after they can show that they've discussed and looked up the information they're seeking first.
• Do I set a schedule of who will teach when? Or let the groups talk to each other to plan a timeline? The first option would help streamline things, but again, I really want the students to have as much control of this process as possible.
• I'm not sure how to go about the actual conducting of the piece. When we start rehearsing it in larger chunks, will I take the lead, or will students from those groups? Who will conduct it at the concert?
• I loathe that I have to plan around this, but our glorious state testing season (yes, it's a whole season here) is coming up which will cut into rehearsal time. We'll need to plan ahead for the complications that will cause.

I'm going to set up a Google Form survey with many of these questions and post it in Google Classroom to get student feedback but I would really love some ideas from other teachers. Have you done something like this? How did you set it up? Or, (borrowing a questioning technique I also picked up in a chat) if you did decide to do this, how would you plan it out? What would you absolutely make sure was a part of this experience?

To see how this project is going, check out:

Part 2
Part 3

Part 4
Part 5
So I Had This Idea...