Return of #GeniusHour Part 3

Progress! Students are working hard on their projects. This year seems to be going better than last, and a lot of that has to do with having a better idea of how to get students rolling and laying out clearer expectations. There's a greater variety in what they're working on this year as well (we'd LOVE it if you leave them a few comments!!!) Last year, all students were limited to relating their project to music. Because the 8th Graders have done this process once though, they had the option of anything related to the arts.

I am running into a few more engagement issues this year than last. The first time, I had them in the media center to work on projects less often so work was more focused. However, most students said last year that more time would have really helped. We've been in there pretty much exclusively over the last week and a half though, so there's less of a drive to get things done in the time we're here. Next year will need some revamping of our time and possibly steering more towards calling these Passion Projects instead of Genius Hour.

Next week will be focused on putting together presentations and practicing them!

For my inventory project, I have almost all of our instruments into the new system and with going through this process, I also have a better idea of my repair priority list too. Next week's goal will be finding the remaining straggling instruments still at students' homesprinting and attaching all of the QR codes. I'm really excited with how this is turning out and am looking forward to creating a "how to" post that others might be able to utilize to set up their own QR inventory.

To share my process with students (since I'm doing a project along with them), I'm thinking an infographic might work out. It will have information including a breakdown of how many instruments, how many of each type, links and resources I used, etc.

Two weeks to go!

New Year, New Ideas

Just like people post about goals on their social media so that others check in and hold them accountable, I'm going to try the same idea with plans to start the school year and continue throughout. I've forced myself to actually take time off this summer and wait until August to start officially planning, but that means I've got a lot of ideas bouncing around that I haven't actually put down on "paper."

I'm hoping that posting these will help me keep on track:

• Continue to move more towards standards based grading, even though I'm on an A-E system. I want to establish clearer rubrics so that students better understand the system and can use it to improve as well as find better ways for students to feel that they earned a "successful" grade at the end of the marking period. Last year students were allowed unlimited retakes, extremely flexible deadlines, and I stopped including behavior as a part of their grade. However, many did not take advantage of these opportunities and so ended up with grades that they were not expecting from "just band." I've gotten some great resources from a friend on how he used it with his bands and need to really sit down and work it out for mine. 
• Giving my student more input and control over our social media. Each class hour will have a section of the week that will be in charge of coming up with one post and one summary of that week's activities to be included on the update for our website. They can take pictures and email me the caption to go with their post that I'll then share on our accounts. Student posts will also have their own hashtag in addition to our school and fine arts tags. 
• Interactive word wall. I saw the idea to create an interactive word wall using Aurasma at MACUL a couple of years ago, but until this year didn't have the circumstances to try it. The eighth graders will be assigned musical terms and have to design a card with their word on it. When the word is scanned with the app, a short video of that student will come up with an explanation and demonstration. When new terms come up in our  music, students will now be able to learn from each other, even if they're not in the same class.
• Updating room decorations. Seventh graders will work in groups to come up with relevant quote posters for the room. We're fortunate to have an actual poster printer, so they'll create them online with sites like Canva.
• Flexible seating options. Obviously this cannot be done full scale in a band room. Putting a 6th grade tuba player on a yoga ball is just screaming for unpleasant headlines, lawsuits, and job searching. What I imagine are some spaces at the front of the room and around the outside with some comfy chairs, stools, cushions, etc that can be easily moved and stacked. Many students come in almost half an hour before school starts and hang out with friends and we also do a lot of collaborative work that doesn't always involve their instruments. I'd like to have some options other than band chairs and stands for kids. My first step will be to reach out to our families and see what they might have sitting in the basement that they'd be willing to donate. Next I'll try some resale shops and my last stop will be Amazon. As it comes in, I'll have students help figure out how to arrange things and get it all set up.

What are some of your new ideas this year? Please share and we can help keep each other motivated!

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!

I Wish EVERY Hour Was #GeniusHour

That title is a from a parent quoting her student as he talked about his Genius Hour project. It also came as part of one of the nicest emails I've ever gotten from a parent. If that's not a sign of heading in the right direction, I don't know what is.

Along with continuing their research and seeking out mentors, students began blogging this week. Though I wanted to use Blogger, I'm starting to see the benefits of using KidBlog.Org. The options to do things like moderate comments or help edit a post have been really helpful, especially since this is their first attempt blogging. They even mentioned us in a Facebook post after we tagged them in a tweet!

I've already got some ideas on how to approach blogging better the next time around. Some of the titles of their posts are engaging or at least help the reader have an understanding of what their project will be, but others aren't as much and so they're not getting as many comments. Next time, students will pick one title and each post after that will be a "part 1, part 2, etc" to have better continuity. Another thing I needed to better impress on them was to leave some questions at the end of their post to invite the reader into a conversation rather than just an update. Specific questions are more likely to gain comments.

At this point I think every student has gotten at least one comment on a post, thanks to some awesome friends and people who have been keeping up with us through things like Twitter. It's been an important aspect to help them really get that what they're sharing is going out to the world, not just me. If you've got a few minutes and would be willing to comment on some posts and leave your location as part of the comment, it would mean so much to them! 

Something else I introduced this week was that they'll be self-assessing their grade. Some students were overly excited ("Sweet. I get an A."), but most seemed excited and understanding for the right reasons. I'm planning on having them do a Google form that will serve as not only their self assessment, but a survey on the Genius Hour process. Any grade will have to be justified with evidence of what they've done and learned over the course of the final few weeks of school. 

While there were some concerns about the size of my classes (45 and 55 students) most students seem to be not only on task, but really engaged with what they're doing. Watching them get excited about what they're discovering, or getting an email from a mentor or comment on their blog has been some of the most fun I've ever had as a teacher! We have one full week of school to go so from here, the focus will start to shift to how students are choosing to share their learning. 

Thoughts on the process or projects so far? This is absolutely something I'll be doing again, so I really want to continue to improve it. I'm particularly interested in suggestions about self assessing their work.

If you're interested in where this started from, here are my first two posts:

Genius!

All They Can Say Is 'No'

All They Can Say Is 'No'

We started talking about our Genius Hour projects a few weeks ago, but this past week we officially started working on them. If this week was any indication I'm going to quickly go from a genius hour enthusiast to an evangelist.

Just like the teachers who have done this project before me, I'm happy to share that enthusiasm and engagement is pretty high. Considering that we only have three weeks of school left filled with tons of other activities, that alone is pretty exciting. There are a few students who are aiming a little lower than they're capable of, but I'm hoping that seeing the work their friends are doing will inspire them for when we do these projects again in the future.

Getting to work on #geniushour in 7th Grade! #leadwithHART #RCSarts pic.twitter.com/XkJjzKIznK

— Hart MS Bands (@HartMsBands) May 25, 2016

I think the best part of this week has been going through the process of finding and contacting mentors.  We started with a detailed discussion of what a professional email should look like including an introduction, description of their project, specific questions, and a closing. I've had students spend two classes writing, revising, asking for help, and revising again so that they can get their email just right. The idea that they're reaching out to someone other than me or another teacher has been really  motivating.

Another big standout moment was helping a student find a mentor to help her learn more about the differences in pop music around the world. She asked for advice on who to contact and I was honest saying I wasn't sure, but I'd ask on Twitter (which once again came through and helped put us in touch with some great people!) and her eyes got big for a second. She said "I was just going to ask for help in the media center, but I can see you're thinking bigger than that."

The mantra of the week has become "All they can say is 'no.'"  Students are reaching out to professional musicians, composers, college and university professors, programmers, researchers, writers, ballet companies, instrument manufacturers, and more! They've really taken the idea of aiming high to heart and it's been wonderful seeing the excitement when they get a response.

Next weeks goals are to have a mentor in place if that hasn't been done yet and to take our first steps into blogging. There won't be much time for a lot of posts, but I really want them to have the experience of writing for a wider audience than just their mentor and me.

Stay tuned for more updates next week as we continue the adventure!

8th Gr hard at work on #geniushour projects! Excited to start getting mentor responses! #leadwithHART pic.twitter.com/Ju0kTgLnMC

— Hart MS Bands (@HartMsBands) May 27, 2016

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

Genius!

I've been in love with the idea of Genius Hour/20% Time ever since I heard of it, but up until now didn't quite have the circumstances or comfort to give it a try. My original plan had been to use it at the start of next school year with my seventh and eighth graders, but then I saw this tweet and decided to try it in the last month of school instead!

Right now is the perfect time to try your crazy ideas, don't wait until a new school year when you will feel overwhelmed again #wgedd

— Pernille Ripp (@pernilleripp) April 9, 2016

I recently finished Don Wettrick's Pure Genius and have been researching the vast wealth of educational knowledge that is Twitter to come up with a game plan. Since my students and I have never done this before, I wanted to share the tentative plan and see what those who are more experienced with Genius Hour have to say.

• Though our last performance isn't until May 20, I'm going to introduce Genius Hour through a video or two posted on Google Classroom in mid-May (I'll do some suspenseful build-up in class before posting the videos). Several awesome people have shared some great resources after I tweeted out a question last week and I've been sifting through videos for a couple of days but haven't made the final call yet. I'm thinking one that gives the basic idea of it and another one for inspiration such as Kid President's Pep Talk or Famous Failures. 
• As this is band class, their project must somehow relate back to music. To get them brainstorming ideas, I'm going to have them try Dotstorming to start thinking out loud and commenting on each other's ideas. Again, the link will be posted on Google Classroom.  Padlet could work for this too, but I like that they can directly comment on each other's posts on Dotstorming. I'm hoping that most students will have an idea on the direction they'd like to go by the time performances are done so that they can focus on working through their project when we really start spending our time on this starting May 23. I'm planning to let students work in groups if they want, but no more than three in a group.
• Students will begin blogging (possibly with Blogger, but waiting to hear on a request to have it opened for my students) about their projects. I'll take the classes to the library to show how to set one up as well as create a Screencast they can use to reference when working on their own. I'll create a Google Sheet with links to their blogs and descriptions of their projects and share on our class social media accounts as well as my personal ones. They'll have to blog weekly at the least, though many will likely decide to use it more than that to share and seek ideas.
• Through their blogs and reaching out individually, students will seek out mentors. I love this aspect of Genius Hour because it gets them thinking outside our school community and there's SO much I don't know. I want them to get information from those who know their chosen topic best. I'm aiming for students to have mentors by June 1, but that could change depending on how things go.
• I've got the library's computer lab checked out several days a week from the end of May through the end of the school year to get kids access to the information they need. They will also be encouraged (as they have been all year) to bring personal devices to class.
• Presentations will be done during our final exam times on June 15 and June 16. I'm tempted though to ban the use of PowerPoint. Is that too constricting though for something like this? There are SO many other ways they can share information (even using Google Slides would be easier if multiple students are working together) and I'd like to get them thinking of more creative ways to share. 

I freely admit that I'm often better with big picture planning than with details (unless I'm rehearsing music) so I'd love to hear what do you think. My 7th grader class has 55 students and my 8th grade class has 48. Can I even pull this off with that many students?  Is there enough practicality in my plan to allow all students to be successful? What else should I be keeping in mind? What experiences have you had? Please share in the comments!

To see how this all turned out, check out the follow up posts:
All They Can Say is 'No'
I Wish EVERY Hour Was #GeniusHour
My #GeniusHour Self Evaluation

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

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...