by Peggy Apostolou

Music Explorations During The SARSCOV-2 Crisis

by Peggy Apostolou, Elementary School Faculty

SARS-CoV-2 and shutdown came with a blow. No one expected for things to evolve so fast, or so severely. Almost within a week we went from all that jazz regarding possible effects of the pandemic, to pulling out all the stops in order to stay fit as a fiddle and continue educating our students. It was no longer the same old song and dance, and we could not play it by ear. Some serious action had to be taken.

Computer technology was never my forte. What was I going to do? In the despair of the moment I realized that I had to change my tune. Did I have the tools or desire to embark upon such a venture? Would there be people to help me with the technology if I needed help? I did not have to harp on about it for too long. I realized that the tools, desire, and people were indeed available. All I had to do was give it a good try and hopefully with hard work, arrive with bells on. All these years of beating the drum about the unique and important role of music in education and this was yet another opportunity to reinforce this message. I clearly did not want for music to play second fiddle during the online period and decided to find a platform where all music lessons and activity could be communicated with my students.

When I reached out to Ms. Maxwell (our technology integration specialist) asking for her advice in setting up a music website, she encouraged me to use the new Google Sites platform, and then proceeded to helping me set it up, show me how to use it, and explained how I could jazz it up and add content to it using pictures and audio links. The site was called Ms. Apostolou’s Elementary School Music Site.

Every week I uploaded two lessons for each grade (K5). It was imperative to me that the instructions were clear as a bell. The distant nature of lessons, the age group of students, the new medium for some learners, the bulk of information and material, as well as my philosophy on teaching practices, underlined the need for clear instructions. In line with this clear instruction ‘philosophy’ was also the fact that students had to be given only one web link, that they could use throughout the online period in order to access their lessons and did not have to look for access through the homeroom slides in order for music activity to commence.

Another two important factors for me were the design and the content. Learners of all ages understand and progress better when information is relevant, age appropriate, and is communicated to them in a fun and pleasant manner. No need preaching the choir about the element of fun and about the fact that this is not a role solely assigned to the arts. I spent hours on the design in order to make the website visually pleasant and age appropriate. The pictures chosen, the navigators, the audio examples, the music videos, the music games and activities, the wording of phrases, all had to be pleasing to the eye and relevant to each and every age group separately. The website had to utilize a combination of human senses in order to help transmit all the right information to the students.

The curriculum had to carry on and although some units had to be replaced by other units due to the lack of instruments and direct human contact, learners continued with developing their understanding of music and practice of skills. It was imperative that during this online period learners would not be given busy work but instead the opportunity to grow as musicians.

Unlike with verbal communication, where there is not much time to process what you are about to say, with the website I could un-ring the bell and go back and change or fine tune elements that I thought needed improvement before publishing. Another positive was that the site was used as a whistle-stop tour for those who wanted to revise the music of younger grades and/or practice or just have a look at the skills taught in older grades. It also allowed for students

to revisit lessons at their own time should they wish to possibly comprehend some information better or further their skills through the available differentiated content.

Furthermore the website enabled constant communication between myself and my students and their families. Hundreds of homework assignments and feedback were sent back and forth, along with well wishes, news, feelings and updates. Bonds of mutual respect were reinforced.

The website was definitely a process of learning not just for my students but also for me. One cannot strike the right note with all learners, as we are all different. At the core of my teaching lies the belief that differentiation is extremely important and this online exploration as it turns out, another differentiation tool that could help a percentage of our students.

See you on the big drum!

Music to my ears:

“Interesting and creative music lessons”

“Increased exposure to composing music, as well as the opera and classical works”

“I had a great time and I am sending you my work. I like it better when I send it to you”

“Thank you for the music website. It was very clear to follow and easy to navigate”

“We had great fun doing the lessons”

“I watched the tutorials two or three times, I listened again to pieces and collected info”