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Recap Of NJMEA Elementary Music Webinars From The 2016-2017 School Year Amy Burns
from 2017 May TEMPO
Recap of NJMEA Elementary Music Webinars From The 2016-2017 School Year
It has been another wonderful year for our elementary music webinars. Back in 2014, I started asking elementary music educators to record webinars about relevant topics for our NJMEA members. My goal was for elementary music educators to be able to earn a professional development hour at a time that was most convenient to them. I am so pleased that we have had amazing educators such as Missy Strong and Musicplay author, Denise Gagne. This year, we have had five webinars. They focused on technology integration, assessment, and approaches in the elementary general music curriculum. I am hoping to have more webinars for the 20172018 school year.
To recap our 2016-2017 webinars, here are highlights from each of them. If you would like to view them, please email Amy at aburns@fhcds.org. If you complete a summary and answer a question about the webinar, you can earn 1 PD hour for each webinar.
1. Seesaw for Elementary Music
Educators: Amy M. Burns, elementary general music educator and an ambassador for Seesaw (web.seesaw.me), demonstrates how to use Seesaw in the elementary music classroom. Seesaw is a student digital learning journal. She highlights how students can showcase their musical creations, assessments, concert selections, performances, recordings of their singing assessments, and so much more. Students can add their work via directly taking pictures with the app, recording directly into the app (audio and video), sharing links from websites, uploading files, and app smashing with numerous apps from GarageBand to Book Creator. Seesaw works across multiple devices from iOS to Chromebooks. Students can log into their classrooms by scanning a QR code or using a text code sent to their email/Google accounts. Parents can access their child’s journal through notifications that are received on their smart devices. Seesaw is an internal network so the items that are being posted can only be seen by the teacher and the parents of the students tagged in each post. For example, if my daughter Sarah is singing a duet with another kindergartner, and the music teacher wants to post it on her Seesaw journal and the teacher tags Sarah and the other kindergartner, then only I and the other kindergartner’s parent can listen to the song. Seesaw has three versions: free, Seesaw Plus for $120 a year, and Seesaw for Schools, which is priced per student.
2. An Introduction of Conversational Solfege: Missy Strong, an elementary music educator for the Mount Laurel Township Schools, gives an introduction to John Feierabend’s Conversational Solfege (CS) approach in the music classroom. She explains how to introduce
this approach when your students are already tuneful, beatful, and artful. CS is similar to a conversational language program. She discusses how CS is not a comprehensive curriculum as it is only one of three parts of every general music lesson. In addition, she explains how the main focus of CS is building a rock solid “ear foundation” before moving to reading/writing notation. Missy’s webinar goes through the eight steps and shows amazing student examples. 3. A Great Day with Denise Gagne: This webinar featured highlights from the October NJSMA workshop that showcased the famous Denise Gagne, author of numerous materials such as Musicplay and Learn and Play Recorder. The highlights feature songs, dances, and activities from a variety of Denise’s series. In addition, there were excellent performances from the 6th grade Copeland Orff Ensemble directed by Ardith Collins and from The Two Ukes (Jody Adessa and Casey Goryeb). 4. Using Technology with the Feierabend Approach: Earlier in the season, Missy Strong and Amy M. Burns ventured to the Texas Music Educators Association in coordination with the Technology for Music Education (TI:ME) to present “Using Technology with the Feierabend Approach.” It was a highly attended session that showed Missy’s journey to using Feierabend’s First Steps and Conversational Solfege in her classroom as well as how Amy uses technology to enhance the concepts taught using the Feierabend Approach. Special thanks to SC music educator and elementary tech expert, Cherie Herring, for taking the video of the session.
5. Using Technology for Assessment in the Elementa-
ry Music Classroom: This is the most recent webinar posted for NJMEA’s elementary music educators. Amy shows the various technological tools that one can use to assess elementary music students, especially when one is trying to show how a student reaches the SLO/SGO for the class. These tools can vary from one device in the classroom to a 1:1 classroom. It also covers multiple devices from iOS to Chromebooks.
This has been a wonderful year for webinars and I hope to provide some more next year. Have a peaceful and relaxing summer!
Amy M. Burns (aburns@fhcds.org) has taught PreK-grade 4 general music for 20 years at Far Hills Country Day School. She has authored 3 books on how to integrate tech into the elementary music classroom. She has presented many sessions on the topic, including 2 keynote addresses in TX and AU. She is the recipient of the TI:ME Teacher of the Year, NJ Master Music Teacher and Governor’s Leader in Arts Education Awards.
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The Student Teacher In The Guitar Classroom
Thomas Amoriello Fleminton Raritan School District tamoriel@frsd.k12.nj.us
During the 2016-17 school year I (Tom Amoriello) was approached by The College of New Jersey to be the co-operating teacher for two music education majors who both specialized in the classical guitar as their applied instrument of study. Normally public school music education positions are held by those with concentrations in voice, piano, band and strings. I was excited by this undertaking as I began the school year. It was important to me to share lesson plans, articles, lesson coaching and more with these future guitar educators as one of my missions as the NJMEA Guitar Education Chairperson is to expand instruction throughout the state. This was my first time as a cooperative teacher. It was interesting to watch somebody at first mimic my teaching style then develop their own. Also note that TCNJ is a guitar friendly institution that has hosted the last two NJMEA Honors Guitar Ensemble Recitals at the Mayo Recital Hall.
Christopher King and Nicholas Brown are both studying the guitar with me (Michael Newman) at TCNJ. The guitar plays an integral role in training our future teachers of music. Prized as one of the region’s leading colleges for training music teachers in a rigorous learning environment, TCNJ has included guitar instruction in their curriculum for over 40 years. A sure way to engage students is through guitar music of all genres. Because the guitar is the most popular instrument in America, having a great command of the guitar and how to teach guitar playing to students are important tools for our music educators to possess.
At TCNJ, all music education majors participate actively in a class that spends a full semester reviewing numerous guitar methods and approaches to learning basic technique and musicianship on the instrument. These music education majors present informal and formal concerts, demonstrating their ability to play the guitar, just as they will teach guitar playing to numerous young folks for generations to come. The enthusiasm of the music education majors embracing the guitar is a great inspiration. Because they enjoy learning, they will impart that joy to their own students. In addition to guitar-related student teaching opportunities at public schools throughout New Jersey, I bring the music ed majors to do demonstrations at high schools, sharing their excitement about learning AND teaching the guitar. I also arrange for them to do pop-up demos around campus, including at the Starbucks and Barnes & Noble Cafe, art gallery, and on the lawn. The music education majors with guitar concentrations with whom I work are uniquely qualified to bring their skills to the classroom, where many school districts throughout the country are offering opportunities for music teachers to develop advanced programs in guitar playing, encouraging students to learn ensembles skills through the guitar, just as they would in orchestra and band participation. Now is an exciting time for young guitar enthusiasts to refine their skills and gain the training to pursue a meaningful career teaching music through the guitar.
Please Tell Us About Your Music Education Before You Started At TCNJ.
Christopher King: Music education is an aspect of my life that has been relevant for as long as I can remember. I was lucky to have a musical family growing up. With a mother who is currently an elementary music teacher and previously taught privately out of the comfort of our own home, I was exposed to music at a young age. I began playing piano before I started playing any wind instruments like recorder or saxophone, so I had a “head start” to reading music. Although the piano never progressed in my life to become a main instrument, I still gained a lot from learning how to read the staff at a young age. During my middle school years I was in the wind band and I did that until my senior year in high school. I began my guitar studies when I was 11 at a local music store that my two uncles own, and from there the guitar became a lifelong passion. I went through many teachers as a young teenager and benefited from all of them in different ways, but my guitar studies were never really too “formal” compared to learning how to play an instrument in a public school setting. My music education was informative before going to college, but getting to college made my aptitude for music education much higher.
Nic Brown: My music education started off in a similar fashion to most of my peers. I went through Franklin Township Public Schools in Somerset County from kindergarten to twelfth grade. I had regular general music classes from preschool
through sixth grade (although I don’t remember ever learning the recorder, which I would later find out was practically ubiquitous throughout most other general music classrooms). I also had brief stints singing in choir and playing flute in band when I was in third grade and fifth grade, respectively. Neither of those experiences ended well. By the time I reached middle school, I didn’t participate in music studies beyond what was required by the district. In seventh grade, I had a marking period of keyboard, but it didn’t really stick with me. Then, at the end of that school year, I saw there was a semester-long guitar course being offered for the eighth-graders. By that point, I had spent several years listening obsessively to the catalogs of classic rock outfits like Queen, The Beatles, and especially Led Zeppelin, so I was enthused by the prospect of learning the instrument that was so essential to the songwriting and sounds of those bands. I signed up for the class as soon as I could get a pen. I think when I began learning guitar is when my music education became somewhat more unorthodox than that of the average public school music teacher, most of whom learn on instruments meant to be played in traditional large ensembles. Although that guitar class wasn’t a pleasant time—some middle schoolers can be quite mean— it allowed me the opportunity to explore the instrument every day. Taking guitar in a school setting also meant that I learned right from the start how to read music on it, which is a rarity for guitarists since most learn how to play through tablature and chord diagrams, both of which I think are incredibly important tools to learn, but useless when you’re trying to communicate with other musicians. After that class, I began taking weekly private lessons outside of school and I learned that my high school offered several levels of guitar classes to students. In fact, it was one of the most robust guitar programs in the state. For all four years of high school, I took guitar classes every day with Roger Spinella and continued with private lessons. As a sophomore, I joined Franklin High School’s Guitar Ensemble, which met once a week after school and shared concerts with the school’s string orchestra, which was directed by Roger’s wife, Maryann. By my senior year, I knew that I wanted to study music, so I took Guitar V, AP Music Theory, a keyboard skills class, and a voice class. After I graduated high school in 2012, I decided to utilize the NJ STARS scholarship program, which allowed students to attend their local community college tuition-free for up to five semesters if they were in the top fifteen percent of their graduating class. Since I was still trying to figure out what I specifically wanted to do with the guitar, I enrolled at Raritan Valley Community College in its Associate of Fine Arts in Music degree program and began taking classes in Fall 2012. I think that community colleges often receive a bad reputation as a place for people that can’t make it anywhere else, but I think that my time at RVCC was a very formative experience on my path to becoming a better musician and teacher. The music education that was offered was very informative and did a remarkable job of getting my peers and me prepared to transfer to four-year music programs. My time in community college also allowed me the chance to discover what exactly it was I wanted to do with music and continue learning topics musical and non-musical without spending even half as much money as I would have at a four-year university. In my first semester at RVCC, I chose to study jazz guitar because I had spent most of my time on the instrument up to that point focusing on plectrum technique rather than classical fingerstyle technique. However, I quickly realized that I did not enjoy improvising and I much preferred the classical approach of learning a piece that had been written out in its entirety in some form of notation. Once this occurred to me, I switched over to classical guitar and began to explore as much of the repertoire and techniques as I could so I would be prepared to transfer to another program. Fortunately, I found a teacher who was very passionate about classical guitar and he taught me an incredible amount in the year and a half that I studied with him. Every lesson I had with him had me practicing sight-reading and learning new techniques and discovering new repertoire. I don’t think I could have asked for a better introduction to the classical guitar. In 2014, I completed my auditions at a couple of four-year institutions, graduated with my associate degree, and transferred to The College of New Jersey to begin work on my Bachelor of Music in Music Education.
Chris: What Are Your Guitar Studies At TCNJ Like?
CK: My guitar studies studies at TCNJ are currently and always have been phenomenal! I have been blessed with two great guitar instructors in the four years I have spent at the school. My studio teacher has been Michael Newman, of the Newman-Oltman guitar duo, for the past 3 years. My first year at TCNJ I was taught by James Day who is now the Dean of the School of Arts and Communication. Not only are my teachers guitar instructors to me, they care more personally about my well being as a student and professional than any other professor/teacher I have met. Although my lessons only span one hour and studio one hour and a half once a week, my guitar instructors have influenced me in many ways. I look at the world differently every time I leave a lesson and my teachers have influenced my way of living life as well as my habits as a musician. I have learned how to set precious time aside to meticulously study the instrument of my amusement! It is truly an amazing area to study for guitar has always been a passion of mine, but music and education can be a particularly taxing combination. This being said, I can confidently say that my guitar teachers have always encouraged me to do my best and to continue on the path that best fits my interests. Aside from my teachers, I have been able to cooperate with many other guitarists throughout my years at TCNJ. I was fortunate enough to perform and practice in a few different guitar quartets, quintets, and trios coached by Michael Newman. Participating in a guitar ensemble is and has been a fantastic experience; it has increased my musicality, aptitude, gratitude, and capability to participate and coach ensembles. I have participated in numerous masterclasses and performed several times with the guitar ensemble and each time has been a significant experience. I will look back on my college career after I graduate, and will always think of the guitar ensemble as the most significant and most fun thing I participated in. My time with the ensemble has definitely influenced who I am today for the better, and I would encourage any readers and future students to join an ensemble as well.
Nic: You Are Enrolled As A Music Education Major At TCNJ. Please Tell Us About Your Goals/Intentions After Graduation?
NB: I’m absolutely intent on becoming a music educator because I want to share my knowledge and passion for music with as many people as I can, but I’m still trying to determine what teaching setting my personality and pedagogical style would be most appropriate in. My passions and aptitudes seem to indicate that I would probably be best-suited as a guitar and music theory teacher. I also believe that I would be a more effective educator if I continued to expand my content knowledge of both music and pedagogical techniques, which I think would allow me to more clearly model for and communicate information to my students. Having taken these factors into consideration, I plan on applying to graduate programs for guitar performance and music theory pedagogy in the near future, although I’ll definitely be taking a year off from full-time coursework so I can prepare for auditions and hopefully find some part-time work as a teacher. I think I would eventually like to obtain my doctorate in guitar performance or perhaps even music theory, but I’ll see if I can get through a master’s degree first. As a music educator, you’re often called on to lead things you may not have much experienced with, so I also want to spend a lot of time addressing some of the areas in which I believe I have deficits, particularly ensemble conducting, ear-training skills, and sight-reading on the piano.
Chris: What Are Some Key Aspects You Learned During Your Time As A Student Teacher In A Guitar Classroom?
CK: Don’t be afraid to be yourself! Authenticity is key for creating an authentic learning atmosphere. I remember the first day I stepped into the classroom with 20-25 sixth-graders with guitars in their hands. To say the least, I was scared. I never experienced this type of setting in a public school system before, and the first few weeks was sort of a culture shock experience for me. All of what I learned in college applied to teaching in this school, but the unpredictability of the students behaviors and their attitude towards me was what scared me the most. I was urged to just be myself, in which I responded, “I feel like I am myself, but I still don’t know how to ‘be myself’ in front of the kids.” I will always discover a new way to “be myself” in front of my students and every day I evolve as a growing human being. The important part is to always stay true to yourself and to not be afraid to expose your inner persona. Moreover I learned that having goals and objectives for your students is extremely important. Sometimes students might ask the question, “Why are we learning this?” or, “How does this apply to my life?” These questions can be asked by students at unpredictable times and it is important that the teacher anticipates these questions and has a viable answer to their students. The difficult part is that the answer varies based on student to student, and once a teacher is able to understand how one student ticks compared to the other - this question will be asked less often. Another key aspect that I have picked up on is time management; this is extremely important when teaching time sensitive lessons. The teacher must know when to give ample time and when to move on. Not every lesson will be timed perfectly with your lesson plan, but it is important to know your students and be able to accommodate for their needs. Time management can make or break a lesson especially with younger students. They need the right amount of time to complete a task without having too much ample time to distract them, and this can be applied to all levels of students. This is something that did not come overnight for me, but overtime I was able to increase my ability to accommodate for my students and this ability is still being built upon every time I teach.
Nic: What Advice Do You Have For Future Student Teachers Before They Begin Their Placement?
NB: Be aware that you’re probably more critical of yourself than anyone else is. It’s okay to be critical of yourself, in fact, that’s how you grow, but you also need to give yourself credit when you improve upon something or do something right. In order to be a good teacher, you need to be confident in your abilities or else the students won’t trust the information you’re giving them.
Chris: Please Tell Us About Your Observations/Evaluations And Any Strategies That You Used To Prepare?
CK: I tried to remain calm at all times, stick to my lesson plan (but always allow for slight improvisations since all classes are different from each other), and be myself. My evaluators were my professors in college and they wanted to see that we can handle being in front of students. With that in mind I did my best to feel comfortable around my students and create a friendly atmosphere in which my professors and my students could enjoy. Teaching is very much like putting on a show, and when I was observed it was like putting on an important show in which I was getting graded. This thought is obviously nerve-wracking, but in order for me to cope with this I would do my best to acknowledge the existence of my supervisor in the room and teach just like I normally would. By putting my students needs first and being myself I was more so able to calm my nerves. Of course my grade mattered to me, but I couldn’t have stopped caring about the reason I was teaching in the first place: to make meaningful connections with all of my students. When keeping that in mind, it was hard to have a bad observed lesson; the students knew this was important to me after I explained what it was about, and I knew that their education is important to them and their parents. Consideration of others is key to success when trying to create good relationships.
Nic: What Was Your Favorite Part Of The Student Teaching Experience?
NB: I found the entire experience to be very positive, so I don’t think I could definitively say that any one part of it was my favorite. I loved being able to share my passion for music and the guitar with the students every day. I loved the natural curiosity that the students had for the things I was teaching them about. If I really had to pick just one thing as my favorite, it would have to be when the students actively asked me questions about the things they were learning because they wanted to better understand the concepts. Not only did these questions give me the opportunity to talk more about music and the guitar (which I love doing), but it also showed me that they interested in what I was talking about.
Chris: What Are Some Ways You Used The Guitar During Your Chorus Practice?
CK: I did not use my guitar during choir practice, but I use my guitar in my first placement in a general music setting for kindergarten to third grade. The students loved the guitar and loved to sing along while I strummed simple chords. Ways that I could have used my guitar in choir could have been during warm-ups. The only thing that held me back about using my guitar with a choir was the very quiet nature of the guitar. On on hand I thought that it might make the students listen more closely, but on the other I was afraid that the students would not be able to hear the pitch as well as a piano. I think the guitar can be very useful as an accompaniment instrument, but maybe not practical for a full choir.
Nic: Please Share A Little Info About Your Best Lesson Plan During Class Instruction?
NB: Toward the end of my student teaching placement at RFIS, I did a group songwriting project with the sixth grade classes I was teaching, where the students had to come up with lyrics and chord progressions to play together. I liked the idea of this project because it allowed them to be creative and make practical use of the skills they had been learning during the marking period (i.e. guitar chords). I began the lesson by showing the students two songs I had written, one a setting of “Captain Hook” by Shel Silverstein meant for young children, and the other a song with lyrics and a style that took influence from punk music. I used these songs as examples of the ways a songwriter could make music in different ways depending on what they were trying to express. I felt that it was necessary to emphasize to the students that I was not expecting them to come up with completed songs in the two lessons that we would be working on the project because many of them felt uncomfortable sharing their ideas. I really just wanted the groups to share what they had come up with as a way of showing each other even more ways that songs could be written. In retrospect, I think that the project would have benefited from having a few more restrictions than what I gave them, because many of the students felt overwhelmed by the sheer possibilities. The next time I try a similar lesson, I’ll probably try to give the students more structure to start off with.
What Aspect Of Being In Front Of Children Was The Most Challenging For You Both?
CK: The most challenging aspect for me was staying on topic; many times I would discuss a side thought or the students would ask a question that would get me off topic. Sometimes this helps the lesson in a good way, and other times it turns the lesson ugly. By trying to stay on topic I would write down key objectives of the lesson and keep them handy whenever I felt as if the lesson was going off topic. I did not start doing that until the second half of my second placement and it helped me immensely. For anyone who thinks they really know how to stay on topic in front of kids without a simple reminder might want to think twice; kids are very elusive but this can be used to a teacher advantage! Turn their curiosity into enthusiasm regarding your class and lessons.
NB: I almost always felt very comfortable in front of the students. I have a very silly, dorky sense of humor which seemed to be pretty compatible with that of a 6th grader. However, children that are this young can lose focus pretty easily, so it’s imperative you make sure they remain engaged in some way for the entire class. I found this to be particularly challenging because I am generally a pretty low-energy individual, so I was often concerned that there would be too long of a transition from one activity to another and the students would disengage. I also found differentiation to be a particular challenge due to the wide variety of learning styles and levels of the students. There were often students that I had to sit down with and individually address certain concepts with, but there were also students who would be way ahead of their peers, so I would have to find more challenging repertoire and skills for them to work on.
What Surprised You Both The Most About Your Experience?
CK: When I first began my college career at eighteen years old, I decided I was going to become a music teacher. At first, the idea of myself talking in front of a group of people for more than 5 minutes frightened me. Now I feel much more comfortable being in front of a group of people and being the center of attention for as long as needed. This confidence did not come overnight, and the most surprising thing about my experience was that by the time I had been in front of students for over a week, the thought did not even phase me at all. All throughout college I dreaded teaching a 10-15 minute mock lesson because it seemed like such a long time to be teaching. Now I feel as if I cannot get anything done in less than 45 minutes! Overall my boosted confidence in presenting and teaching surprised me the most.
NB: When I arrived, I wasn’t exactly sure how enthusiastic the students would be about music or how receptive they would be to me as a teacher; but I quickly learned that almost all of them were interested and willing to lend me their ears if I could prove to them that what I was teaching was worth being passionate about.
Thomas Amoriello is the Guitar Education Chairperson for the New Jersey Music Education Association and also serves on the NAfME Council for Guitar Education as the Eastern Division Representative. He teaches guitar for the Flemington Raritan School District and Hunterdon Academy of the Arts. Tom graduated from the Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University with a Master of Music Degree in Classical Guitar Performance. He is the author of the children’s picture book A Journey to Guitarland with Maestro Armadillo, available from barnesandnoble.com.
Michael Newman has directed Guitar Studies and Ensembles at The College of New Jersey since 2014. During the 1970s, Michael Newman gained international recognition as one of the outstanding concert guitarists of his generation. Soloist with the Atlanta, Seattle, and Honolulu Symphonies; and featured in national media: People Magazine, Larry King Show, New York Times, Guitar Player Magazine. A graduate of Mannes College of Music and the Aspen Music School and Academia Musicale Chigiana, he has served on the guitar and chamber music faculty of Mannes College the New School for Music in New York City since 1979.
