There is a motion-censored light in the hallway leading to our music room. Last fall with my very first class ever in our new space I joked that to magically turn on the light, they had to yell, “Music Yay!” The caretakers at our school comment that they can still hear them yelling this every day.

I have a felt board at the end of the hall and students who need some personal space love to rearrange our “Music Yay” felt letters and other pieces. It’s almost as popular as our new favourite way to end ukulele classes – with our campfire singalongs. Shout out to my colleague Ms. Phillips who gave me the idea and my TC, Nancy Singla for crafting it.

I’m a classically trained violinist and yet I hesitated when drawing the staff on our Music room white board…until I titled it as Western European Classical Music Notation. We discussed that notes on the staff is ONE way and not THE way to compose music. Students chose notes, note durations, and then played their melody compositions on mallet instruments, ukuleles, and violins.

Our Awesome Music Project had Gr. 1-8 students each gather a relative’s favourite song and accompanying “song story.” Each class then helped me choose one of these songs for us to arrange, learn, rehearse, video record…and I also asked the relative whose favourite song we’d chosen to make an introductory video sharing their story. I put all 17 of these introductory and performance videos into a movie concert for us all to celebrate.

Feedback tells me that I succeeded in representing my school community! They feel seen. Thank you to www.theawesomemusicproject.com for collaborating with us!

GarageBand and Soundtrap are incredibly rewarding programs for kids to use. The sounds, beats, and pieces they are creating should be broadcasted right now to anyone needing Pandemic relief! I plan on adding them to our morning announcements.

Next it’s composing with pencil on paper and instruments at their sides.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFw9b5RA2YM

I am SO PROUD of JLPS Grades 6-8s. Putting this video together for the CBC Music Class Competition took courage and trust. Some of these students had less than 10 lessons on their instruments. The singers stepped up 2 weeks before recording – one just the day before. Our Gr. 8 keyboard player replaced an absent student at the very last minute – this take was his first run! We might not win, but we’ve already won.

I love teaching Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” on mallet instruments – my students are rockstars! But even rockstars get tired and then ask me to put on their favourite quiet listening piece, “Zero” by Olafur Arnalds.

JLPS students and I are focusing on listening to music and each other. And each other about music. On our green poster, students wrote the word “music” in as many languages as they knew. Also…mallet instruments are back! We have some on loan from the TDSB Arts Department (thank you!) and they sound so so beautiful.

We’re back! This fall I asked JLPS students what people walking by our music room might hear or see happening inside. “Cool instruments making cool sounds, kids being kids, this list, disco ball, thunder tube…” The two-sided poster is a hit. I have to add that my Gr. 6 ukulele class amazed me yesterday with their music reading decoding skills and determination!

PLAYING music online can be fun. “Incredibox” was a huge hit and resulted in this Gr. 3’s huge grin. Another student in her class said, “Whenever I am so sad, this might help to cheer me up.” I will miss jamming online with my students. We used sound makers and learned to listen to each other. Never before have I improvised music with a piggy bank, sea shell, grinding teeth, vacuum, or crackers.

All of the students and I dreamed up a plan to surprise and bring joy to the JLPS teachers. In our May assembly when Stevie Wonder’s song started we all turned off our cameras, grabbed our props, and waited for our turn to go/turn on! Dancing and lip syncing and general silliness made us all smile. There was no good way to document everyone at once but what I will remember (and want to bottle up) is the Kindergarten/Grade 1 students’ bubbling excitement about keeping the secret from their teachers!