A Full Cup - How Far I'll Go

Good evening readers,

Today was special. Let me tell you, how I know...

Every Friday, at about 8:30 am, I get to teach a special needs general music class. Well, last year, these students really like Disney songs, and the current song is from the movie Moana. The song we began class with How Far I'll Go. The song talks about the main character's desire, no, need, to move beyond barriers and constructs set by her situation and cultural norms. If you haven't picked up why it was important for these students to sing this song, or follow along - let me tell you. These students have been given challenges, these challenges have and may continue to get in the way of their lives, but they were singing out, so very strong. It wasn't correct in pitch necessarily, but it was a raw, carefree sound. These students will go far, I am helping them more confident in motor skills and maintaining, if not improving mental function. It fills me heart with so much joy.

After that class the joys to celebrate are:

• roughly 30 bass voices in 8th grade choir, singing the star-spangled banner on their own parts.
• Many males that are cool with their voices being high or low, as long as they can sing
• OPUS choir audition students coming in before and after school to improve their chances at a successful audition
• Students supporting each other in their learning through small group peer interventions
• 6th grade males sight singing so well their first time, with hand signs, and correct pitches
• World Drumming is a great way to make music a really fun class. I had a student yesterday upset with me because he was messing around during class and his consequence was a lunch detention with me/my 7th grade treble choir. The student returned to class today and fully participated. I loved every minute of that class - check it out on my Twitter account @traviszinnel. 

Something I want to touch on, a first for me, I am a minority in my 10th hour male/bass voice choir. It is the coolest thing in the world. For me, I was scared... why? Because, as a white male, I hope to be seen as authentically invested in my students' education. Many of these students have a societal deck, stacked against them, but not in my class. I have had so much fun getting to work with these boys so far. They have taught me, "I'm going to dance, all of the time, but I'm still singing. If I weren't moving, then I'm not engaged." More to come on that front, but I wanted to share this exciting moment.

Readers - I am working to begin the Cedar Valley's first Justice Choir Chapter. This will take place on Sunday, September 17th, 4 pm, First Baptist Church in Waterloo, Iowa. This movement, joins people from all walks of life to use singing, as a means to begin discourse about justice issues in our country and more specifically our neighborhoods. I will be reporting on this as we go, but please, check out the Justice Choir's webpage. There will be social media posts about this soon! For our e-vite, go here. 

TGZ

Fight with Tools

Recently I attended the Iowa Choral Director's Association's Summer Symposium. I type here, right now to discuss something I found intriguing and very important. The Justice Choir is a movement, originating up in the Twin Cities of Minnesota by Tesfa Wondemagegnehu. This choir is lead by a songbook that urges its singers to "Start Local, Stay Vocal". The vision of the Justice Choir reads:

"Justice Choir isn't actually one choir. It's a template for bringing local communities together to inspire strength, unity, and policy change in situations that demand social, economic, and environmental justice, and for amplifying that messages peacefully, on the local and national level through singing."

During the session at the symposium, Tesfa took us through the song book. The subject matter of each song related to social inequality, the need to recognize that we can do more for our planet, and sharing this message in nonviolent ways. We began with song 8. Courage to Be Who We Are, the text reminds us that we are 1. Here, 2. Standing, and 3. Singing for those who have fallen, and for the courage to be who we are. What I realized what that we need to be here. We need to be present in this current world that forces us to not accept others, and we choose to accept ourselves, and allowing our privilege to transfer to those that weren't given that at their birth. We do this by standing with them, and singing allows us to deliver that message.

I am working to start this kind of movement in my city of residence, I am beginning to let me students know that I am with them. I have students that are Black, White, Hispanic, and a slew of others that are new to the country - fleeing a country and a government that hates them. I have White students, the students that are born with privilege, but they are only racially white - they are Bosnian. Individuals from Bosnia typically practice Christianity or Islam. You can imagine that beginning on November 9th, these students and their families were afraid. This is not something that one can stop them from feeling. I heard someone say, "Well, they're legal citizens." They were right, they were completely right, but this doesn't have to do with a legal status. This has to do with their religion, that terrifies individuals who wish to not seek first to understand, then be understood.

Another piece in this songbook is #13 the Intro to "Fight with Tools". The lyrics read as follows:
"Our minds are our weapons,
Our souls our protection,
And our feet will never up root.

One body,
One Mind,
We will all stand in line and proclaim the once unspeakable truth.

So we pay our debts to the damage we share,
Underneath we are all flesh and blood.
Slowly we rise with our voices entwined,
The revival has only just begun"

After this section, individuals are welcome to chant "Fight with, fight with, fight with tools!" This is the start, or rather an intro to the Flobot song, "Fight with Tools".

Tesfa did an event of singing the songbook and then provided a survey at the end. Tesfa gave us the idea of a chart with 4 different quadrants and a circle that connects them in the middle.

You can see each quadrant is a representation of each person, or of categories that people can fit into. Tesfa shared it and I was clearly so in awe that I didn't write down any more notes. The believers - believe in the work that is required, in the choir. The thinker will think of ways to act, perhaps with no follow through. The feeler is drawn by emotion to action, or are empathetic and sympathetic to the oppressed. The actors are the doers. They do the work, perhaps without thinking about the big pictures. Each one of these players contribute in their own way to the work of social justice. We want to have individuals fitting into that circle. Believe in the important work, think about the action, feel for the right reasons, and do the work. If you witness avoidance, there is no connection to the work.

Another goal of the justice choir is to begin the conversation. Something that I found very interesting is that one should not let their badge of "woke" (individuals that are tuned into these issues of race etc.) to show what you know or what you don't know. This is a marathon race together. Yes you read that correctly. This is a race that we are running together. We all lose if we don't work together. If you are white and you are silence, that is the same as being the oppressor. That should be our true "privilege". This privilege is to share it, take what circumstances of your birth have granted to you and transfer that to the oppressed.

Whoa, right? Powerful. What are our tools? The educator in me asks, what tools do you impart to your students? I have learned that literacy is power. I have learned that speech is power. I have learned that giving students a voice, is their power. I have learned that teaching people's history with help of the Zinn Ed Project, gives students power.

I have read the disturbing news of an "alt right" group protesting in Virginia. This protest was done because of the removing a General Robert E. Lee statue. There was a counter protest going on, and a car purposefully ran into them. Peaceful protest is important, how about dialogue? There is so much hate in this world, and I want us to check our privilege at the door. Why are we here? What has allowed us to become this way? I leave with more questions.

I have been reading Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me. The opening chapter (all the further I am at this point) has the author writing to his son. Explaining how unjust the American Dream is. Did we realize that the American may not have been sought out from African slaves? There are a slew of issues where we enable stereotypes to control us. Police officers are gunning down innocent Black men. You can refute that - they had cause and such, I see that, and I raise you, did they have to kill them?

Let me share a recent story of witnessing racism. My mother has been ill, and I've either met, or taken her to a few doctor's appointments. One time, as we're sitting in a serious wing of the hospital, and an officer comes in with an inmate. Several people tensed up at seeing the inmate. The officer had to use the restroom, so the inmate was shown to a chair and the officer attended to his bladder. Holy cow, people were nervous because it wasn't only an inmate, but he was Black. People... we're in a serious part of the hospital - he's got much worse things to worry about.

So to conclude,
Educators - how do you fight systematic oppression, systems that prevent individuals from moving through a glass ceiling? How do you try to level the playing field? Are you teaching ALL students everyone's history, or just a White man's?

I am sorry for the smattering of words, but we can do better. I've been trying to figure out the words to say/write. You need to "fight with tools". I am there with you. Much love.

TGZ

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School

Readers, something you should know about me, I'm white - like ghost white. I share this because a struggle I always have with helping marginalized groups, is that I'm trying to do the good work without having it appear as charity. So the musings below have to do with some of the work, I'm starting - educating myself through literature by experts in their fields.  This may read as very scattered, there is so much to think about and I am overwhelmed as I write this. Please read and engage in dialogue, we can learn from each other.

Monique W Morris @MoniqueWMorris is the author of the book, Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. Throughout the book is I went through a number of emotions: grief, anger (at the system), hopeful, driven, and many more. Morris gave her readers a glimpse of what it means to be a Black girl in many different contexts, especially girls that understand education is powerful tool to help them break through the glass ceiling.

At one point in my read through, Morris brings up the thought, that instead of a regular glass ceiling that many White women experience, Black girls experience a stained glass ceiling. Meaning that that they can see what's beyond, but it's distorted. To that, I make another step, what if the stained glass ceiling has been busted through, things are going well, and we regress, we rebuild the ceiling on top of them? What if this ceiling is not only distorted, but had once been experienced?

I continued to ponder these thoughts and further as I read... How are these happening/why are they happening?

The deck is stacked against our Black girls, even more than their male counterparts. Many classrooms, especially in urban settings are filled with a diverse students and a Caucasian teacher. I know that's not always the case, and for those of you that are reading this and are of Color, thank you. I appreciate your existence and you are a powerful asset to our students. These teachers aren't used to what Morris points out as the Black girl "attitude". What I've learned here is that Black girls can be strong, independent women, and will do whatever they can to advocate for themselves, in particular their education. If a Black girl were to ask multiple questions and begin to raise the tensions, they are not intentionally trying to undermine your authority, or prevent you from teaching them, but rather seek further explanation.

This is something that I actually recently experienced, with a Black male student, but I found it to be a reflective moment after I read this book. My student was asking a question, and would not stop, I was beyond the point of frustration, but then something in me clicked and I began to think, "Have I not answered his question?" After my other students were working on an activity, I went up to him and asked how I could help? It was eye opening! The student just said, "Like, I don't understand. I'm just asking a question." Whoa. Mind blown. We continued our conversation and it provided a teachable moment, I was able to answer the question and then explain why I didn't get to it right away. Then we had more dialogue about how we could improve our communication in the future. I strengthened our relationship. It was so powerful. He smiled and told me "Thank You".

These escalated events don't always happen like mine did. Instead, they push Black girls out of classrooms, into the office, or out the door. Many institutions have a zero tolerance policy on discipline, meaning 1 and done - you're out. This is such a disservice to our students, especially Black girls, because the consequences for being outside of school are far greater than her being a thorn in your side.

"Did they choose to grow up in poverty? Did they choose sexual abuse? Did they choose to get raped, some of them before they could walk? Did they choose to grow up in a world where women and girls are not safe?" (Morris, 2016)

Black girls, live a life I could never imagine. Black girls are targeted for human trafficking. Some live in a world of scarcity, meaning that they don't know when their next meal is coming. This puts them in a place that they need to find someone that can provide. Do you know who can provide? An older "boyfriend", which can become a pimp or a john. These individuals will support the girls for certain favors, but for a price. Typically that price prevents them from going to school, and leads them to selling their bodies, lives of addiction, and juvenile detention centers.

These detention centers are a new home to Black girls that know education is necessary. They find they need to get through their stint and move on, but what systems are in place to help rehabilitate their charges? In the book, Morris interviews many girls and discovers that many things are not in place, one of them being credit recovery. If Black girls leave in the middle of a school year for detention and don't get out until the next year, they may be behind. What? Yes, you read that correctly, they may not be up to standard by the time they return to the general education setting. Other concerns were brought up in the text, those questions related to grade/age-level appropriate curriculum, and what specifically the worth of a credit is. Another situation that can arise, according to the text relates to these girls still living with a zero tolerance discipline plan. This means that regardless behavior, the student may be forced to leave, allowing them to be further behind.

As I look through the Central Iowa Juvenile Detention Center website, I see little about education, but I cannot speak for sure - this requires further investigation.

I feel it's time to close this post. This post was in fact scattered, but some gems may be shared from Morris' work.

A big take away may seem harsh, but ultimately it's beneficial... Teachers, it is all about relationships. We need to get over ourselves, let our students help us create the culture and climate of our classroom.

Yes, I'm guilty of this... every single day, but ultimately, I have found reflection keeps me honest. When it comes to Black girls specifically, we need to be diligent to meet them halfway, we need to try to understand and engage in the dialogue that allows for them to be heard. These voices are too often stifled because they have two points of oppression against them 1. They are Black, 2. They are women. Two strikes in a world that allows them to fail in comparison to their White counterparts. Hold the standard high, force them to keep moving forward, but you better be walking beside them. They need an advocate. In this world of resegregation, we need to ally ourselves with our Black sisters and raise the bar for society. We will, as a mass, break through that ceiling and it will never be rebuilt, and if it does - our work is not done. Push yourself to support these Black girls and understand that they are not your White norm.

With that I leave you with this - What choices will you make to help your students, even the pains in the rear, succeed? Will you strive for excellence, or allow them to fail, without trying again? The ball is in your court, better get moving.

TGZ

For Monique W. Morris' book - https://www.moniquewmorris.me

Monique - you have opened my eyes and for that I am grateful. The pasty, White guy, is going to continue doing the work to benefit our marginalized groups. Thank you.

Morris, M. W. (2015). Pushout The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. New York: New Press.

Inspired to Write - Waterloo Writing Project

This evening I had the opportunity to attend a performance at Sidecar Coffee, a small coffee shop on "The Hill" in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Below are some of my thoughts, not shared as eloquently as WWP, but rather musings from this white guy, that believes in student voice, sharing your world, and recognizing that whatever your feelings are, put the human race first and listen.

Tonight I heard student voice, and through that voice:
I heard - joy, sadness, passion, beauty, feelings of being marginalized.

I heard that a student is an imposter in some of their settings of learning.

I heard love from a sister to another as she was introduced.

I heard that being a woman can be rough.

I heard that the color of skin means a lot, to every side of this messed up equation.

To that I say:
Students you are important, you are valued, you are necessary, YOUR VOICE NEEDS TO BE HEARD. You are talented. You are__________________. And your job is to fill in that blank with whatever you want to be and however you wish to express yourself.

We are Waterloo
We are the Cedar Valley
We are Black Hawk County
We are the state of Iowa
We are the Midwest
We are the USA
We are the World

We are different
We are the same
We are every adjective you can think of, good, bad, on our best and worst days
We are motivated
We are striving for a greater world

I sing because you sing
I play because you play
I write because you have written

Your story needs to be continued to be told
You need to continue pushing boundaries to improve the world
You need to be present
You need to be unique
You need to hold on

Not everyone is what they seem
Not everyone wishes to be unkind
Not everyone is going to understand the first time, be kind in turn, and lead by a strong example

All need to listen
All need to listen
Listen so hard that even the silence speaks, because it does, even louder, through actions and deeds
All need to speak for groups that aren't represented, for groups that aren't heard

To these students again,
Strive to rise above oppression - we are here for you - The glory is us, united as one, fighting as one...

This is nowhere as great as WWP, but I offer you their words, their mission, please seek out this project, and help individuals continue to write.

http://www.waterloowritingproject.com

Sorry again that this is disjunct and perhaps hard to digest. I was so moved and could not find a way to articulate the powerful messages I heard tonight. Reach out, help, and share.

Like them on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/WWP319/

Peace my friends,
TGZ

Programs for Social Justice

Readers,
It has been some time since I last posted and I have a heavy topic to discuss. Social justice is a topic that many throw around to discuss the inequities of our society. Typically those are talked through issues or race, ethnic background, religion, poverty, lifestyle, and a slew of other topics. I recently attended the American Choral Director's Association National Conference and was given the pleasure of attending a session entitled, "A Voice of Reason: Social Justice, the Greater Good, and Why We Sing". This was presented by Dr. Kristina Caswell MacMullen, with the Ohio State University.

Before we get into a thought about religious groups and the negative ideals associated with social justice, we need to first recognize that social justice was originally an effort of the church. The thought of life and dignity for all was important, and the poor and vulnerable were the focus of these groups.

Dr. MacMullen introduced the session to a number of contemporary choruses and their social justice iterations. The two that I will discuss in this post are related to those with a mission related to social justice.

The first that I want to discuss is "The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed" by Joel Thompson. The University of Michigan Men's Glee Club, under the direction of Dr. Eugene Rogers, performed this very powerful work. There are seven specific movements, dedicated to men of color, black men, that had encountered with police and were shot at, or were racially identified. This is truly powerful, because some things that are said, are not what you would expect. One that strikes out to me is, "Mom, I'm going to college." Amadou Diallo, age 23, said those words. This movement opens with a solo, sung by an African American student, with the most simple piano and strings accompaniment. There is no malice. Beautifully sung, the image of peace is present, but clearly is not, was not, in that circumstance.

I have been listening to this on repeat because I think there are a few things that are crucial to society moving on - people make mistakes on either side of race. If you're reading this right now, I need to tell you, I am not well versed on these cases, so cannot speak to them specifically, but can speak to the music performed. Another thing to share is that this is not a cause for a blanket statement that all police men and women are evil, or do not do their jobs, because they do. The idea is to address what police brutality may be out there, or is out there.

The second social justice program, we were introduced to, was the Ohio State University Women's Glee Club. Their program dealt with another hefty issue, one that addresses human trafficking and its implications. When discussing this, I never realized what an issue this actually is. This program was based on a book entitle Girls Like Us by Rachel Lloyd. The concert was entitled "Concert: Freedom". The program was comprised of different pieces to depict the life of an individual that was trafficked, that struggle they endure, and eventually the freedom that can come through perseverance and assistance. Ultimately, the Women's Glee Club raised money through this performance to help remove the brands from women, breaking the shackles of their pimp. This process would allow the individual that was trafficked to go to a tattoo artist and have their brand morphed into a sign of freedom.

Well, there it is. I am daring to venture out, and I'm not entirely prepared for the criticism, but we need to have conversations. Do not assume anything, unless you are assuming the best intention. I want to move forward from here thinking that we instead of dividing, are growing stronger. This forces us to get over ourselves, look past our political affiliations, our racial biases (PS. Everyone has them, even if you don't want to admit it), and do what's best for marginalized groups. If you have privilege, you better use it... because if you don't, the tables may turn and you may be in need of assistance.

Thank you for reading this emotionally charged smattering of words. Be kind, friends.

TGZ

Community, Family, and Life Updates

Hello readers,
Let me set the scene for you - I am currently with my mother, a woman that has been dealt a rough hand, not always been able to play to her strengths, in the hospital. The post surgery recovery has been rough and she has been up here in Mason City for about 24 hours now. I am in scrubs and gloves to protect me from the contagious bacteria that could be in my mothers system.

I set that stage for you because I'm learning a lot about this thing we call being an adult. A couple of weeks ago, I had a fantastic opportunity to attend 7 Habits of Highly Effective People training, offered through the Leader Valley Program. I need to tell all of you, how truly beneficial and life changing that training was. Some of you may know that Stephen Covey researched and pooled resources, creating the 7 habits. These habits are extremely beneficial and the first three - Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, and Put First Things First, put things into perspective for me.

As an educator, I typically put my students, my family, my job, and everything else before me, but that shouldn't be the case. Think to yourself, be brutally honest, how much of what you do is for you? How much of what happens in life, do you have control over. That is the most freeing, yet terrifying prospect we have...

Habits 4-6, relate to our interactions with our colleagues, our families, our friends, and everyone else. They are "Think Win-Win", "Seek 1st to understand, then be understood", and "Synergize". How often when we are working in a collaborative setting do you think about what allows all parties to win? This is definitely not compromise, but rather, it's consensus to a degree. The next habit is very tricky for me... My class sizes are anywhere from 30 to 7- students in a period and it can be hard to take time to truly listen. Active listening is a skill that is necessary for us to get the whole picture and not just snippets. There can be a better chance to students or other adults understanding your side if you listen without planning what your "comeback" or "last word" will be. Synergy is putting things together in a collaborative way. In my classes, we have to work together, otherwise, we cannot make the choral sound we desire/need.

Habit 7, is another struggle for me. Sharpening the saw relates to health, spiritual, mental, physical, and more. This means to not do things in excess, instead budget daily time to take a walk, read a book, meditate, and whatever makes you happy and renews your energy. Dear teachers... the struggle is real... we are at the driver's seat of that struggle bus and we can't get off sometimes... Get an accountability partner, do something! I took the time to leave my house this past weekend, which is rare. I felt so extremely refreshed!

I left that 2 day training, exhausted, mentally and emotionally. It was worth every minute though. I loved it. I have been working on a specific habit as I can to ensure balance within me and my life. Take the time - it is self help, but it is even more related to your lifestyle. Pick up the Seven Habits book that fits you and take some time to make you better.

Thanks for reading my musings... More to come after this hospital visit is over.

TGZ

How to "Close Read" in Chorus

Hello friends!

In the Waterloo Schools, we are fortunate enough to have the accessibility to technology when we need it, and we have recently begun a 1:1 device program with our 6th grade students.

As a Leader in Me Lighthouse School, students lead a lot of their learning and their communications of their learning. Students are expected to run their own conferences. This is done through a binder that has an artifact of learning from their courses, and a reflection of their work in the course so far. They are also expected to meet during Lead Time (homeroom) to discuss the 7 Habits that go with Leader in Me, work to build their binder, and to goal set/check on the progress of those goals.

In an attempt to save paper and costs (music teachers pay out of their budgets for concert programs), I decided I needed to become creative. Instead of having students in 8th grade fill out a formal reflection sheet and have a worksheet to demonstrate their learning/progress, I have decided that students in chorus need to be singing and can record themselves individually singing within a group. On Monday and Tuesday this week, I had students either bring their device to chorus, or use my phone to record them individually singing the Star-Spangled Banner. I wanted to have them sing together as a group, but be able to pick up their specific voice for the recording. After they completed the recording they emailed those to me, I added them to Google Drive, and I shared them with the students.

Today was our day to perform some close reading. After having some MISIC training and working on ways to authentically integrate literacy into the music classroom I think I found a way for it to work. Students were given a set of questions to ask, but had to listen to their own recording 3 specific times. We went to our computer lab and students listened and responded to their recordings. To access that specific assignment, you may view a copy here. As I was instructed by Nancy Lockett, text can be anything and in this case it's a recording that students have to close "read" or rather listen to.

The reactions of students were priceless - many students were ashamed of their recordings, or happy with them, or freaked out saying, "You're not going to like, make us have our parents listen to this, right?" To put their minds at ease, I said, "It's up to you if you want to share that. Is it your best product?" The instant growth mindset moment was awesome! Students are begging to re-record, but that's my goal... To build a sound profile for the students and show the growth with instruction. The more we can help students realize that literacy in a meaningful way is everyone's job. I want to make sure that students become reflective, can articulate effectively, and begin to think critically about performance.

I cannot take the full credit for this... Lauren Fladland from College Community Schools suggested using student devices to record students individually while they sing in a group setting. Kayla Becker, our literacy coach, helped me frame the close reading. James Healy provided the arrangement of the banner. Nancy Lockett and all of the MISIC training team, for pushing me to improve my instruction.

Thanks for reading!
TGZ

Choosing Positive in a Season of Change

Some of my readers may know that I have changed positions. I was teaching 5th and 6th grade band as well as 7th and 8th grade choir at South Tama County Middle School, in Toledo, Iowa. It was a hard choice, but a necessary move to Hoover Middle School in Waterloo, Iowa. I am taking the time to reflect on ways things have changed, what I miss about teaching at STC, and things to be positive about.

The first thing I want to mention is that I am now only vocal music at Hoover Middle School. This has been a welcomed change, as I felt that I was a "jack of all trades and master of none" in my position at STC, but oddly enough... I loved every minute of teaching there. I was able to balance the high school instrumental director, as he was a brass player and a much better percussionist than I would ever be. In that time, we did grow a program, add another grade level to instrumental music, and chose a new book series to use. On the vocal side, I was able to grow the program from 45 to 60/65 strong, that could sing in parts and was willing to sing "serious" repertoire.

I honestly miss working with my direct ELL students, my Native American students, and every other student. I highlight these minority groups, because they offset the majority and I found some interesting questions based on this - why was vocal music primarily a course that Native or Hispanic males elected to be in, but not Caucasian males? In my choir at STC, I only had 1 fully Caucasian student in choir. What does that say about the cultural implications of music? These are questions that I cannot currently answer, as I am no longer there - if anyone else has this issue, please feel free to reach out and share your insight.

Now - the positive changes, the room for growth, and the driving force behind my positivity at Hoover.
- I am the only vocal music teacher in the building, but one of five staff members in the music department, and one of four middle school vocal music teachers in the district. Yes, this is a perk to being part of a larger district, but as a reflective teacher, this allows me the chance to grow as an educator. I receive feedback from our music lead teacher, and I get to work under an administrative team that includes a singer, a former band director (music educator at heart), and, though I haven't quite figured out how to describe him, another grade level administrator that cares that I'm doing well, am respected, and treated as the expert in my field. They have done many a walk through and I'm warming up to having an administrator in my space, holding me accountable, but also driving me to succeed - more importantly, helping me improve my instruction to do what's best for kids.

- In past experiences I have been a skeptic of "Choosing Positive", "Riding the Energy Bus", and other things of that nature, but I am changing. I was once shown the video of a speaker talking about feeding a negative dog, or a positive one... While yes, it is true that we should feed the positive dog, we also need to see what type of food the positive dog is getting. Is the positive dog getting synthetic, artificial food, or organic, homegrown, and well prepared food? We can be positive minded in negative situations, but that means, we have to get our hands dirty, we have to face our problems and come up with solutions. If we don't, then, what's improving? Choose to be positive, but choose to make changes, swallow pride, and realize that the newer teacher may know something beneficial, but also the veteran teacher can speak from experience and work collaboratively to make changes.

- A 10 period day is brutal - this was created to ensure that students can have interventions, band or orchestra, and choir in their daily schedule. My voice is often exhausted, but it's wonderful getting to know all 300 kids I serve and see 3 times a week. My choirs are split by gender 2 days a week and then we come together in a mixed group on Wednesdays. Those days are extremely exhausting, but also, extremely rewarding.

- I am learning to "Keep Calm and Teach Middle School". I am learning that regardless of language spoken, every student can learn. I am reminded that Common Formative Assessments are not the bane of a teacher's existence, but rather a means to identify where the disconnect is between students and their teachers.

- I have different field experience students from the University of Northern Iowa. I am learning that they need to observe, then get their hands dirty. This is what I've wanted for a long time. It allows me to pay back institutions of higher learning, will paying forward to the profession. More to come on this topic.

How is your year going so far? How do you authentically "Choose Positive"? What is one thing you're changing in your teaching this year to do what's best for students?

-TGZ

Educating Activist Allies - Musings from the music teacher

Recently, I've been trying to find my place in this world of education, and the world of music education. I have shared that this past year I have been working with our ESL/ELL teacher Jessica St. John to integrate students that have issues with English into the choral music setting. This is a low stress way of helping, in our case, Spanish speaking students acquire language skills through music. This has been instrumental (pun intended) in my research goals and need to seek an equal educational opportunity for all students. But the story didn't just start there...

My district is very close to Grinnell College, where my husband graduated from. I had the fortune of meeting Dr. Cori Jakubiak, a professor of education, there and the connection was instant. Cori is an academic that began in the classroom. After some talking and some need for connections with K-12 schools, she began attending South Tama County Middle School with her field experience students/volunteers. Cori would hang out in my classroom, while her student volunteers help Ms. St. John with ESL instruction and we spoke rhetoric. She then pushed me to consider looking at Iowa State University's Education for Social Justice Certificate and the PhD program in Social Foundations in Education. While looking at the program, I wasn't totally convinced. In Iowa, the typical teacher education college is the University of Northern Iowa, but... ISU has a fantastic faculty, with a very diverse background!

I was given a book from Cori, written by one of the ISU faculty, Katy Swalwell, entitled Educating Activist Allies - Social Justice Pedagogy with the Suburban and Urban Elite. Whew! That is quite the title, but the reading has been riveting. I am a Caucasian male in my twenties and I struggle with the idea of privilege. I was born with privilege and what does that mean, or what does that require me to do on my own and with my students?

Chapter 1 Why the education of privileged children matters

This chapter discusses the following questions - "How should these students be educated? What happens when we try to educate them in those ways? Why are we asking this question now?"

Swalwell seems to have a great perspective - "privilege(d)" those who possess unearned advantages based upon socially constructed categories.

It seems that the first part of this chapter relates to properly defining privilege and what that means for students/schools. Privileged individuals are those that lack their understanding of their own privilege and the benefits that come with it. This is a packaged deal. Superiority is often a word used to describe those with privilege.

I feel there is a specific need to teaching privileged children, but we as educators need to recognize any privilege we have. Conversations have begun and within my district and I am seeing that students are compared typically to standardized tests of Caucasian students, grades in relation to students across the board, and other factors, but what I'm most concerned about is, are we being true to culture/needs. Yes I believe a student should receive high marks in their coursework, but perhaps the instructional and assessment/feedback giving needs to change.

Many of you know that I am an advocate for standards-based grading/assessment and this renders itself nicely to the model. Many of our students are mom, dad, brother, sister, grandparent and the list goes on... they are the primary care giver in a house, but the typical points-based system we use is used more for punishing a student's behavior than sharing academic progress. I cannot begin to wrap my head around this because many of my Hispanic and Native students live within close quarters to their families, the last thing that do is think about their homework, they instead think about which medications to give their siblings, what time they have to be to work, and so much more.

The reason for the slight rant/vent of moving to a SBG system and even mentioning race and ethnicity, is that in talented and gifted programs, students without privilege are unable to be recognized to receive services. They may not receive high marks on the national standardized test, or be able to receive high marks in a class because of factors they cannot control. Is this just an unfortunate system, or is it deep-rooted in something more?

The purpose of this is post was to begin putting my findings/thoughts on "paper". The next chapter of Swalwell's book relates to Social Justice Education. More to come and let's be real... this post may change before then... Thanks for reading!

Cora Jakubiak's Bio - https://www.grinnell.edu/users/jakubiak
Katy Swalwell's Bio - http://www.education.iastate.edu/people/faculty/faculty/katy-swalwell.html
Katy Swalwell's Book - http://www.amazon.com/Educating-Activist-Allies-Pedagogy-Suburban/dp/0415529468ie=UTF8&keywords=katy%20salwell&qid=1464626477&ref_=sr_1_sc_1&sr=8-1-spell

6th Grade Band Letter Writing

It has been a goal of my current district to integrate writing in meaningful ways in every class. I took this challenge to heart and decided that I was going to have my students in 6th grade band write letters to college professors from Iowa that teach their instrument. That being said, I wrote to nearly every college applied or music education professor at a majority of the colleges and universities to see if students would receive replies.

This began with student reading the professor's biographies, and developing answers to some questions like:

• Name
• Educational Background
• Places taught
• Instrument played 
• Locations played

After this - we formulated letters based on this information. Students wrote questions about the above items and it has raised some of the best writing I have seen. I have found that students that play an instrument I don't regularly play, ask their professor pen pals questions related to their instruments, asking for help and guidance in playing their instruments.

After reading through the letters and making revisions, I printed them and the students addressed their own envelopes to the colleges and many of them have been mailed. 

Now we wait... Here's hoping the professors have time to reply! I'm so excited to see what happens in the future!

Thank you to Grinnell College, Wartburg College, Luther College, ISU, UNI, U of Iowa, Drake University, and others. 

More to come!! 

Response to Co-Teaching w/ ELL's

This year I have had the unique opportunity of working with an English Language Learner (ELL) teacher. My teaching load this year has changed to 5/6th grade bands and 7/8th grade choirs. I carpool with our ELL teacher and that got us thinking... How could choir benefit ELL students? My thoughts were that language acquisition could be easier based on assigning pitches to words, teaching proper vowel formations, and working through phonetic language. Fortunately my colleague agreed and she has begun putting ELL students (newcomers) into my grade level choir courses. I cannot tell you how much fun it is, to work on socialization, language development, and music making in a nonjudgmental setting.

The above I share because I have been an Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) since 2015 and I have found a wealth of information through their magazine Educational Leadership. In their December 2015/January 2016 there is an article entitled, Co-Teaching Ells: RIDING A TANDEM BIKE. In this article the authors, Andrea Honigfeld and Maria G. Dove give some exceptional ways to collaborate and co-teach with ELL teachers. I continually hear from my colleague that ELL students will learn the best through content, however some districts and models take them out of courses like social studies and other courses.

In the article the word trust is mentioned as a fundamental part of co-teaching. Often we see teachers afraid of losing control of their own classroom, but co-teaching can build rapport among colleagues, and ultimately boost student achievement. The article also shares a co-planning framework with is three fold - Pre-planning, Collaborative Planning, and Post-Planning. Each of these may at first seem like more work for the teachers involved, but I would challenge those teachers to look at an opportunity for true collaboration.

Pre-planning is performed by the content area teacher and the ELL teacher separately. This portion involves looking at curriculum, identify content specific vocabulary needed, and prepare with background knowledge needed for success in the upcoming lesson. ELL teachers will look at Core language standards and needs - supplemental materials etc.

Collaborative Planning is when co-teachers come together to finish their parts of the lesson. Objectives are determined, and assessments are planned. During this step roles and responsibilities for the lesson are determined.

Last is the post-planning which is where lesson planning and activity creation will take place. Different tools are found to properly assess diverse learners etc.

What I've noticed in different co-teaching set ups, is that often the ELL or SPED teacher are often there for assistance for their specific students on their rosters. Why don't we change this? I found that in music instruction, when I taught elementary, if I made an accommodation for a student with autism, the accommodation could enhance instruction for all learners. Also, why don't we have constant communication regarding lesson planning and specific curriculum? Are teachers being trained how to properly co-teach?

Since I'm still relatively new to education (almost 5 years), I wonder, how to improve such settings. Since our ELL students in particular learn best through content, wouldn't it only help them reach language goals sooner if thrust into content area learning with scaffolds provided? My you, these are merely musings. I think we could utilize professional learning times from proper collaboration. Through unit planning, teachers would be better able to collaborate with ELL and SPED teachers. It seems so simple, but how can we logistically make it happen?

If you wish to be a member of ASCD and reap the benefits you can reach them here - www.ascd.org

Article -
December 2015/January 2016 | Volume 73 | Number 4 
Co-Teaching: Making It Work Pages 56-60

I'm coming back

Dear followers,
Thank you so much for following me, for challenging my thinking, and for improving my practice. I have been extremely busy, but here's a recent right now:

• Year 2 at STC has been promising
• SBG Pilot Team
• MISIC Training
• Real Men Sing at Wartburg College
• Working through choir to enhance language acquisition
• Working with local colleges and universities to create mutual opportunities for our district and the higher education institute
• Continued learning
• I've been looking at post graduate work, currently I'm considering the Education for Social Justice graduate certificate. I think that I will eventually like to make the jump to higher education, but I don't want to leave K-12 learning yet. I want to be part of the change in the in the K-12 setting. 

What to expect?

• Communications and readings from our MISIC training, my metamorphosis through standards-based grading, and helping preservice teachers. 

Readers - thanks. For reading my musings. More to come! 

End of Quarter One and Changes

Good evening readers. It has been a very long time. I'm writing to you tonight because I am wrapping up my first quarter of using my attempt at a standards-based assessing system.

If you read through my blog, you'll know I worked to create a standards-based system to assess band and choir students at the middle school level. I have a learned so much during that process and even more now. To refresh here was my process:

1. Look at the new national music standards. I'm going to be frank - these are a bit much, but there is hope. Fortunately at the ensemble level (strand), educators can choose where their students fall under the categories of Novice, Intermediate, Proficient, Accomplished, and Advanced. Looking at my middle school students I can split them into either novice or intermediate categories.

2. From those standards, I developed learning targets or "I can" statements that help define what will need to be assessed. On the instrumental side of things I shot for big ideas that students could achieve in the ideal world of quarters. Those learning targets are in reference to musical terms, specific notes, and the like. When it comes to vocal music I had to dig a bit more...My school doesn't necessarily have a vocal music curriculum, so I talked to the high school choir director and asked what she would like her students to know by the time they're freshman. Challenge accepted.

This first quarter was the first time I felt totally involved in my instruction. I had absolute NO Behavior to assess. Music Teachers reading this... I didn't grade a single lesson!! I assessed the content of each lesson! I ran interventions during recess and before school. I found that yes, because my system is unfortunately still a points-based (only option presently), that low letter grades were potentially pushing students to succeed, but little did they know... I was able to teach more rigorous content. I was able to ask prompting questions to build a solid foundation in vocal and instrumental music.

The next issues that are arising relate to students on a standards-based student being used with a points-based system is that students may be considered "tone deaf" which in my opinion don't really exist... they just need help getting there. Students may consider dropping because they are unable to do everything being assessed, but I want to challenge schools to do away with a points-based system. It's attaching the stigma of an "F" to a low score... the low score merely means, "I'm struggling, I need help, I only kind of get this." That's when an educator gets to do their job... the fun part!

The struggle is extremely read when we are expected to use the grade report to communicate what the students' current level in any academic discipline is. I shared with my students that they could retake and re-perform to improve their scores, but that can be a tough sale to parents. How do we show that mistakes are almost more important than the final destination?

More to come - Thanks for reading.
-TGZ

The Purpose of PLCs - Interpreted by a Singleton

This year was my first year in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) and honestly I didn't enjoy it at all. Why you might ask? First, I was a middle school music educator, attending a high school hodgepodge PLC with an art teacher, TAG teacher, Technology/Teacher Librarian, a couple Spanish teachers, the instrumental music teacher, and the vocal music teacher. Now this may sound find and dandy, but let me tell you the struggles. First the culture was one of negativity, pessimism, and was deemed "The Island of Misfit Toys". Honestly, we were. It was rough. I'm typically a positive person, searching to stay on task with the task at hand and follow the norms. However, I found that we were talking about different topics, like HS standardized test scores or what to do with the HS's study hall?

How does this relate to what a PLC is supposed to be? It really doesn't. PLC's are designed to have content teams, grade alike teams, building teams, and others that share the same students to work through curriculum development, common formative assessment, and helping each other improve their instruction. Unfortunately I felt that it didn't work that way. The primary reason for this was because I was, what the faculty at Solution Tree called a "singleton". A singleton is an educator that is the only one that teaches their content with a specific grade level.

I have learned that being a singleton isn't really a bad thing, and to a degree doesn't really exist. I am the only one teacher middle school band/choir at my school, but that's okay because I should be able to collaborate with team members of either speciality content (district level music department), or one of the sessions considered using Skype and other technological tools to connect with teachers that have the same position.

My big take aways and hopes for this upcoming school year:
1. Meet as a music department and determine essential outcomes. In music there should be a PreK-12 curriculum, that is changed and altered to align with Common Core Standards created by the National Association for Music Education. These standards are shared to give us framework, a presence among our "core" content area teachers, and are flexible enough to be tailored to our instruction.

2. Once those essential outcomes are determined, why not work as a department on some common formative assessment. Music educators have data as well - if you look at my concert footage, or my lesson binder, you will be able to recognize students that are struggling and where I have attempted to put interventions in place. We should meet at our weekly or bimonthly meets to share out data and see if there are better ways to teach. I know, I know, we all struggle with putting ourselves out there for critique, but I, like many others need to step aside and let students be the driving force, the reason for what we teach.

3. I want to become more cross-curricular. Duh! Music is already an interdisciplinary course, why not use that to the students' advantage? I think a physics teacher should consult with a music teacher to talk about sound, perhaps the anatomy and physiology teacher could consult with a choir director about vocal help... and the list goes on and on.

After leaving the PLC institute today I felt a sense of clarity, a sense of fear, and a revived purpose for teaching. Clarity was given through learning about what the proper PLC process is supposed to be. Fear is because there will be push back. Purpose is my drive. This is the reason why I'm moving to Standards-Based Grading next year. I need to look at essential outcomes and learning targets, create assessments, and strive to allow students to grow as musicians and as students.

TGZ

At-Risk vs. Underserved

Today at the PLC Institute provided by Solution Tree, my thinking was challenged. When a teacher thinks about students that are labelled at-risk, what do they think of? Their home life? Mental Health?  Parental support? A slew of negative thoughts tend to rush to my head, then, I hate to admit it, but a groan may come out. Now I don't want my readers to get on their high horse and judge, but rather reflect. When Kenneth Williams asked the entire session to share with a partner something positive about those "at-risk" students you could hear the crickets chirp. However, after we listed characteristics of "at-risk" we then listed students deemed "underserved". Underserved students were categorized to be under the umbrella of special needs, ELL, and an array of other potential issues.

Now that you've thought about it... What's the difference? Students labeled "at-risk" are done so with a negative connotation... But think about it. How many of those factors can the students control? Very few to none, many would think. We can't control those either. Look at the underserved characteristics, how can we help those students. Through the use of carefully planned and structure interventions, the students that are underserved will have greater chances for success.

In other words, the reason for this post, was merely to share my soon to be altered thinking and my challenge readers to look at the students with the rough home lives, and stop making excuses for them. We can do this through helping them leave their worries at the door because they come to school to learn, to improve, to move forward in life. Helping students realize that they can shape their destiny is important. I came from a broken home, with divorce, and a slew of other issues, but I'm here because of my choices to improve and not make the same mistakes. Let's reach out and do the same for our underserved students. 

Shaping Sound Musicians - Ch. 4 "Assessment"

While working on my Capstone project I decided to continue reading Patricia O'Tool's, Shaping Sound Musicians. I've learned a lot so far and I'm not even through the chapter yet! I'm going to share some quotes and elaborate on personal feelings and ideas that relate to those quotes.

"Music teachers are good at assessing, but we need to improve at providing students with systematic feedback, involving students in assessing their own learning, and developing meaningful criteria for grades."

This hits the nail right on the head. I have found that I'm okay at identifying problems and assessing what students are doing well, or could improve, but I still struggle with providing that feedback in a meaningful way. I also, need to allow students to express their feelings in a way that they use music specific vocabulary and are sharing in a positive environment. In the past, I've had students perhaps say, "that sucked", or perhaps something that pointed out a specific student. While attempting to address that, I need to teach how to properly assess inward and outward.

Music courses are typically assessed through attendance, attitude, and behavior. Our focus should rather be gaining musical knowledge, growing as a performer, and performing with understanding.

This is a loosely taken and is a paraphrased quote, but it's a true statement. How do you assess a class that is performance oriented? Typically the practice has been to assess students on whether or not they were in rehearsal, trying their best, whether or not they had their instrument, and a slew of other factors. After thinking about this issue, the challenge is going to be assessing these important factors that help students remain successful in rehearsal, but also, making sure that that "grade" is effectively communicated with the parents. Typically, if the issue with the student's success is behavior, parents can be a driving force to help that behavior improve.

The second sentence refers to the content knowledge that students should be able to demonstrate. This is when Comprehensive Musicianship can help students and music educators make amazing music. The CMP project, is designed to prepare students for lifelong music making. This has been a something that can be achieved through standards-based grading. By using national standards, and the CMP project, music educators can develop a well-rounded curriculum, rigorous learning targets, and better musicians.

Assessment:

• Can serve as a means of advocacy
• Is imperative for recruitment of lifelong musicians
• Music can teacher concepts, skills, attitudes, and appreciation for basic human interaction
• Can demonstrate to students that they're growing as musicians and that they possess the skills and knowledge to develop musically throughout their lives

The first bullet point holds true for me. If you have high, yet achievable standards, then you'll have the potential better program, and a sense of community pride. Assessment provides opportunities that will give students the skills to make music for the rest of your life. These thoughts are pretty cool, thinking that assessing with students can help musicians perform better!

"Grading has posed many problems for ensemble directors. It has not been a part of the year culture of ensembles to collect "evidence of learning", but rather collect "evidence of participation"... "Letter grades can seem weighty and formidable, sometimes using a more casual system of feedback is less threatening and yields a better learning process."

As I shared above, we too often focus on behaviors rather than content knowledge. I believe that moving to a SBG framework, we can focus on music making, rather than behavior. Creating standards and learning targets that promote a focus on music will allow for music educators to do so much more! I'm excited to see what implementing SBG next year can hold. The letter grade can have an extremely negative stigma attached. In a podcast created Eric Townsley and Matt Townsley related to SBG, Matt brings up a great point, "What does the letter grade mean?" He gave a specific grading example, but nevertheless what does that letter grade mean? Even through the use of rubrics, does the letter grade (just the letter grade with a percentage) effectively communicate the knowledge possessed by a student and whether or not they can demonstrate their knowledge?

These are just simple musings, but they raise some really good questions - How do we effectively communicate how our students are doing in our courses? Are we assessing behavior or content knowledge?

Please feel free to check out the book - Shaping Sound Musicians by Patricia O'Tool and the Townsley podcast. 

Townsley, E., & Townsley, M. (2015, March 15). SBG Podcast. Retrieved June 12, 2015, from http://sbgpodcast.blogspot.com 

Toole, P. (2003). Shaping sound musicians: An innovative approach to teaching comprehensive musicianship through performance. Chicago, Ill.: GIA Publications.  

3rd Year Reflection

School has been out for a week for our students and a couple days for teachers and I have learned a lot in a very short amount of time. After an interesting first two years of teaching PreK-12 Vocal Music in a very rural district, I made the change to South Tama County Middle School to teach 5th grade general music, 6th - 8th grade bands, 5th - 8th grade lessons, and 7th & 8th grade choir. During this year there have been challenges but nothing more than someone should be able to handle. Here are a few things that I've accomplished and why they are necessary to a MS music education:

• Solo festivals - this year I brought back the solo festivals our school used to have. I have found that during this time students practiced more than usual, and gained some great insight from judges that were from a distance. As my first year in a more instrumental position, I learned that students will take the opportunity to grow with an accompanist and showcase their talent. Having judges that are specialists with a specific instrument group allows the teacher and the student to have a nice perspective on what helps create an ideal sound on any given instrument. I split and had 2 solo nights - 1 for 5th and 6th grade and 1 for 7th and 8th grade instrumentalists. Take aways - more communication, sooner. Work with solo repertoire more often and thank goodness I can play piano. It made helping students with their music that much easier.

• Variety Show - this year was the first year in a long time since a variety show has been put on at STC MS. At this event, I wanted to showcase students and their talents, and boy did we ever. I came up with the theme "Rock with You". This theme was based on a medley by the same name of Michael Jackson music. I originally gave the medley to the students... all 52 pages... and guess what?! They learned it all! Many other students that I had never heard sing a solo participated and were very successful. I think that this event featured anyone who needed a feature. I also thought - how can I get the other specialized courses involved in this event. I took the logical choice of Family and Consumer Science (FCS) and Art with us! It was a success! The Art Club created a great art show, featuring top notch work of 6th - 8th grade students and the FCS students created a great dessert reception.

Being in my last two terms as a graduate student I learned that my practices in grading haven't been the best. In the fine arts classroom, how do we assess students? We assess based on the ability to perform. That is why I'm making a change to Standards-Based Grading/Assessment (SBG). This summer I am creating assessments and rubrics that will help guide student assessment. Students will be able to demonstrate if they are achieving specific standards and learning targets. 

The struggle is real when talking about vocal music and SBG since I don't necessarily have a lesson book like I do for general and instrumental music. I will be doing a lot of sight-singing, composing, teaching music theory, and creating more competent singers. I appreciate that my students have given me the opportunity to teach so far and push them to learn different pieces and have success with those.

Changes for next year:

• Vocal Festivals - Real Men Sing at Wartburg College, and OPUS honor choir auditions
• Honor Bands - NEIBA, Marion, and Five Seasons
• 2 Solo nights again 
• Variety Show

More information to come, off to relax, research, and improve. Have a great weekend everyone! 

A Jazz WebQuest

It's post concert series and now I get to look forward to my unit about jazz music. I had to design this WebQuest for a graduate course at Kent State (my online program) and found it actually a lot of fun to do!

1. The Link - https://sites.google.com/a/kent.edu/jazzwebquest/

The first page shows jazz greats Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. The students are split into groups and allowed to pick a jazz artist, however they cannot duplicate which artist they want to research. Since we're from Iowa I try to suggest Glen Miller, or even Benny Goodman from Illinois, but a mean jazz clarinet player.

After those artists are picked it was time to go into the next step of the project. I had originally planned to use Google Slides, however my students don't currently have access to that, so I decided to meet with our teacher library Dixie Forcht - (follow her @dixieforcht) to discuss other options. One of these options went from GarageBand, but from there we decided on using iMovie. The students' new task is now to create a movie trailer based on their jazz artist. They are to speak as though they are the producer/director of this film and they will be presenting the information requested in great detail.

That being said I'm working with the students to save their notes through Google Docs, so they may share them with their classmates, so they can access them whenever they need them.

The biography sections requires the family history of the artist. Where are they from? What's their birthday day? Did they have siblings? What other things may they have done?

The next section requires the students to research the instrument that their performer used. What can they tell their peers about it? Was it typically used for jazz band/concert band/orchestra? Also, mind blowing enough, the voice is an instrument! What kind of style do they use? What's Ella Fitzgerald doing? Scatting of course!

The last section requires the students to obtain a video of their performer. Since I'm not exactly sure what is available through TeacherTube, my goal is to have students conference with me about the different pieces and research that specific piece. Where was it recorded? What instruments are included? What makes it unique?

The first time I did this project I had a wonderful teaching moment. I had a group choose Billie Holiday. As many of you know, Lady Day, had well, a colorful past and also some heart wrenching songs to be sung/heard. This group choose the piece Strange Fruit. Now I wanted to see how this tiny school's students would take a piece like this so I allowed it. Eventually a student in the group approached me and asked in greater detail what it was about. This student was African American. The race typically wouldn't matter, unless you were researching this piece. Strange Fruit is a song, sung about "strange fruit" hanging from a tree. Yes a tree. Meaning this had to do with the hanging of members of the black culture. Dang! Right?! To top it off, she sang that in prominent jazz clubs as a black performer to a bunch of white aristocrats. The room feel silent. This was a powerful moment, because we can look at the historical importance of this piece and this event to see where we've come from and how we're still growing as a society.

While students are finding their facts, they will be citing their sources in an MLA format with the help of Ms. Forcht.

The last portion is a self reflection. This allows members of a group to be completely honest with themselves and about their peers. I hope that we have the same results this time around.

The trailers will feature music by the artist and the movie talks with allow the students to see how they could portray the life and times of the performers.

Feel free to comment/share/ask questions. I'll be making changes to this over the summer!

Thanks - Travis @traviszinnel

Developing Standards-Based Report Cards

Thanks to an administrator that has a great deal of educational literature I was able to get my hands on the book, Developing Standards-Based Report Cards by Thomas R. Guskey and Jane M. Bailey. As I'm reading I'm trying to remain open minded about a lot of things; for instance, the use of points and what those points really mean, and how standards-based grading can become a more accurate reporting system from teachers to parents?

So I've only just begun reading the book, but I feel I need to make some major notes and refer to a lot of the author's ideas. This just allows me to better organize my thoughts and my rambling before I write my program design and review of literature. Guskey and Bailey give educators some great guiding premises that I feel need to be discussed or at least pointed out:

1. Developing a standards-based report card is primarily a challenge in effective communication.
2. Accurate interpretation is the key element in effective communication
3. Consistency is essential to accurate interpretation
4. Developing a successful report card involves a series of trade-offs
5. Report cards should be descriptive, not restrictive
6. No report card is perfect
7. Developing a standards-based report card requires teamwork, broad involvement, and initial training or study.

All of these thoughts are great, but are a bit a overwhelming to start. The first two premises talked about communication and this is truly a key component of adequate and effective assessment. I'm looking forward to educating my students and parents about what our students are expected to learn and how they should be able to demonstrate that learning. With this type of grading I feel that I will be making a bunch of rubrics, but that's okay - it will hold the students accountable... but it will also hold me accountable. I'm sure that I, like many teachers early in their careers, fudge the lines and give scores that aren't because of content knowledge, but because they try hard. Yeah we mean well, but by giving the score they achieve/earn will allow the rubric to help the student see the work expected and how they can show what they know.

Number 5 - descriptive, not restrictive means that as educators our jobs are to teach our content, assess that learning has taken place, and communicate that with parents. In music our standard could relate to singing a melody on pitch without accompaniment. The student can meet the standard a majority of the time, but has tendencies to go perhaps under or over the pitch. That is where our rubric and grade reports can show parents specifically why the student achieved which score.

Number 6 allows us to be human. No matter how we try to develop the perfect assessment and the perfect report card we just can't. On the plus side, knowing this helps us strive for perfection, which in theory should help our students and our instruction. 

Thanks for reading this musings! Chapter 2 will be coming soon. Please consider following me on social media - @traviszinnel on Twitter. I would appreciate any followers and any insight in SBG and other grading practices. 

Guskey, T., & Bailey, J. (2010). Developing standards-based report cards. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

Tracking Students' Progress

Throughout Chapter 5 of "Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Grading" we look at the different approaches for Tracking Student Progress. I read this chapter and became super confused about assigning summative scores, but then I found that 4th approach. This approach is all about Continual Improvement Throughout the Year. I know this seems like a no brainer, but especially for music it is.

When going through this SBG journey, I think my department could benefit from a total restructure of curriculum, or a design. This allows us to examine the whole experience that a student can experience in music education. If we can see exactly what standards our elementary music teacher is covering and assessing then I should be able to do the same in middle school. In middle school new opportunities arise - students can choose after 6th grade to be in either band, choir, or both. From there I do my own sort of tracking through delivering my beginning instrumental and vocal ensemble instruction. My standards will be met through continual assessment of standards. I've been asked to look with my secondary music colleagues at what the expectations are to be successful as a band/choir student in the freshman year.

To ensure that the tracking is well documented, I have already kept a lesson binder with sheets of the student's progress from weekly lesson attendance. On these sheets I can see if a student came prepared to learn and how many excerpts they have passed from their lesson book. My goal is to move to SBG (performance based grading) so I am able to see if mastery is being achieved on different concepts like "Student is able to play basic rhythms - whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes". Student can demonstrate that through the exercises provided in their lesson books.

As I go into the next year, I intend to track my singers a bit more thoroughly. I plan to have a portfolio of sorts that will have what the students' ranges are and what their tone quality is. I hope to check these quarterly so I could potentially learn more about the changing voice and when to anticipate those changes. Those changes will make SBG challenging in the respect that students will be trying to manipulate an anatomical change... so how do we grade appropriately? Also, communicating to parents and students - even to administration that the student is receiving that grade, not because of a lack of trying, but because the students can't, no matter the manipulation. This grade will change hopefully in middle school but can change through high school. Let's be real... How many voices don't still crack?

This continual tracking can be passed on into the high school setting where we can begin to see a culmination of the K-12 instruction. Through the use of Comprehensive Musicianship Project (CMP) we will begin to see students graduate with a well-rounded music education. I'm very excited to provide the foundation in both instrumental and choral music, taking what the elementary music teacher built and continue it. This should overall help with retention and continued recruitment. Educating students and parents of the standards and how they will be tracked allows for a student to start band/choir at any age and be assessed accordingly. Woot!

Thanks for reading folks! Have a great day! - TGZ