“Do you call yourself a vocal music teacher or a choir director?” At first, this question seemed relatively simple and straightforward. I was wrong. I was asked this question along with a few of our colleagues during an interview for a research study earlier this year. As each of us took turns responding to the […]
ADIF - Agile Development Instructional Framework
Leading Voices: Learning Outcomes and Our Ability to Pivot
Learning Outcomes and Our Ability to Pivot It seems like every month there is a new term or phrase that surfaces as we journey through the COVID-19 educational landscape – Hybrid Learning, the Digital Choral Classroom, Synchronous and Asynchronous Instruction. Now here in Central New York, we have another new phrase going around called “the […]
Leading Voices: Adapting Specs Grading for the Virtual and Hybrid Choral Classroom
As I start the Fall semester, I find myself right where I left off at the end of last year – trying to keep my students engaged in a virtual high school choral program. This year, my high school moved to a two-semester scheduling system with students taking four classes per semester in 80 minutes […]
Leading Voices: Teaching and Singing While Wearing a Mask: Why it is a Challenge and How to Make it Better.
The picture below is of one of our colleagues who is currently teaching middle school vocal music in San Antonio, Texas. Vicke, like most of us, was thrown into distance learning last Spring, learned more technology in the past six months than during her entire career, and now will be teaching vocal music with personal […]
Leading Voices: Seeing with New Eyes
“The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but seeing with new eyes”. Marcel Proust This past weekend here at Marcellus High School, we presented the musical KISS ME, KATE. The cast, crew, and pit did an outstanding job – what a challenging book! As we prepared for the Saturday matinee, the […]