Obvious: All humans need to feel connected and have a sense of belonging. Less obvious: Teacher’s have less power to actually achieve this with all students than we think. We can WELCOME all students. But belonging has to be mutual and organic. Hot take: not ALL students need this from their school or ALL of their […]
choir
The A Cappella Revolution with Rob Dietz
A Cappella guru, and ACDA Contemporary and Commercial co-chair, Rob Dietz joins me this week to tell his story of passion for the “Pop A Cappella” genre of ensemble vocal music. Rob is well known in this sub-genre of choral music for his work on “The Sing Off” and collaborations with groups as wide ranging as Pentatonix, […]
Social and Emotional Learning for Choirs: Strategies for the Classroom
The June/July 2022 issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “Social and Emotional Learning for Choirs: Strategies for the Classroom” by Colleen B. McNickle and Coty Raven Morris. You can read it in its entirety at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion from the introduction. _________________ Students in choir explore, experience, and process their emotions through […]
“Belonging” Isn’t Top-Down
A hybrid episode! We run the risk of oversimplifying educational concepts, packaging them in seminars and professional development sessions for sale, and actually HARMING students. Or at least not helping them. Educational theories often carry precious little evidence, but we as educators frequently feel ill equipped to question them. Often times these oversimplifications are simply […]
“Real Men” Sing? With Dr. Braeden Ayres
Dr. Braeden Ayres is a teacher, conductor and composer with a passion point related to concepts of masculinity in choral music. What stereotypes are we stuck too, what challenges to we face when discussing it, and what are the best ways to engage young adolescent boys in our school choral programs? We discussed some of the findings from […]
Songs of (re)Imagining: B.E. Boykin
Dr. Brittney E. Boykin is a native of Alexandria, VA. She began studying piano at 7-years-old with Mrs. Alma Sanford, who taught her through multiple competitions. Dr. Boykin studied piano at Spelman College with Dr. Rachel Chung, and after graduation, attended Westminster Choir College, where she was awarded the R and R Young Composition Prize. […]