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Stories of Newness: Healing and Reimagining with Stephanie Gravelle

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This was such a fun conversation with me. Stephanie is a fantastic musician and passionate music educator. She’s also my sister-in-law, and I love learning from her. I wasn’t able to include everything from our conversation. Stephanie is an incredibly engaging and thoughtful programmer, and I highly recommend just reaching out to her and asking her what she has planned. It’s inspiring.

Stephanie Gravelle, Middle and High School Music Teacher at The International School of Beijing, was on break when her school moved to virtual instruction due to COVID-19. They first used an asynchronous model, which was helpful, especially as teachers navigated some unique obstacles (ex: In China, Google and all of its products are blocked). Also, many teachers and students had been vacationing and didn’t have laptops, instruments, or other materials. Stephanie did one (optional) virtual choir, but was on the fence about the value. It was good for the community– one person commented “it’s so good to hear kids singing again.” But students were living with an unknown number of people. Imagine, Stephanie said, being a 12-year-old and going through a voice change… of course you wouldn’t want to practice in your own house.

When they returned mid-September, many students were in-person, but many teachers weren’t back; in addition to visa issues, teachers were trying to navigate their return in a global pandemic. There were teacher assistants for teachers who were away. For students at home, it wasn’t choral singing. Eventually students who were virtual went to an online school, without a music option.

In January 2021, high school students worked on solo recording projects: chose a song, analyzed text, prepared music, while Stephanie gave periodic lessons to students. She kept middle school students engaged with vocal exercises, stretches, sight-reading, canons, etc. She sang with students, and had to trust they were participating. She made tracks for rehearsals. Students completed practice journals– even if they didn’t practice. She wanted them to think about the music. She offered a virtual choir, but many students opted out. In class, students participated in listening discussions. Students who never said a word in class had great discussions through chat. In-person, she hasn’t figured out a way to replicate that. Still, it was inspiring to see students fully engaged.

Parents weren’t allowed on campus, so the performing arts department held a festival in April and invited the whole PK-high school. For three days, every hour, there was a concert, drama performance, or other performance art event, including their choir concert. Elementary kids were able to watch high school students. It was great for the school community.

After the performing arts festival, Stephanie wasn’t sure students missed evening concerts. She reflected: Do we need after school concerts? Can these concerts interact with the community in a different way? During COVID, there were no concerts or rehearsals on weekends or late nights. She went home and spent more time with family. And that was nice. Is there a way to hold this up as standard, instead of normalizing late nights and long rehearsals? She thought about Brené Brown– “It shouldn’t be normal.” How can she, and how can our profession, pursue doing things during the day? And “How can we do things that give us more time for family, friends, or even ourselves?” 

This past year, she also did an audit on herself. She created a spreadsheet and listed the repertoire she gave students– everything they listened to and all the materials she used. The spreadsheet included time period, religious background, gender perspective, etc. She wanted to see what she used and then ask “do I want to change anything? If so, how?” She set up weekly themes where she highlighted different genres of music and a variety of performers. This work will continue as she asks “How am I amplifying various voices, and how can I diversify that amplification?” In addition to finding culture bearers of musics, she plans to teach these musics like they might be taught in their origin environment.  

Each international school has a different instructional set-up, but there are some shared silver linings. For example, students recorded their solos for a virtual solo and ensemble. Participation levels increased dramatically due to the online format. With so many things being held virtually, Stephanie was able to attend more professional development, such as a Village Harmony course and yes, she went to the national ACDA conference for the first time.

As far as the fall, repertoire is selected and goals are set. She knows things can change quickly, but it makes her feel better to be prepared. She also recognizes that students are navigating a lot– not just their own changes, but also the stresses that many of their parents have. Some students are struggling with how to have a discussion or work collaboratively. Technique is very important, but right now they need to come into a room that makes them feel happy, safe, and wanted. Her focus will be what it always is: find the heart of her singers and have their hearts connected. This has always been where they get the best sound, and it’s even more true now.

CJ Replay: Teaching Adolescents with a Holistic Perspective

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The October 2016 issue of Choral Journal features an article titled “Keeping the Glass Half Full: Teaching Adolescents with a Holistic Perspective” by Bridget Sweet. You can read it in its entirety online at acda.org/choraljournal. Click “Search Archives” and choose October 2016 from the dropdown menu.

Below is an excerpt from the article.
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“When describing the young adolescent, floods of words come to mind. Unpredictable. 

Emotional.

Hilarious.

Moody. 

Angsty.

Perhaps, however, the word “individual” is the most appropriate, because each adolescent is unique and progresses through adolescence in his or her own way. It is for all of these reasons–and many more–that educators enjoy working with adolescents so much. This paper comprises two main sections. The first addresses emotion and physical development, which are two key adolescent characteristics commonly encountered in the choral classroom; the second concerns puberty and adolescent voice change.”

Emotion
In my work with adolescent singers, I have found them to be smart, clever, hardworking, and extremely loyal once you get them on your side. Because these students truly straddle both child and adult worlds, however, identity navigation and decision-making are not always accomplished in the most sophisticated ways. As a result, general public perspective of adolescents is one of deficit, anguish, unpredictability, and irrational behavior. Fueling the stereotype are adolescent emotions, which have a tendency to run high and fluctuate often.

Many of our choral students will experience difficulties during adolescence, but we can choose to focus on this population with a “glass half full” attitude and remain resolute that “‘Storm and stress’ is not a universal experience of early adolescence. Some individuals are (or seem to be) well adjusted.”1

Attempts to control or direct adolescent emotion in the choral classroom are as pointless as trying to prevent the ocean from crashing against the shore. However, through acknowledgment of adolescents’ emotional fluctuation—embracing it, even—our work as choral music educators can be less burdened. When students seem emotional or angry, there are only benefits in honoring what students are experiencing, even if we (as adults) find the reason for their despair to seem a bit trite. A simple, nonjudgmental comment such as, “I am so sorry that you are feeling this way,” can go a long way with adolescent students who crave validation and belonging.2

  1. Thomas A. Regelski, Teaching General Music in Grades 4–8 (New York: Oxford University, 2004).
  2. Ian McMahan, Adolescence (New Jersey: Pearson, 2008), 185.

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Read the rest of this article (and more!) in the October 2016 issue of Choral Journal, available online at acda.org.

Was Anybody Listening? A Teacher Looks Back

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By Debbie Aurelius-Muir

This particular day began as every day had. It was Thursday. Not that that made a difference. Every day started the same. The bell rang at 8:22 a.m. and by 8:25 a.m. my special education class arrived. There were 14 students and one aide. I often struggled with it. I never intended to be a special education teacher. These middle school children had varied emotional, physical, and intellectual challenges. Every time I thought I understood their limitations, they would surprise me. Conversely, there were many times when I was sure I had the perfect amount of challenge to the lesson plan, only to discover that I had missed the mark completely.

I started class signing and singing “Do Re Mi” from The Sound of Music. The students were always very excited to show that they had mastered the Curwen hand signs for the major scale. (I should mention that because of age requirements, I had most of these special education students every day for five years. They entered sixth grade at 11 years of age, but were not promoted to high school until they were16 years of age).

One of my most enigmatic students had a disability called “Dandy Walker Syndrome.” Dandy Walker Syndrome manifested itself in this student with limited speech, limited intellectual development, limited physical strength, and limited mobility. We will call him “Robert.” I watched Robert grow from a skinny little eleven year old barely four feet tall to a strong-willed adolescent approaching six feet in stature. He didn’t have great control of his limbs. He walked to music class by using a walker that let its owner pull down a shelf that allowed a quick sitting break in the middle of the trip. He had difficulties keeping his eyes focused in one direction. His eyes often darted left and right as if he was frantically trying to record everything for the future. His speech was very hard to understand. It appeared as if his tongue muscles didn’t cooperate any better than his leg muscles. He had lots of volume but he couldn’t articulate words. He had a very small vocabulary, as well. I don’t recall ever hearing him singing with the class.  He sat and looked around.

Robert never made eye contact with me. I greeted him every day, as I greeted all of the students, but I usually never got a response. As Robert matured, he became angry. Maybe he felt some resentment at his limitations. I don’t know. He really couldn’t communicate very well, so there was no way of knowing. Now that he was getting older, he would shout out expletives and disrupt the class. He would throw himself on the floor. He would spit at other students. He would hit other students. If he was handed an instrument, he might throw it down. I used to question if he should even be in there. I didn’t think he was benefiting from the class and he was making it difficult for the other students to learn. Was he even listening? Was I even an effective teacher for special needs students? I wasn’t the special education teacher in the family, my sister was. I didn’t want to teach in the special education field, I really didn’t have any training. And to top it all off, I have to confess that on certain days, in that class, I did not display my finest teaching.

But as we all know, in teaching and in life, every day is a new day. You get up and you tell yourself that you have a chance to make this a great day. I would pray for strength, courage, and love for my students.

As I said, this day began like any other day. Robert, his aide, and the other students filed in. We sang and signed “Do Re Mi” and our other songs and enjoyed our activities. At the end of class, the students began to leave. Robert and his aide started to leave. But Robert wouldn’t leave. He slid his walker right up to me. He stopped his six-foot skinny frame right in front of me. He reached out to touch my dangly earrings. I felt like the girl in the gorilla cage being told, ”Don’t make any sudden moves; it frightens them!” My mind began to race with fear: What was he going to do? Is he going to yank out my earring? Is he going to hit me? Is he going to pull my hair? Is he going to spit on me? He got about two inches from my face and looked right into my eyes. While keeping one hand on the walker, and gently touching my dangly earring, he sang perfectly in tune and perfectly pronounced the solfege syllables “sol-mi-do.”

The aide and I looked at each other as our jaws dropped and our eyes welled up with tears. We were speechless! I didn’t know he could sing. I certainly didn’t think he had been paying attention. Of all the phrases he could sing to me, he sings a perfectly phonated, perfectly articulated, and perfectly in tune descending major triad? I didn’t know what to say. As I was wiping the tears from my cheeks, I realized that he had been listening!

I taught Robert for another two years. I never saw that kind of engagement again. But I knew he was listening.

So it is with all of our students. Whether they’re “special needs” students or “typical” students, you never know what they hear. You never know what they will remember, you never know what they will learn from you. You are charged with being their representative for music and for good. It is the greatest job on earth and an important responsibility. Rise to the challenge. Don’t squander a moment. And don’t worry, they are listening!

Debbie Aurelius-Muir is a retired general music, choral music, and music methods teacher in who taught in both Champaign-Urbana and Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. She spent thirty years teaching music to students from kindergarten through college and currently supervises music student teachers through Illinois State University.

Reflections from a First-Year Educator, by Christina Nelson

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At the time of writing this, I have not yet completed my first full year of teaching. However, I have already learned a lot in the first semester. I arrived at my school mid-year and was both nervous and excited. My day consisted of five classes; 7th and 8th grade beginning tenor/bass choir; two 7th grade beginning soprano/alto classes (that would combine during performances); 8th grade intermediate soprano/alto choir; and 9th grade concert choir (SATB). I wanted to make beautiful music, teach students about vocal technique, and develop a strong and positive culture in each class. Little did I realize the impact that the previous sentence would have on my teaching when I stated and thought about my goals in that order.

Christina Nelson

While at the ACDA national conference in Kansas City I participated in a session entitled Developing Community Through the Choral Rehearsal, led by Randall Bradley of Baylor University. He said something that made me change the way I had been teaching: “Use music to make people instead of people to make music” [emphasis mine]. I realized at that moment that I had been so busy thinking about the technical aspects of choral music and education, I had forgotten why I fell in love with this beautiful and intimate art in the first place, and the real reason I wanted to become a choir director. I realized that I was trying to teach my junior high kids as advanced high school or collegiate students and that was obviously not working. When I returned home after conference, I began consciously treating music more as a tool and stepping out of my “college student mode.” I was reminded that while music is certainly important, so are my kids as human beings. I started doing “Circle Time” with my classes and spent a few moments with my classes asking my students to “Tell Me Something Good” about their day or weekend.

One day, when my 7th grade girls came in upset with each other for something, I asked each student to compliment someone else in the class. We went around the circle and students raised their hands to compliment others. Afterward, the girls were getting along and rehearsal ran more smoothly. A few days later, a student shared some rough things that had been happening at home and started crying. Before I could say anything, another girl raised her hand saying, “Ms. Nelson, can we compliment each other today?” The other girls voiced their agreement and of course I said yes. As they complimented this girl and told her how amazing she was and why (when we compliment, we go beyond appearances), I realized that my 7th graders loved complimenting each other and that brought tears to my eyes. Over the next few days, I realized that each class was coming to thoroughly enjoy complimenting each other when their initial reactions had not been quite as enthusiastic.

Not only do our students need to see that we are human, we need to remember that they are also humans who have a lot going on their lives as well. By taking the time to build relationships during rehearsals, my students and I grew closer as a team and they became excited to be with each other. Our rehearsals became more productive and we ended up performing some tough repertoire at our final concert in June. Sure, there were rough days, but what educator doesn’t have rough days? And how often is it a rough day versus a rough few minutes or a rough class period? The trick is to focus on the positive moments. Allow those moments to propel you forward: To see their eyes light up when they conquer a difficult passage, when a student who walked into class upset leaves with a smile on their face, or when the entire class leaves the room singing and doesn’t stop till they are almost to their next class. These are just a few of the positive moments that I have experienced. Of the many things I have learned in six months of teaching, using music as a tool to build relationships is at the top of the list.

“Use music to make people instead of people to make music.”

Christina Ruth Nelson graduated from Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) in December 2018 with a bachelor of music education degree, with a concentration in secondary choral education. She completed her studies under the direction of Dr. Richard Nance and Dr. Brian Galante and also served as assistant conductor of PLU’s advanced soprano/alto ensemble, University Singers, during her senior year. She completed her student teaching at Graham-Kapowsin High School with Mr. Jason Saunders and has recently finished her first semester of teaching at Stahl Junior High School in Puyallup, WA.

Are you a choral educator who has something to share? You are invited to write a blog post and submit it to us for publishing consideration. Send a draft to .

Online Fundraising: Why It’s Growing at a Rapid Pace

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This blog post was contributed by the staff at Edco, one of ACDA’s partners in online fundraising. In it they share information about their product.

Profile of a choir director:

This year I need to scrape together over $20,000 for travel expenses, new music, and uniforms/risers/music folders and I know about half of that is going to come from fundraising that I spearhead. I’m going to have to organize three or four fundraisers this year alone, just like I did last year and like I’m going to do next year. I just get so frustrated dealing with all the paperwork and keeping track of the money… and forget about trying to motivate my choir members to participate! It’s a huge challenge.

Well, I have to figure out how we’re going to raise all that money so… should we sell products? We did that last year, but that only reaches so far. I remember half my choir came to me saying that their out-of-town relatives wanted to help, but couldn’t buy the candy we were selling. Maybe we can host a restaurant night, but on top of everything else I have to do, I don’t have time to organize an event. I wish there was an easier way to fundraise.

Does this sound familiar? We surveyed the entire ACDA membership and learned a lot about choirs’ fundraising efforts and the above describes an average choir director’s experience. Seems overwhelming, right? Well, don’t worry. Edco can help you raise that $20,000.

Edco is an online fundraising platform designed for K12 education and engineered to address the most frustrating parts of fundraising. According to the survey, an overwhelming majority of choir directors are frustrated by dealing with paperwork/money and getting choir members to do their part. Edco addresses these issues by automatically keeping track of everything for you – funds raised, days left in the fundraiser, who donated, when, and which team member each donation was attributed to. We also provide tools (email templates, press release copy, etc.) and guides (Goal Setting: What You Need To Know, Maximize Your Earnings With Online Fundraising, and more) to jumpstart your fundraiser. And just imagine how relieved your choir members will be when they find out that they won’t be selling another product to their friends and family. Instead, all they need to do is spend a couple minutes creating an Edco account and uploading the names and emails of people who would be willing to donate directly to the choir. Fundraising online with Edco means you’re going to be spending less time organizing and running a fundraiser, and raise more money.

The continued use and growth of online fundraising is assured since people have discovered that it is less of a hassle than traditional fundraisers and yields better results. Our survey results indicate that about 20% of current non-users showed interest in online fundraising in the future. Projections show that usage of online fundraising will increase up to 46% – largely driven by the interest shown amongst non-users.

Choirs that don’t use Edco are leaving money on the table by not extending the reach of their campaign. You can set up your own Edco fundraiser in less than five minutes. Don’t be one of those choirs – use Edco.

3 Creative Ways to Motivate Your K-12 Choir

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Conducting a children’s choral group can be both energizing and exhausting at the same time. On one hand, your students LOVE to sing! On the other hand, it can be hard to get them to focus when it’s rehearsal time.

Leading a children’s choir successfully requires you to get creative in the way you keep your students motivated, so here are three tips and tools to get your group excited about music.

3 Ways to Motivate Your K-12 Choir

Add Creativity to Your Warm Ups

Don’t just stick to the old-fashioned scales and triads when warming up young voices. Turn that major scale into some phrases with words – don’t be afraid to get silly. Better still, encourage your students to create their own and share with the rest of the group.

A good book to find more inspiration is Vocalize! by choral director Andy Beck. A playful warm up will always set the tone for a productive rehearsal.

Get Students Moving

It goes without saying that children have short attention spans and easily get bored. But this isn’t math class – so get them moving! Have a break mid-rehearsal where you incorporate a simple theatre game or two. There are countless books that offer simple games that your singers will beg to do in future rehearsals!

These games are centered around valuable performance skills, such as listening, focus, and improvisation. One excellent resource that many students enjoy is 101 Improv Games for Children and Adults by Bob Bedore.

Take Advantage of Technology

It’s important that music instructors take advantage of the latest technologies to make learning more fun in rehearsals. Try an app such as Loopy to find new ways to spice up your usual repertoire.

Another excellent way to get your older students inspired is to watch a motivational TED talk together. Check out choral conductor Eric Whitacre’s TED talk on YouTube. His ideas are taking choral performances to the next level, especially with his virtual choirs!

Make good use of these resources with your group of young singers, and you’re bound to get them excited about coming to choir. Thinking outside the box will not only encourage their creativity, but it will also make your job much more rewarding.

Do you have any more ideas of ways to keep your choir students motivated? Let us know in the comments section below.

This article was contributed by Molly McLinden from TakeLessons, a platform for local and online singing lessons. Molly is a choir, opera, and classical singing teacher. She’s been an instructor since 2002 and thoroughly enjoys working with students of all ages and backgrounds. 

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