Our choirs have taken a huge hit, and I am already planning for the rebuilding phase because I can't wait to make magic with them again.
Here are the specifics of what I am doing-Perhaps it will help you re-frame a bit and think about how to bridge this transition smoothly.
1). I am laser beamed focused on teaching literacy with S-Cubed this year with all of my 6th and 7th graders. I want to get through all of Level One before May. Normally, I am done by late February because our adjudication happens in early March, but this year with the virtual schedule, we meet less frequently, and I am a bit behind. Next year, I want to hit the ground running with preparing for performances assuming everyone is vaccinated and we have gotten over the herd-immunity hump. Having them armed with the tools in the toolbox with sight singing through S-Cubed will really help.
2). I am not participating in any virtual Large Group Performance Evaluation. It was a difficult decision, but the virtual way of doing this just doesn't feel right. Choral music wasn't intended to be performed virtually. It is a "live" phenomena. So much time will go into preparing a sub-par version of it that doesn't feel authentic for me personally. I'm grateful for people who create those opportunities for students/teachers, but I didn't feel that participation for my choirs was where I wanted to spend my energy as I prepare for the 2021-2022 school year.
3). Normally, we do a gigantic musical revue at the end of the school year that is our major fund-raiser of the year. It involves the entire chorus of 300 with a core group of about 130 students who audition and are involved in the various songs/choreography/staging. About 1500 people attend. The 130 "core" students pay a fee (sponsorships are available for those who can't afford it) to cover the cost of the stage director/choreography. This year I had to re-imagine how to collect the money and how to do auditions and so much more. The PTSA graciously agreed to help me digitally collect the money, and I am constantly thinking and re-adjusting the plans for rehearsals, performances, etc.
This show is the engine that cracks the tractor of my program (...does that sound southern or what?). I custom build the show around their auditions. It is critical that I create this performance experience especially since it will end the year. My own chorus students who are not officially involved with the show this year will watch it and be inspired which will re-ignite their fires to audition and participate during the 2021-2022 school year.
This year, I've reframed the whole musical revue, but we are still putting on a show. I have no idea what it will look like. It could be filmed and edited...it could be performed "live" in a parking lot. I'm not sure, but I do know that I have got to create a performance experience that is powerful and meaningful for my most passionate performers. I know that going through the rehearsal process will be hugely important for these leaders. They need it. They will learn from it. We will start virtually outside of school time with the stage directors I hire each year, and we will pivot to "live" rehearsals" if and when things allow. We are going to be flexible.
I opened up auditions as normal. Interested students submitted the auditions on FlipGrid. I had no idea how many would audition. So many students are disillusioned, but at the end of the audition period I had 50 who auditioned, and I considered that a huge victory. Some of the auditions were amazing. We are going to have some powerful material because so many of the kids have so much to express that has been bottled up during this unbelievable moment in our human experience together. Even the auditions that weren't "amazing" from a talent perspective were amazing because they showed up for it.
That's half the battle.
Normally, I have the entire chorus sing "back up" for all of the ensemble songs in the show. This year, I will not do that since making that happen would be so challenging because they've missed so much of the standard curriculum. I'll spend my time engaging the students who aren't involved in the musical with S-Cubed, with talent shows and with many other activities that allow them to enjoy and experience and learn in ways that I don't even know yet. For the musical revue, I will use "click track" vocals when I can find them legally, and when I can't, I'll decide if the song is going to work without the back up vocals and go from there.
The show will be shorter than usual.
When the show is ready for performance in whatever form, I'm going to invite my elementary feeder schools to come see it if we do it outside, and if we video it, I'll send them a copy so I continue to connect with the elementary feeder school teachers.
Having a smaller cast means more of the students get to do meaningful things and feel valued, and that will work in my favor. Those students will be my leaders next year. Those will be the ones who know that no matter what happens, I will deliver what I say I am going to deliver.
People need it more than ever.
This performance, whatever it looks like, is going to help re-ignite the excitement that we will all experience as we get closer and closer to getting our choirs back.
I want the end of the school year to be the spring board into the beginning of what we all hope will be a more usual school year so that we can all bring back the magic of the true "live" choral music experience for our students.
I've decided not to spend my time and energy on creating a virtual choir experience. When I listen to them, I hear all of the mistakes and lack of synchronicity, and I can't get passed it. I don't think "Virtual choir" is going to be a thing that lasts, but I certainly admire the teachers who have spent so much of their time and energy creating a performance opportunity for the students who wanted it.
At the end of the day, this school year for me is about using the remaining days/weeks/months for two things:
1). Laying the strongest possible foundations of musical literacy and ear-training
2). Re-igniting the passions of performance through whatever it is we are able to create with our musical revue performance
Here is a copy of two auditions that have resulted in casting:
Top Secret Personal Beeswax. I love this one because we can "stage" the ensemble students into the song and give them chances to be on stage...whatever it looks like this school year.
Our past musical revues had performances that look like
this.
That isn't happening this year, but it doesn't mean we can't re-imagine and find what make our hearts sing even though our voices have been silenced for the moment.
And it is only a moment really...a blip...an important one that has lasted longer that we thought, but in ten years, it will be just a blip that provides us with a common experience/memory that changed the world in tectonic ways.
If we can't be flexible...if we can rethink our normal ways of doing things when an obstacle appears...then we are paralyzed...and I believe unnecessarily so.
Teaching middle school children, I've had to pivot almost daily for 29 years...
...but definitely never this sort of pivot.
This is new....
...but it is still pivoting...just a WAY bigger pivot that usual.
That's the understatement of the past 11 months, right?
Keep doing your best. It's all we can do.
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For the rest of January, the
MEGA Bundle+Distance of the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners, normally $399 in my TpT store will be $199 in case you want to have all options covered for all of 2021 while teaching sight singing and ear-training to your students. This offer is only available in my TpT Store, not JW Pepper. It has all of Levels 1/2 of the original program and all of Level ONE of the Distance Learning Version of the program that we adapted in order to help you survive the pandemic and Distance Learning with your choral music students. Once you purchase it, you have it for life...that includes all future pandemics (please no).
The distance learning version is perfect for "normal years" for your subs.
Stay safe and healthy and be kind to yourself.
We are all first year teachers this year.
