I know I'm not the only one who has spent this year writing, re-writing, amending, tweaking and quite frankly reviving my schemes of work. As the months crawled by from March to December, the guidance and risk assessments have evolved, which has meant that we, as teachers, have had to go through a time machine to keep up. It is fair to say that music, along with our friends in other practical subjects, has taken a bit of a battering over the course of the last nine months.
Within our departments, we have essentially been in our own world of Tier 3 lockdown. Gone were the last-minute rehearsals and the spontaneous outbreaks of ‘Happy Birthday’, we've been ceremoniously pruned back. Over the course of the term, we began to emerge, with the hope that by this summer, with our hopes pinned on a vaccine, our departments might just be able to bloom.
The nervousness that we all faced when we returned to school in September was palpable. As the weeks went by, the feeling of ‘the show must go on’ became more prominent as we counted down the days until the Christmas concert. This was also coupled with the reality of yet another online concert. The last six months have been a video editing INSET from hell. However, the old adage ‘practice makes perfect’ seems particularly pertinent in the world of video editing, and I now feel fully attuned with the workings of iMovie and the Acapella app. This certainly wasn't a skill I had envisaged perfecting in 2020.
Going digital
Many of us have had to operate rehearsals within the strict confines of bubbles. This sounds like a good idea to the policy-makers, but did anyone else find themselves with a viola, French horn, drummer, beginner cello and Grade 8 violin in one group? Creative as I am, this was one of the toughest aspects of the term as I desperately tried to make the experience worthwhile for all involved.
I quickly got up to speed with two different scanning apps after failing with the scanning function on the photocopier. I could now offer paperless rehearsals and not spend precious minutes of rehearsal time delving into a chaotic pile of music, trying to find a copy of the second clarinet part. I also couldn't cope with remembering to quarantine all the music each week; that was one extra level of organisation that was beyond me. Quarantining aside, the digital copies have, in many cases, encouraged students to, ahem, practise at home or even go through their part with their instrumental teachers. There was no excuse; the music was now available on the VLE.
Through a bit of trial and error, I found that Office Lens worked well, particularly as it automatically saves the PDFs to OneDrive for easy storage. Evernote Scannable is also a good alternative. Despite being rather time-consuming, I came away pleased that I had created an online resource and implemented a new system that worked for everyone.
Game changer: recording verbal feedback and going paperless with Microsoft OneNote (Image: Aleksei/AdobeStock)
Putting Christmas back on the calendar
My hotch-potch ensembles slowly evolved as I was gifted a large space, and a rehearsal slot before school each day which allowed for a new dawn. Armed with my updated risk assessment, my tape measure locked in at two metres, I carefully measured out seating plans and was able to expand and sing. Yes, sing. I also discovered that the ‘pano’ function on my camera phone was great for documenting my seating plan with panoramic images and an excellent reference point in the case of a Covid outbreak.
After my first week of rehearsals, Christmas was firmly back in the calendar, and most of all, my eclectic mix of ensembles were relieved to be back playing together. After spending the summer term doing weekly rehearsals on Microsoft Teams, seeing me in person and rehearsing live after so much time apart was a novelty. I'm pleased to say that after 12 weeks of school, it still hasn't worn off and my rehearsals have bucked the national attendance trend. It seems that the distance of remote learning really has made their hearts grow fonder.
Percussion to the rescue
In academic lessons, I renamed myself Mrs Mop, and I found that percussion was my absolute saviour. Fortunately, I actually play percussion, but I soon realised that many of my ‘go-to’ starters and activities needed a make-over. This became more apparent as my Facebook feed was filled with endless ideas and tips on ways to keep music lessons practical within the confines of a bubble classroom. I have been fortunate that my lessons have remained in the music department, but I felt inspired by some of the incredible ideas trickling in each day. I've always been a fan of using junk percussion, but the KS3 Hints & Tips page suggested a pencil case samba. Why hadn't I thought of that? Much simpler than having to quarantine and clean endless pairs of sticks and buckets. This was a keeper and resulted in update 10.2 to my schemes of work.
Back to Facebook, one of the negatives of all these hints and tips was that I couldn't keep up and I couldn't remember them all, so I needed to find a way to bank them for a time when I'm not, er, cleaning. I discovered getpocket.com as a useful way to save articles, videos and stories from any publication, page or app into a ‘pocket’ in just one click. Not to be outdone by Facebook, the world of Twitter has been a useful platform for linking up with people involved in educating young people.
‘Hands, space, show me your face’
At the beginning of the September term, I flipped my schemes of work, so all year groups were playing instruments in each lesson. After a term of Teams, these kids needed to make music. Before too long, everyone was in the routine of ‘hands, space, show me your face’ as they came in. However, I found that the beginning of each lesson was relatively slow, mainly as we were now undertaking a strict cleaning ritual.
YouTube – otherwise known as my wing-man – helped my students to discover a range of fantastic body percussion videos which kept everyone busy in those first few minutes. Did anyone else enjoy the body percussion video of Can't Stop the Feeling with the masked emoji? It doesn't just stop there. Couple this with YouTube premium, which removes the adverts, and the premier function which counts down to concerts being released, and you soon realise YouTube has become as indispensable as your morning coffee.
Game changer
Online marking and feedback have allowed for the most significant reform in my department. Screencast-O-Matic has worked incredibly well for feedback on mock results. It enables you to share your screen and add narration over the top; the students found it useful as they can work through the feedback at their own pace, and it's an excellent way for them to re-cap later on in the year. Did I mention it is also free? OneNote has replaced all forms of paper in Key Stage 3. I copy links of student performances from Teams, and I can record verbal feedback. This has been a game-changer, or should I say life-changer.
I think this year has made us all reflect not only on our teaching but also the way we do things. If there is any good to come out of Covid, my emphasis on verbal feedback at Key Stage 3 has allowed me to reduce my carbon footprint of paper, and technology has revolutionised my way of working. As I begin 2021, full of hope that concerts will be up and running again, my main aim is to keep up with my Pocket app and keep evolving and adapting. Maybe not at the pace as was required in 2021, but at least faster than usual. I couldn't have survived the Covid year as a music teacher without social media, which turned out to be a lifeline.
