21st Century Music |

It’s not just Enrichment, it’s Essential.

Schools are bolstering their education programs to address what is being called “learning loss”, but the longer school years and high-dosage tutoring are missing the point. Sometimes it feels like we’re only treating the symptoms of “learning loss” but not addressing the cause. I think a holistic arts education for each individual learner is needed…

2022 Student Podcasts are now LIVE!

Student podcasts are now LIVE on Spotify! As part of a 7th & 8th-grade elective students planned, created, and produced their own podcasts. They’re simultaneously silly, serious, and sensational! From the latest chisme to a gruesome murder, we’ve got everything covered. Listen to those and more here!

Playing with Purpose

This half-day, hybrid face-to-face/virtual workshop will explore the use of LEGO® as a flexible medium for designing, building, prototyping, and performing with musical instruments. We start from the position that musical instruments can be used for far more than solely playing music. Instruments can also function as a means of exploring, teaching, and collaborating in…

How To: The Making of a Winter Concert video

The world has gone through some unprecedented changes in the last 2+ years, education included. Yet we’re still asked to replicate lessons, ideas, and events as if there wasn’t a global pandemic happening. The Winter Concert, an annual mainstay in almost every school, is a great example of this. Many music teachers are being asked…

The Winter Concert is LIVE!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, our annual winter concert. This year’s concert looks different from last years, which was different from the pervious year. It’s been an evolving process but I was so happy with how this year’s show turned out. We ended up producing a pre-recorded video with a live premerie…

8th Grade Class Songs & Graduation Playlist

Engaging 8th graders in the final weeks of school is always a challenge, especially for enrichment teachers. However, I found a modest amount of success this year with a student-driven lesson plan based around selecting songs for their own graduation. Students first suggested songs, we compiled them into a bracket-style tournament, and then the winners…

At Long Last: The 2020 Student Mixtape

Better late than never! After resolving a technical snag I was unaware of, our end-of-the-year songs from LAST year are finally being published. We used the DAW BandLab.com and a loose rubric centered around creating a lo-fi study beat. This was a special batch of songs for me because of the pandemic and the way…

Is Rap the “Poetry of a Generation”?

Dr. Marcyliena Morgan from Harvard’s Hip Hop Archive call raps the “poetry of a generation,” but many would disagree. What are the similarities between rap and poetry and in what ways are they different? We explore this question with this week-long thematic unit that looks at lyrics from modern poets, like Amanda Gorman, and rapper…

Kandinsky & the Color of Music

Blend artistic disciplines with these fun and engaging ideas around music, art, and sound. Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as the pioneer of abstract art. He also experienced a rare neurological phenomenaa where he could see music and hear color. Explore that strange and wonderful universe…

Will Education Embrace Remote Learning?

“Remote learning is here to stay for a while,” said Kristen Brody, a CPS parent who spoke at a recent online panel organized by Raise Your Hand, a parent advocacy group. “We need to plan for the long term and we need to have something in place for our families and our students.”