https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFw9b5RA2YM
I am SO PROUD of JLPS Grades 6-8s. Putting this video together for the CBC Music Class Competition took courage and trust. Some of these students had less than 10 lessons on their instruments. The singers stepped up 2 weeks before recording – one just the day before. Our Gr. 8 keyboard player replaced an absent student at the very last minute – this take was his first run! We might not win, but we’ve already won.
I love teaching Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” on mallet instruments – my students are rockstars! But even rockstars get tired and then ask me to put on their favourite quiet listening piece, “Zero” by Olafur Arnalds. 
JLPS students and I are focusing on listening to music and each other. And each other about music. On our green poster, students wrote the word “music” in as many languages as they knew. Also…mallet instruments are back! We have some on loan from the TDSB Arts Department (thank you!) and they sound so so beautiful.
We’re back! This fall I asked JLPS students what people walking by our music room might hear or see happening inside. “Cool instruments making cool sounds, kids being kids, this list, disco ball, thunder tube…” The two-sided poster is a hit. I have to add that my Gr. 6 ukulele class amazed me yesterday with their music reading decoding skills and determination!
PLAYING music online can be fun. “Incredibox” was a huge hit and resulted in this Gr. 3’s huge grin. Another student in her class said, “Whenever I am so sad, this might help to cheer me up.” I will miss jamming online with my students. We used sound makers and learned to listen to each other. Never before have I improvised music with a piggy bank, sea shell, grinding teeth, vacuum, or crackers.
All of the students and I dreamed up a plan to surprise and bring joy to the JLPS teachers. In our May assembly when Stevie Wonder’s song started we all turned off our cameras, grabbed our props, and waited for our turn to go/turn on! Dancing and lip syncing and general silliness made us all smile. There was no good way to document everyone at once but what I will remember (and want to bottle up) is the Kindergarten/Grade 1 students’ bubbling excitement about keeping the secret from their teachers!
We’re rocking out, dancing to Steel Pan Soca music, and discussing how we feel about Hip hop music (with guest speaker, Marcus Singleton). Fulfilling goings-on.
My junior students are progressing so well on ukuleles, guitars, and violins/violas – their smart little fingers know where to go! As one student casually commented: “Ms Fraser, I’ve evolved from sounding like a dying cow to a dying rat.” 🙂
I’ve been “taking” my younger JLPS students to (online) concerts and discussing what might be happening on stage, off stage, and in the audience. This Kindergarten student was fascinated by the (purple) button that controlled the smoke machines.
Students in online school are getting tech-ier by the hour. In 2020 I shared Chrome Music Lab with my Junior students. In 2021 my Kindergartens picked it up and now my juniors are composing with SoundTrap. I introduce the programs and ask the students to show me what they discover. Then I listen and learn.