Great to meet everyone. All the best to you this year and always!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VXIUzXwdw9V2WLP7nFIxP1qiMhLuYZp3tXZEmIys4Tk/edit
NJEA CONVENTION 2021
UNPACKING MUSIC CLASS DURING THE COVID YEARS: TOOLS & INSIGHTS
We are unpacking the transition of online class to the return of in person instruction. Participants share helpful instructional tools and insights developed during pandemic teaching.
Presenter & Fellow Music Educator: Liz Perryman spintoliz68@gmail.com
Judd Elementary Music Teacher PreK-4th North Brunswick, New Jersey
Class Contents will be uploaded at: https://akintsucrooner.wordpress.com/
- What do you teach? How long have you been teaching?
- What made you become a teacher?
- What did the shutdown look like for you at your school?
- Did you transition to hybrid after virtual or go right to live teaching?
- What does your schedule look like now that we are back?
- How do you run ensembles?
- What are your covid protocols?
- What is the most important thing you have learned from this ordeal?
- What is one of your favorite moments?
- Any advice to share?
During Shutdown: (All virtual) March 2020-January 2021
- Held rehearsals on google hangout/stayed as continuous as possible for some normalcy
- Taught by rote/students gave solo examples
- Sang songs from different musicals each week and posted on blog/google classroom.
- Did a play online (live on google meets)
- Each sunday did “music in the kitchen”; a musical food lesson https://juddsong.blog/2020/06/14/music-note-picnic-musicinthekitchen-june142020/
- Unison singing/some partner songs
- Gave 20 minute lessons to singers who did solos in winter concert (approx 20)
- Make a 20 min audio visual lesson on youtube basically teaching how I do live (warmups/movement song/steady beat song emphasis/novelty song) and assigned students an extension activity (chrome music lab/music notation activities/state fun facts for 50 nifty/president fun facts for presidents rap etc)
- Posted audio visual of songs for students to review on blog/google classroom
- Posted weekly lesson run down on blog and google classroom
- Made daily singalong videos for K-5
- Videos for music class were: K-2 3-4
- Did a summer play and kept the music blog active to keep students involved
- Monthly sent home snail mail dollar store prize to student showing excellent work https://juddsong.blog/2021/05/08/prize-table-choices-spring2021/
During Hybrid: (Some live and some on screen from home) January 2021-June 2021
- Continued to hold rehearsals on google hangout/stayed virtual for safety
- I went to the classes on a cart. Decked out my cart 😉
- Taught lesson in halves (1st half scales/song/notation/2nd half extension activity from song)
- Taught familiar songs in unison and a couple partner songs
- Gave outdoor concert in May/distanced seats/kids wore concert tshirts-family among us/all were masked
- Taught chorus songs with in person students during music class so they could lead
- Posted audio visual of songs for students to review on blog/google classroom
- Posted weekly lesson run down on blog and google classroom
- Held school play on a google meet so it was live/ worked well/didn’t sing for play just acting/did a virtual google meet live performance for K-2 and 3-4 during special
- Monthly sent home snail mail dollar store prize to student showing excellent work https://juddsong.blog/2021/05/08/prize-table-choices-spring2021/
- Lesson Run Down: https://juddsong.blog/2021/05/09/music-class-5-10-5-14-spring2021/
- Concert Video: https://juddsong.blog/2021/05/29/family-among-us-spring-concert-video-may2021/
Re-Entry (Back in person after 16 months) September 2021 to present
- I started talking about the program in music class at the beginning of the year. I kinvo’d/sent home fliers to all 3/4th grade families. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TBWe66FijypSE3r4nJrbqYDaY0eNy9Pk55cmUoD7P7U/edit
- I chose mostly familiar and popular songs the kids love. Adding some easy rounds for morale boosting/beginning part singing.
- Rehearsals: Meeting before school & 1 lunch recess a week for students who can’t make AM. Each group has approx 20 kids. Mon P1 4th Tues P1 3rd Wed P2 4th Thurs P2 3rd
- Students are masked and spread out on the risers, seats, and floor.
- Groups for rehearsal are not larger than class size at one time.
- Students had to sign up on google doc in order to come to rehearsal.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q3HoTvjFNRZ-e33Ni-ThsI-w3_c-4hKDsR2gIfPKDxQ/edit
- I am adding solos/candlelights and auxiliary percussion for incentives.
- I use the wheel for rehearsal behavior modification. https://juddsong.blog/2021/09/06/music-room-wheel-coming-soon-20212022/
- Part singing rebuilding is coming along at the end of October. https://youtu.be/3NNIOzQQZmA 3rd and 4th much closer in ability
- We will hopefully have our live December concert for school and families. I will plan on recording it a couple weeks before in case we have to go virtual and need a recording.
(Prize box incentive separated by type with less inside.)
World Opera Day #2021
Today is world opera day. Opera singing has given me so much. Everything that is me has come alive on stage. Being on stage has resulted in: overcoming shyness, deep lasting friendships, allowing myself to assume my inner power, my right and left brain finding their groove, gaydar discovery, my skirt falling off, tripping and swearing at the floor, jumping on beds, breaking bowls with a broom, my first kiss at 14, and falling in love. Opera shit is powerful. It’s addictive and makes me run on all cylinders. So thank you, opera, thy great artform. Expression, cajones, high, and loud are specialities of mine that I hope to keep sharing for many years to come. #worldoperaday2021
The Case Of Singing High & Low #102021
High and low for singers is a less than absolute concept. Navigating pitch especially for those whose ear doesn’t naturally modulate can be a challenge. I have found in my teaching that upper register work, designed by age, can be very effective in achieving range and pitch tracking.
What does all of that mean?
Pianists move right and left for high and low.
Instrumentalists have various fingerings, breath, and embouchure approaches.
Singers? We can either sing high naturally or we learn to do so. But describing what it means to sing high and low to a youngster usually brings on the glossy eyes. Doing it brings on understanding; looking at the size of the boomwhacker helps too.
In my experience, very few people are completely tone deaf. People may not have too big of a range due to physiology. If someone can match their speaking voice to a tone, there’s usually somewhat of a workable range.
So to continue my quest in the youngster’s enduring understandings of high and low, I am going to do an interval dog ramp exercise.
We shall:
1. Explore definition of an interval.
2. Sing musical intervals on solfege.
3. Identify distance.
4. Climb the dog ramp according to intervalic distance.
Let the games begin.
(Many thanks to my innovative and inspiring friend Stephanie Leotsakos for creating this solfege step graphic.)
Out & About #10112021
Somewhere inside I probably always knew but my innate compliant nature didn’t question much. It took New Orleans at 32 to shine the disco ball my way.
This is what it kinda feels like in a straight until proven gay existence…..
OUT & ABOUT
E. Perryman 10.11.2021
C ompartmental and dubious.
O ften prohibited; status non quo.
M ostly suspicious; auxiliary sense.
I nsecure instincts; novel lifestyle.
N o set path; tribe sought.
G row to recalibrate; endure gradual reveal.
O utside approval unknown; inside fluid.
U nder contrary assumption; declaration inevitable.
T enuous burden of proof; live in shades of gray.
Gospel of George Carlin #10102021
GOSPEL OF GEORGE
I try to be a cheerful sort of gal (cuz life is hard enough) but truth be told, I believe that most people myself first and foremost fall short. So yeah. I am a major gospel of George disciple. That is I love me some pragmatic George Carlin. His candor soothes my emo soul. My blaspheming self thinks that his wisdom has earned addendum chapters of the Bible status starting with something like “we are all mfs on the bus, tripping each other on the way home.” No stepford goals pour moi. I’m at my best when I am able to really consider another viewpoint without sacrificing myself and at the ready to help others. So I was moved this morning when the thought provoking Donald Steele spoke about finding ways to share love with others and extending grace for ourselves. We all face challenges and life doesn’t always happen for the reason we planned. I thought of the angels/messengers I’ve encountered in my life that have helped me navigate these murky life moments. Those messengers weren’t the sparkly and sweet winged creatures. I think I have found those angels in some of my difficult connections; people perhaps that I no longer interact with anymore. No matter how “right” I felt at the time and that they may not fit into my healthy cast of life characters, I have come out with more tools to avoid ass hattery. I have definitely learned a boatload about what doesn’t work from these mined paths of my past. So all of this pontificating to say, nope, we don’t get out alive. This is one of the few things that is an objective truth in a very subjective world. Off I go to keep on, keeping on.
#akintsucrooner #10102021
10.3.2015 & Garlic Bread Story
What a difference a millennium made.
10 years before this 2004 picture was taken, I was chasing boys, usually unrequited, and hiding behind an edited version of myself.
A year before this 2004 picture, my world was turned upside down when Elizabeth told “me” that had feelings for me; she just had to tell me. Holy twilight zone…..
Then she invited me over for pizza salad and garlic bread at her converted convent Hoboken apartment. I saw one piece of garlic bread left on her plate. I asked her what was outside of the window and stole her bread. She looked at me aghast. With the bread still hanging out of my mouth, my response was “you gotta be fast”.
That was the beginning of no longer editing myself and making friends with my not always appropriate, often audacious self.
Thanks for helping me bring out and loving my inner mf Elizabeth Honer.
Choral Dust Busters #9282021
Tonight was a lemon pledge singing night. My choral straight tone “Oo” and Mozart requiem fugue patterns especially needed some full on dust busting.
It dawned on me how much dusting and achieving a choral blend have in common.
It was my first full rehearsal back at the cathedral (and without a mask) since March 2020 so it was time to get back in the saddle.
Capturing a blended vowel consistently with fellow choristers isn’t unlike life as a middle school student; coping with body changes, unexpected acne, and cliquey vowels that don’t always play nice.
I’m happy to say that I felt a thorough Rorem, Gjeilo, and Tallis cleanse and am ready to take them out for a spin.
——————————————————-
Housekeeping is like being caught in a revolving door.” – Marcelene Cox
Impure vowels: eat my dust!
Dusty vowels lead to dirty singing.
Don’t leave your voice in the dust, pure vowel pledge is a must.
Too many notes…#20212022
Mom always says….
No, it’s not, “don’t play ball in the house.” At least in my case….
As a kid, my mom loved to say “you will rue the day” especially when my bro and I were fighting 😉
Mom came out of my mouth while working with my voice student on the soprano bear of a piece that is “Ach ich liebte.”
In the midst of these mad Mozart melismas comes some upper middle voice tight rope walking just for good measure. Imo, Mozart’s instrumental style writing for the voice isn’t for the faint throated.
My student coasted through the first melisma with grace. Then came the 2nd system on page 9. The position and register wasn’t playing nice. So the run after this line ate us both for dinner (didn’t work.)
We found release and balanced the registers. I said to her in only the way Janet Alice Perryman could, “you will rue the day” if you sing too heavy and low in position on this line before the run from hell.
So yeah. Moral of story: let it go, let mom out, and it’s gravy train time.
#akintsucrooner
“SHOPPER GOT NO STORM SHELTER AFTER STORE CLOSED”By David Polakiewicz
This is Elizabeth Perryman’s comment on the Stop & Shop Facebook page. She was told to leave the store after midnight during the stormy overnight period of Sept. 1-2. Perryman was still in the store’s parking lot at the time of this post.
WATCHUNG – Water was flooding Route 22 and already there were abandoned vehicles on the highway, as Elizabeth Perryman tried to make her way eastbound toward her home in Woodbridge.
It was after 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 1 and the remnants of Hurricane Ida had been pounding the area with torrential, tropical storm-force rain for several hours, flooding numerous highway locations.
The pinging cell phone alerts Perryman had received proved true. She had shopped at Walmart earlier but left to try to get home. It was dangerous out, so she circled back to seek shelter from the storm.
Behind the Watchung Square Mall, Stop & Shop was open.
What unfolded over the ensuing hours has left Perryman questioning the lack of sympathy by a night manager who turned her out, telling her she had to leave the store after closing. She had asked to temporarily shelter there until it was clearly safe to leave.
“I just think it’s tone deaf,” Perryman said. “There was a lack of humanity there.”
Perryman expressed concern to the night manager about his directive. “He said, ‘Go ahead, call corporate,’ “ she said.
In subsequent days, Perryman did speak to both the store’s manager and a corporate representative about the incident. In the end, she said, both corporate and the manager said she would receive a gift card if she came back to the store.
Perryman doesn’t intend to accept the offer. “I’m not interested in a gift card,” she said during an interview a week after the storm. “I got turned away when people were dying in their cars.”
Stop & Shop corporate spokeswoman Stefanie Shuman issued a statement on the incident.
“The safety of our customers and associates is important to Stop & Shop,” said Shuman. “Our store in Watchung, N.J., closes at midnight, which is when we ask our customers to finish their shopping and exit the store.
“We adhered to these store hours during the recent weather event as we wanted to ensure both our associates and customers were able to head home,” Shuman continued. “The customer informed our store associates that she was also asked to leave another neighboring retail location at their closing time that evening prior to coming to our store.”
‘Not True‘
Perryman asserts she was not asked to leave Walmart and never told that to Stop & Shop employees.
A teacher in North Brunswick, Perryman was in Warren Township on the afternoon of Sept. 1 for a dentist appointment. She left the appointment at about 5 p.m. and put on her GPS which took her to Route 22. She stopped at Walmart about a half-hour later.
“It was raining, but not a deluge,” Perryman said. “I started getting text alerts about the weather.”
She was at the Walmart for a few hours, leaving at about 9 p.m. Before departing the store, Perryman placed garbage bags she bought over her other purchases so they would not get soaked during the walk to her car.
The conditions on Route 22 by a nearby car dealership had already deteriorated. Water was gushing onto the roadway making it impassable, according to Perryman.
When Perryman subsequently arrived at Stop & Shop, she said, there were several other people inside. After closing time, the night manager and a clerk asked her to leave. They acknowledged remaining store employees would be staying.
Perryman exited the store. She waited in her car until 1:30 a.m. During that period, she posted on the Stop & Shop Facebook page, noting what had occurred.
Days later, the company responded on Facebook. “Thank you for reaching out. We’ve sent your comments to the store team.”
Using online maps and cell phones as a guide, Perryman’s wife helped navigate her home. By then, the water near the car dealership had receded. It took her about an hour, arriving back in Woodbridge at roughly 2:30 a.m.
‘Very Defensive’
In the ensuing days, Perryman spoke to both the Watchung store manager and a Stop & Shop corporate rep.
The store manager, she said, “was pretty understanding” and “I felt heard by him.” According to Perryman, the store manager called the night manager’s actions “asinine.”
The corporate rep, she contended, was “very defensive” and “not helpful.”
Both, Perryman said, offered her a gift card if she returned to the store.
Shuman has not responded to a follow-up email from the Echoes-Sentinel sent on Sept. 8. That email asked about the store manager’s “asinine” comment and why Perryman had been offered a gift card if the company felt its employee had acted properly.
Perryman said she went public with the incident to help promote better understanding of other people’s circumstances.
“The night manager didn’t even say, ‘I’m sorry you can’t stay here.’ “ she said. “He was indignant about it.
“I want people to have empathy and see outside of their own situation and how we impact others,” Perryman said. “Our decisions are not made in a bubble. We impact each other.”
