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Wondering about all those cast-of-hundreds bands and choirs that inspired you from those little online boxes? Why couldn’t school bands use technology like this? (Click on it-you won’t be sorry.) A novice middle school band teacher lost her job in 2021, because her beginning instrumentalists were unable to perform at the Honor Assembly in June, having spent months learning online, instead of playing as a group. A choir teacher has become the in-building sub for teachers out with COVID, as her three select choirs are combined into one class. A small urban program that usually has 45 kids in the HS band has only 23 this year, as students have to re-take classes they failed online, rather than a 3 rd or 4 th year of band.
Standing-ovation dedication and creativity.īut I also understand that the pandemic has had hidden consequences for music teachers. I have seen some utterly amazing and ingenious things. But I saw this as a giant leap forward for music education.įor the past two years, I have marveled at how adaptable music teachers are-teaching from home, using brand-new technologies, holding classes outside or in tents, jerry-rigging masks and sharing information on bioaerosol emissions, something none of us studied in college.
There was some grumbling about ‘lowering standards’ with the new festival rules from some of these directors (don’t call them teachers). We typically teach secondary music through performing ensembles, and award-winning programs are usually run by teachers with student populations and resources that allow them to cherry-pick talent and supplement instruction with outside lessons and coaching. The new rules are set to expire in three years, unless members choose to keep them permanent-or change them again. They tried, in other words, to increase access to the good things about performing for critique, and made the process more flexible. They listened to their members’ pandemic teaching woes, and eliminated a couple of technical challenges that might keep school bands and orchestras from participating. Lots of organizations stick with what worked in the past.īut this year, the MSBOA-wisely-changed their previously rigid festival requirements. And in my 40+ year association with the MSBOA, not much changed. I played the game, attending hundreds of meetings, festivals and conferences, some years with as many as four performing groups. The organization existed, in large part, to organize and run festivals. In subsequent decades, I was a district and statewide officer, festival host and adjudicator. I joined the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association in 1975, as a newbie instrumental and vocal music teacher. And I want to make a prediction : As awful as the pandemic has been in damaging long-standing gold-star music programs, the net effect could be a useful re-thinking of traditional music education. I want to offer a special shout-out to music teachers, my super-super-favorite people. And teachers have reliably been heroes, showing up to teach, in spite of a firestorm of unsubstantiated criticisms. There’s been a lot of scare-baloney lately about how much schooling has been missed, learning lost blah blah blah-but a pandemic that’s cost us over a million lives is no joke. Teachers are my favorite group of people on the planet. Nflanagan on Teacher of the Year: Popularit…įollow Teacher in a strange land on Teacher in a Strange Land Paul Bonner on Teacher of the Year: Popularit… Teacher of the Year: Popularity Contest or Tall Poppy Syndrome?.
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