Silver Linings

Teacher Leader voices of Maine on the bright lights that the pandemic afforded

A year ago my school, like all schools in Maine, shut down because of the Covid outbreak. On Friday, March 13th staff left for the weekend without knowing what the next week was going to bring. Staff and parents and students quickly kicked into a complete ‘flex mode’ each day learning and building on our knowledge. In the beginning it was an amazing and unsettling feeling to watch, listen, and learn through a completely different lens. Everyone stepped up and each person, young and old, were terrific. The summer came and went with educators throughout the world considering the next steps. With open minds and a cooperative spirit the sharing of ideas flowed through the air waves (in most cases at no cost) and connected educators in a completely different way. I can only think of a couple of other times in my career when my pathways to learning were so rapid. As the 2020-21 school year progressed FLEXIBILITY continued to be necessary. And, as we pause for the one year anniversary of education changing drastically we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. My greatest hope is that our pathways of learning, sharing ideas, and collaborating will continue. And, I do hope that we simply don’t ‘go back’ to where we were before unless the pieces are in the best interest of every learner!

The following Maine Visual or Performing Arts Educators kindly provided their “silver linings” of the pandemic. We all have them, what is yours? Please email your silver linings at meartsed@gmail.com so we can continue to learn from each other.

• I teach the littlest students. My silver lining is that, since class sizes are very small, there is time to hear all students’ stories, opinions, ideas, etc. There is also time for every student to have a turn at every activity. They get more individual attention than ever before. ~ Patti Gordan, Music Teacher, Raymond Elementary School
• From Sue Barre, Grades 5-12 Band Director, Waterville Public Schools Like many school programs traveling with students to perform in other locations has been temporarily eliminated. Instead each high school ensemble commissioned a piece – reflective in some way to the last year we have all experienced. Ensemble members have had the opportunity for input and for interaction with the composers. “This experience has been so much more than I anticipated, really cool to watch students learn in a whole new way”!
  • In band I asked the students what dates were of importance to them and these are some that came forward: 3/31/20 – last day of school, 5/25/20 – death of George Floyd and 1/6/21 were some of the dates that came forward. 
  • I asked for sounds that they connected to last year and ideas such as email arriving into the box, sirens and silence came up…   
  • The most fascinating sessions were with the composer sharing ideas. The chorus and orchestra have had different experiences than the band. 
  • In May we hope to have a socially distanced event to share the debuts and senior recognition night all wrapped into one. 
• From Kate Smith, Music Teacher Central Elementary School, So. Berwick
  • The pandemic has increased awareness of the value of reliable daycare and how it effects the wellbeing of an economy. I hope this will lead to additional and consistent financial support from the government.
  • Smaller class sizes have enabled more personalized, individualized and differentiated instruction. Students can ask more questions and have more turns. I am more likely to have enough instruments or resources for everyone. 
  • Free professional development opportunities abound like never before. I’ve seen increased collaboration between educators within districts, states and even internationally. Everyone has had to learn how to use technology like video conferencing which means everyone now has the skills to connect online. I hope this continues. 

• My silver lining is the freedom this chaotic moment in time has presented to try something completely different. I am sharing photos from one of my third grade classes this week. We went outside to make art as a whole-class reward for the great choices they’ve made during the last 6 weeks that we’ve all been back together at Madison Elementary. (Other classes will earn their “Outside Art”, too. It just may take a little longer : ) I gave these students snow block makers and spray bottles filled with watercolor paint and pointed them to the snow. It was a blast and it made my art teacher heart happy to see the creativity and teamwork this class demonstrated.  ~ Lisa Ingraham, K-4 Art Teacher, Madison Elementary School, K-12 Gifted & Talented, MSAD 59

• I have several silver fillings, I mean linings. But one came out the other day that I totally didn’t realize was there.In the pre-covidian era, it was a weekly inevitability  that a first grader would raise their hand and say” Mrs. R., I lost a tooth!” Of course every other hand in the room would shoot up and a chorus ensued with the end result that we would lose 5 minutes of Art time. This has been missing for almost a year now and despite having the 5 minutes back, I really miss those gap-tooth smiles. So I guess it is more like a silver filling after all.  ~Allie Rimkunas, Great Falls Elementary School Art Teacher
• Thanks to Coronavirus – both the time I have gotten back with my family and the strides I have made in differentiated learning for my classroom. Technology resources have made it so learning can happen anywhere and for any student with the click of a button. ~Iva Damon, Leavitt Area High School Art Teacher, Humanities Network Leader
• From Hope Lord, Maranacook Middle School Art Teacher
  • Zoom Parent Teacher Conferences are very efficient and I am able to attend multiple meetings to speak to parents of advisees and students in my classes. In traditional conferences I would have to decide which meetings to attend. Now I can join a meeting and share and then leave and join another student’s meeting within a few seconds. It’s been a great tool.
  • Another wonderful benefit from having to adapt to teaching during a pandemic is that most of my teaching resources, videos, assignments, and assessments are now available online through Google Classroom. If a student is absent, they will have access to the lesson online and can complete the work at home when they feel better and not fall behind. 
  • Lastly, no more snow days that extend the school year way into June. Since we have had remote learning days, we have not had a snow day. We won’t have to be in school until the end of June! 
• My silver lining…….hmmm. No more photos turned in or left on the dryer in the darkroom : ” STUDENT ARTIST  UNKNOWN”!  Now that work is digital and submitted in Google CLassroom I ALWAYS know whose image it is!  ~Jennie Driscoll, Brunswick High School Art Teacher
• We all have the students that are quiet in school, do not talk, that seem to want to be invisible and they never participate in class discussions, nor would I make them. I always wondered and worried about these students. When we went to remote some of these students slowly began to come out of their armor they had built up. We began to have rich conversations about their art work and the deep meanings they put into them and they share the art they do on their own. They are comfortable in their own environment and slowly have come to life and I have the privilege of really getting to know them. I look forward to my zoom sessions with these students where they smile and laugh and share their ideas with me. Connecting with these students is my positive out of the negative, my “silver lining”.      ~Holly (Leighton) Boyce, Mattanawcook Academy Art Teacher
• I have been having – hands down – one of the most rewarding school years of my career. I’ve been creating my curriculum several weeks ahead of teaching it all year so far. And what it has done is:
  • reinforce that singing and playing is not content: it’s DELIVERY
  • when the delivery method changes that there are many other ways of delivering content
  • my program is not built on my students’ emotional dependence on it, so the transition away from singing was pretty easy
  • being a good teacher is not dependent on circumstances ~Rob Westerberg, Music Educator, York High School
• From Eva Wagner, Bangor High School Art Teacher Class size for sure, so much better in the art room to have smaller class sizes. Eva wrote these amazing Silver Linings – Haiku Style:

From Leah Olson, Ellsworth High School Art Teacher

•  The silver linings that I’ve discovered in the age of covid are many! Since March 13th, life has been a bumpy journey to say the least! The hybrid of learning for students has forced me to rethink projects differently in regards to curriculum, material use and social interactions in and out of the art room. In regards to curriculum, I had to change my units as immediately as school started in the fall. I realized that my units were not going to work as well for students who were completely remote. So, I met them where they were at. Units were and are chunked down with reinforcing the basic concepts of ceramics and jewelry. It has worked out so well that I may rethink the sequential curriculum for next year! 
  • In regards to using technology, I’ve been using Google Folders for years as portfolios to grade student work, so that was easy to keep track of student progress. I started using Google Classroom last year after March 13th to post Zoom Meeting links and reminders. The newest learning tool to navigate around was creating a Google website that students could access rubrics, videos and links most relevant to the lesson. It’s been so helpful for students to access this if they miss a class or need a review of the techniques. The silver lining is that I finally created a website that can be used in the years to come! : )
  • Another silver lining is that through the covid grant, I was able to purchase materials so that Ellsworth High School students could work from home and from school. Because of this, students would create two projects using the same technique – the easier project would be done at home and the more difficult one would be done at school. This reinforced fluency and confidence using the tools and materials.   
  • Having no more than ten students in class allows me to demonstrate techniques for students remotely and physically. I’ve been able to work alongside with students in a way I never could before. While they are working with their works, I am too. We talk with each other, laugh, and at the same time, the bar is raised. The social connections with students could not be experienced in the same way as a class of twenty. You all know what I mean! There is time to talk with one another.
  • Finally, I’m also learning more about teaching ceramics through trial and error. Like, don’t travel with bone dry projects. Telling students to not leave clay in the freezing cold car overnight, and cheese graters at the Dollar Tree work great for downsizing thick places in pots and evening out the surfaces. I learned that cutting pinch pots in half to see the thickness of the walls make for better pinch pot luminaries, raku clay is an excellent starter clay for slab containers because you don’t have to wait to join the walls, watercolor underglazes are a game changer for creativity and traveling back and forth from home to school. This is just to name a few! I often wonder what students will think of learning about jewelry and ceramics through the pandemic years from now. Hopefully, they will look at something they made and see the year 2020 or 2021 scratched into their work and feel a sense of relief, pride, and nostalgia! I am reminded daily by the phrase, “The Darkest Nights Produce The Brightest Stars”.

Sierra Andrews) who absolutely loves her “Mainely Mug”
Think you can “Handle It” assignment

Patti’s COVID Teaching Story

Music teacher

Thirty eight year veteran music teacher Patricia Gordan teaches in two schools in RSU#14; Raymond Elementary and Windham Primary. Patti is a Maine Arts Leadership Initiative Teacher Leader. Almost a month ago now Patti shared that this has been the most difficult time in her teaching career. In this blog post Patti shares some of the work she has been doing with her students during this time – ‘schooling away from school’. Thank you Patti for sharing your story!

She read Janie Snider’s story from April 27 and when Janie said, “I am their resource!” Patti yelled, “YES!” Her story really resonated with Patti and perhaps that will be the same for others when you read what Patti’s story and what she misses most.

“I want to hold hands and play a circle game with my Kindergarteners. I want to teach a folk dance to my 3rd graders. I want to sit next to a 4th grader and actually help her cover the finger holes correctly on her recorder so that she can produce a pleasant sound. I want to be the audience in front of twenty students on Orff instruments and thrill to their beautiful music, and see their faces light up when I enthusiastically compliment them. And I miss, miss, desperately MISS the angelic voices of my 3rd/4th grade chorus. I hope I can do the virtual choir with them on their favorite song that we’d been working on, “Send Down The Rain.”

Patti had just tried to play all four of the students’ “instrument parts” by herself.

IN PATTI’S WORDS

My chorus at Raymond Elementary is made up of 3rd and 4th graders and a few invited 2nd graders. “Send Down The Rain” is one of five songs we began practicing in January for a May concert which will not happen now. This song was their favorite and they sang it with such feeling, even at the beginning of March when it was not yet polished. 

I always put lyric sheets and practice tracks on the Raymond Elementary music website for them so they can practice at home and that was already done when we left. What I’m looking into is to have them perform that one song as a virtual choir.

A 4th grader emailed me this morning after she’d sent me videos, two different times, of herself playing recorder and I’d sent her back some tips. She said she was trying her hardest but that she was “bad at recorder.” (We play recorder third trimester and had had ONE recorder lesson before we were sent home.) It broke my heart because I wasn’t there to help her and it’s very difficult to teach a nine year old how to play the recorder by email, even though they can watch the recorder instruction videos on the website. Of course I told her she was not bad at recorder and that I admired her tremendously for her perseverance.

The lyrics to “Send Down The Rain, which help Patti and her students! 

Send Down The Rain

I live in the desert, only trouble comes my way as I try to make a living off the land. All the trees have withered, and the birds have flown away,
And my shattered dreams have gone with the shifting sand.

(Arias) Send down the rain.
(Cantos) To wash the dusty sky.

(Arias) Send down the rain.
(Cantos) To water the thirsty land.

(Arias) Send down the rain.
(All) To soothe my burning soul (Cantos-again) (Arias-my burning soul again) Send down the rain.

Lord I’ve had it with trouble, disappointment, broken dreams, And I long to see the lightnin’ flashin’ ‘round.
You know I’m a believer, and you know I’m prayin’ hard
To hear the rollin’ thunder’s mighty sound.

(Arias) Send down the rain.
(Cantos) To wash the dusty sky.

(Arias) Send down the rain.
(Cantos) To water the thirsty land.

(Arias) Send down the rain.
(All) To soothe my burning soul (Cantos-again) (Arias-my burning soul again) Send down the rain.

(Arias) Send down the rain.
(Cantos) Oh, Lord, I see the lightnin’,

(Arias) Send down the rain.
(Cantos) Oh, Lord, I hear the thunder.

(Arias) Send down the rain. (All) hoooo.

MAAI Resource Team

Working on documents

The Maine Arts Assessment Initiative Resource Team is furiously creating more rich resources to add to the Resource Bank that was established in June of 2014. The MAAI Resource Bank is located at http://maairesourcebank.pbworks.com.

The 2015 MAAI Resource Bank Team

The site has full units developed by the 2014 MAAI Resource Team and includes lessons and assessments for dance, music, theater, and visual arts. In addition, the team from last year created templates that are also included in the website for you to download and adapt for your own lessons, units, and/or assessments.

The 2015 Resource Team will be completing their work at the end of June and their resources will be added to the resources at  http://maairesourcebank.pbworks.com. The work is pretty exciting! This years resources will be a bit different and I really enjoying watching their ideas develop. Along with documents with templates, examples, and detailed information the resources will also include videos. I think you will find that they will be a great addition to the bank. The team meets periodically (electronically) to update the team of their progress and and for feedback using the MAAI Critical Friends model.

Catherine Ring, Executive Director, New England Institute for Teacher Education is the MAAI Resource Team Project Manager. The 2015 MAAI Resource Team is made up of the following:

• Theresa Cerceo, Visual Arts Educator, grades K-12, Wisdom Middle/HS, Levesque Elementary School. MSAD #33, Frenchville
• Patti Gordan, Music Educator, grades K-4, Raymond Elementary School, RSU #14, Raymond
• Danette Kerrigan, Visual Arts Educator, grades 6-8, Sacopee Valley Middle School, MSAD #55, Hiram
• John Morris, Teaching Artist, grades K-12, Independent, Bridgton
• Jake Sturtevant, Music Educator, grades 9-12, Bonny Eagle High School, MSAD #6, Buxton
• Sarah Ritz Swain, District-wide Director of Art, grades K-12, Westbrook School Department, Westbrook

The 2014 Maine visual and performing arts teachers who made up the first team are listed below. You can find those resources at http://maairesourcebank.pbworks.com.

• Jennie Driscoll, Visual Arts Educator, grades 9-12, Brunswick High School
• Beth Lambert, Performing Arts Educator, grades 9-12, Carrabec High School, MSAD #74, North Anson
• Brian McPherson, Visual Arts Educator, grades K-5, Woodside Elementary School, MSAD #75, Topsham
• Jenni Null, Music Educator, grades K-12, MSAD #61, Lake Region Schools, Bridgton
• Jeff Orth, Visual Arts Educator, grades 7-12, Richmond Middle/High Schools, Richmond
• Jake Sturtevant, Music Educator, grades 9-12, Bonny Eagle High School, MSAD #6, Standish

In addition, you can find many, many more resources on the Maine Arts Assessment website at http://www.maineartsassessment.com/.

Another Teacher’s Story: Patti Gordan

Raymond Elementary School music educator

This is the sixth blog post for 2014 and the third phase of the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative of this series sharing arts teachers’ stories. This series contains a set of questions to provide the opportunity for you to learn from and about others. I had the pleasure of visiting Patti’s classroom last week; grade 5 and 6 strings and kindergarten general music class. It was a wonderful morning. I was reminded of the combination of skills it takes to be an elementary music teacher. The fast pace of the class, the attention to the needs of small children, and the energy level is truly amazing. All of this with music learning at the heart!

Patti Gordan has been teaching for 31 years, the past 30 of those years in Raymond.  For the last four years Raymond has been part of RSU#14, Windham/Raymond, so she now also teaches in Windham. During her 31 years she has taught K-8, General Music, Chorus, Band and Orchestra.  Her present assignment is K-4 General Music, 3^rd/4^th Grade Chorus and 5^th & 6^th Grade Orchestra. Patti is teaching approximately 350 students.

What do you like best about being a music educator?

 I love watching my students’ faces light up when they are feeling the joy of expressing themselves through music.  I love their enthusiasm and their eagerness. Music means everything to me and I love sharing that with my students.

What do you believe are three keys to ANY successful visual and performing arts education?

The most important key to success is be passionate about teaching and to continually improve my craft. I am always striving to learn. The second key to success is to have “decision makers” (administration, parents, school board) who are committed to providing best practice in arts education for our students. The third key to success is to have the time and resources necessary to provide best practice.

How have you found assessment to be helpful to you in your classroom?

Before I began authentic, individual assessment of my students’ singing skills in General Music class I assumed that most of my students could match pitch in their full singing range. After all, when I listened to the class as a group it sounded pretty good. When I started assessing them individually I was shocked to discover that approximately 25% of my students were carrying the rest of the class. I started using these individual assessments to inform my instruction and also started having the students do self-assessments of their singing skills so that they could make their own plan for improvement. The percentage of students who can match pitch in their full singing range has risen to 85% by the end of 3^rd grade.  I have expanded these methods to assessing their beat/rhythm skills and literacy skills as well.

What have been the benefits in becoming involved in the arts assessment initiative?

It has been very exciting to meet other arts educators with the same passion for improving their teaching and assessment methods. I have loved bouncing ideas off of the other teacher leaders and I come away with new energy and enthusiasm every time we meet.

What are you most proud of in your career?

I guess I’m most proud of always wanting to learn more about being a music teacher. I’ve never felt like I know all I need to know. If ever I’ve begun to feel that way I’ve always then gained a bit more wisdom to realize I still don’t know what I’m doing. I am also proud of helping 30+ years of students experience the joy of music. I now teach many children of former students and I am so happy when I hear those parents share fond memories of music class and when they express their happiness that I will be teaching their children.

What gets in the way of being a better teacher or doing a better job as a teacher?

I get frustrated when I hear lip service that the arts are just as important as math and ELA, that they’re “CORE,” but then are not treated as equal. The truth is that there is no way that any K-4 General Music teacher, no matter how expert, can give students a true, standards-based music education, using the Maine Learning Results or the new Common Core Standards, in 45 minutes per week.

What have you accomplished through hard work and determination that might otherwise appear at first glance to be due to “luck” or circumstances?

From 2000 to 2010 I worked with a group of teachers and administrators at my schools that were dedicated to providing quality arts education programs to students in Raymond, through sufficient class time, resources and optimal schedules.  By 2010 students had music class twice a week for 45 minutes in grades K & 1, and 5 through 8, and once a week for 45 minutes plus a 30-minute chorus rehearsal, during the school day, for grades 3 and 4, and a remedial singing class in addition to their regular 45-minute General Music class for 2^nd graders who were having trouble finding their head voice or matching pitch. Sadly, since consolidation, some of that has been chipped away.

Look into your crystal ball: what advice would you give to teachers?

Keep learning! It’s the best way to stay fresh, prevent teacher burnout and give your kids the best possible experience.  Also, keep trying to make little improvements in your program. It can be overwhelming to look at your program as it is and think of what it should be. Plug away, bit by bit to improve the students’ experience and before you know it, 30 years later, your program will have grown by leaps and bounds!

If you were given a $500,000.00 to do with whatever you please, what would it be?

Too bad you can’t buy time. I’d get my masters degree, buy a bunch of small violins to give my 3^rd or 4^th graders a “pre-orchestra” experience, buy more puppets for General Music class (you can never have enough puppets.), buy some additional technology for the music room, pay some bills and take some trips (Scotland, Germany, camp across America).

Imagine you are 94 years old. You’re looking back. Do you have any regrets?

No. If you can’t fix it, regrets are a waste of time. Learn from the experience and don’t’ make the same mistakes again.  Make new ones.

I’ll probably be one of those little old ladies who gives music lessons and home baked cookies.