Distance Learning Made Simple for Elementary Music

Hello, friends!

This quarantine stuff is no joke, ya’ll! When I woke up, I realized that it’s been 50 days since I went into self-isolation on March 14th, which was the start of Spring Break. Upon leaving for Spring Break, I had no idea that we wouldn’t return for the entire school year! I’ve been working from home with my husband (Matt) and dog (Luna), which definitely helps me not go stir-crazy. I’m also 24 weeks & 4 days pregnant, which adds an interesting spin to this as well! It seems like we can never order enough food through Instacart to keep this baby satisfied! Anyway, while my husband and I navigate the idea of parenthood, we’re also navigating teaching from home (he’s a 9th grade teacher in the same district). Even though it seems daunting, in most school districts you can make distance learning as simple or as complicated as you want. And as always, my choice is to keep things simple yet effective. So I wanted to share with you what I’m doing to keep distance learning simple for teaching elementary music.

I understand that not all teachers are given a choice in which platforms they use. But it seems like most of my music teacher friends have more flexibility in the ways they’d like to approach distance learning. It’s especially important not to compare yourself to others during this time. We all serve vastly different schools, communities, and administrators. And we’re all going through a difficult time trying to navigate our own mental health and personal lives during this quarantine. Some teachers need a simple approach for their mental health (ME!), and other teachers need a more complex approach to keep them busy and feeling somewhat normal through all of this. Either way is fine. And no matter which distance-learning choices you make, at the end of the day you’re still that same fantastic educator with so many students who absolutely adore you. Things will return to normal soon.

Since I have a fairly simplistic approach, the platforms I use are:

*Google Classroom

*Youtube

I decided that I would post a Youtube video once a week that includes a simple music concept, song or activity, and then post it to Google Classroom. This has been working for me and most of my students have been responsive to this. It’s simple, yet effective. Here are a few examples of my lessons.

During this lesson, the students learn a hand-clapping game called “Bim Bum Biddy”. I film the videos with my laptop, edit in iMovie, and upload to Youtube. Then in google classroom, I create a quiz with a few simple questions.

If students submit their quiz, I give them a 100 for Participation.

Here is another example of a simple lesson:

I created a simple tutorial demonstrating “The Cup Game”, using the camera on my phone and editing in iMovie. Then created a short quiz, in which I ask them to send a recording of them demonstrating “The Cup Game” if they’re able to do so. It’s been really fun to see the joyful recordings of the students demonstrating the cup game & song at their houses! This is a fun and simple lesson that can keep kids entertained for a long time. Then they can get their families involved by teaching their siblings and/or parents.

You can check out my Youtube channel for more distance learning videos, or e-mail me/send me a DM on social media if you’d like more information on how to do these things. I hope you found some of this helpful for your distance-learning journey. Let’s continue to lift each other up as we finish up this challenging year! Don’t forget to come hang out with me on social media (Instagram/Facebook) so that we can stay connected, or join my e-mail list for some monthly freebies.

Keepin’ it Simple,

Paige