Sigma Alpha Iota

P A N P I P E S Spring 2021 13 13 MUSIC EDUCATION It seems like a lifetime ago that we first learned of COVID-19 and the world shut down for our safety. At the time, I was experiencing my very first year of being an elementary music teacher, and I was at a total loss for words, let alone teaching experience. Still, I remember finding comfort in the many conversations that came from other teachers during this time, particularly the discussion for a need to adapt elementary music for the virtual classroom. Little did I know that in just a few months formal trainings and other forms of professional development in Texas would not get to happen to their full extent and I would experience being in a virtual classroom myself. For context, I was fortunate to become certified in the first level of Kodály training the summer before I began teaching. I learned about the Kodály approach to teaching music by participating in rigorous coursework, research, collaboration, and through practicing various musical and pedagogical skills while attending the Rio Grande Valley Kodály program. My heart was immediately set to continue my training with RGV Kodály, but the Pandemic prompted our program to go virtual. Due to hour-based requirements, my instructors informed us that we would be unable to earn the next level of certification, but they invited us to meet with them regardless to help us plan, create lessons, and demonstrate different ways to continue the Kodály approach in the virtual format. In the two weeks that our course was held, I learned about how I could format Power Point presentations, asynchronous assignments, and projects to maximize my students' learning no matter what our time constraints were. Specifically, we learned of the importance of integrating technology to make music-learning fun and accessible to our students. e children in our classrooms share an interest in YouTube, so we learned how to edit video lesson elements to focus on the presentation part of Kodály (Kinesthetic, Aural, and Labeling the Notation) along with any practice elements to keep our students constantly working on their past, current, and future music skills. e best part about these skits is that they may be saved and used in the future, which can save your voice and perhaps be used for substitute teacher lessons! As the stars of our own skits and videos, we as teachers were challenged to use brief, verb-first language and be extra-animated to maintain student engagement and interest. We also explored new tools to help our students practice with us in real-time (such as Whiteboard apps, FlipGrid, etc.), and we discussed how to use and bend the various digital learning platforms to provide assessment, progress monitoring, and feedback to our students. Once my peers and I finished with the program, the 2020-2021 school year was suddenly upon us and our districts all went about incorporating music class in very different ways. I was an online teacher for my school for the first three quarters of our academic year, meaning that I had 30-minute synchronous lessons and 15-minute asynchronous lessons to plan for my kids. I now had the opportunity to put everything I had learned into practice. My students have particularly enjoyed the video elements of our lessons, especially as I oen played to their interests to keep their attention. I also made sure to incorporate student choice and ownership to asynchronous assignments, while also including a variety of assignment completion options. Simply put, I opted for choice boards that always included the opportunity for extended learning and a social-emotional learning for asynchronous time. e feedback I received from my kids has been overwhelmingly positive! Still, as 2020 moved into 2021, I was informed that I would be returning to my face-to-face classroom for the final quarter of the school year. I'm excited for the challenge, but I'm mostly excited to be able to sing and make music with my favorite musicians again. anks to SAI, I was able to fund my Kodály refresher course and all of the materials I would need to get the remainder of my certification. Music is such an important element in the lives of all of our sisters, and it is a pleasure to instill a love for music in our youth. Pandemic or not, music will be made and we will continue to come together because of it. Alexia Barrera-Guerra is an elementary music teacher in Fort Bend ISD near Houston, TX, where she has taught students from Pre-Kindergarten to 5th grade in the online and face-to-face learning models. Alexia, an initiate of the eta Gamma Chapter at the University of Texas at San Antonio, is currently the Sergeant at Arms of the San Antonio Alumnae Chapter. Alexia is looking forward to continuing her Kodály Levels with the Rio Grande Valley Kodály program this coming summer. Kodály & Technology Elementary Music in the Age of a Pandemic

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