Year 11 – Week 24: Looking For America In Music Class

For this whole school year, my school has taken a very cautious approach to COVID-19 mitigation procedures. I have appreciated this approach, which has led us to have no community spread of COVID-19 at our school. 

One of the hardest adjustments I had to make was the policy that we would not have singing or wind instruments at my school. While other schools figured out ways to make singing and wind instruments work at their schools, I did not feel the research over the summer was strong enough to provide safety guidelines, and I did not want to take any chances. For a time, I was more focused on making sure students got music class than what we wuld do in music class.  

Initially, I felt okay about not doing singing or wind instruments. With my 4th & 5th graders, there were other activities we did that didn’t include singing. I had done this stuff before, so I figured I would focus on those. With my middle school students, not having band class meant that we would be teaching a general music curriculum, which I had never taught at this level. While I was nervous about doing this, the lack of a concert to prepare for took a certain amount of pressure away, so I felt freer to be creative with the curriculum.  

After winter break, I decided to move my students into work that would directly reflect what was going on in society. We did lessons around debating the quality music as a way to work on having disagreements in a way that helped us get to know each other and didn’t make people feel personally attacked. I did a unit on American anthems. We looked at the racism in the lyrics and origins of “The Star-Spangled” banner left out of the dominant narrative. Then we looked at other American anthems like “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”  

Students ranked different performances of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” I was so excited when students loved Marvin Gaye’s incredible interpretation of this song and a little discouraged when others wanted to spend far too much time talking about Fergie’s. Students wrote new lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” all of which were critical of America but showed a desire to be better by remembering and acknowledging what is not great about America.

 

The teaching was different.  These weren’t lessons where students all sang, and I could sing and hear their engagement. Sometimes I would be explaining something, and it was hard by their expressions if they were engaging with the material. Then a student would say something I hadn’t thought of, and my students reminded me of how much I enjoyed teaching because of how much I learn from my students.  

Singing will be back, and so will band instruments. I’m not sure how much things will revert to the curriculum I used to use, but right now, I’m looking forward to continuing work with my students, trying to figure out what it means to American through music.

Year 11 – Week 21: The Vaccine

I wasn't that emotional when I got the vaccine. After doing my arrival duty to get the vaccine, I had left school, and I knew that I had to hurry back to school to teach my morning classes.  However, I was very emotional when we got an email from the school nurse that vaccine appointments will be provided for employees at my school and to look for another email with details. When I got that email, I felt a huge feeling of relief and clarity. There was certainty in something that seemed and felt so amorphous for so long. 

Timelines around the access to the vaccine have varied greatly. With all that has happened around vaccine distribution and continues to happen, my expectations were low that I would get it before the spring. The lack of care, responsibility, and hard work from the previous administration is why we are in this mess. It will be revealed further in the coming weeks how much their incompetency has cost this country. While people are rightfully annoyed at vaccine distribution issues, people should focus their frustrations on trump as much, if not more, than state and local officials.  

The real emotions came rolling in after I signed up for an appointment to get the vaccine.  

I have been teaching in-person this entire school year, and while teaching in-person in my situation is low-risk, it's not a no-risk situation. While this has been stressful for me, I know this has been hard on my family. I appreciate their support and positivity throughout this challenging time. I'm glad that this vaccine will make my teaching situation safer for myself, my colleagues, my students and bring some comfort to my family. 

The risk of teaching in-person has been a weight on me this entire school year. While this vaccine is not a game-changer in my day to day activities as a teacher, it is when it comes to my own personal risk.  

I'm very aware that I got the vaccine because I teach at a prestigious private school with resources and connections.  I have great empathy for other teachers like those in Chicago Public Schools who are struggling to get vaccinated. Some of my best friends and educators I have a deep respect for are being asked to teach in-person without adequate supplies and a vaccine. While I don't think that having a vaccine is 100% necessary to teach in-person safety, the vaccine becomes more essential to teacher and student safety without a multitude of other mitigation practices. 

I don't think that I deserve the privileges that I have more than other educators. I think they deserve what I enjoy. We need to examine inequities and demand more for people who have less. Yes, sometimes this means that the richest people in our country pay more taxes. At the same, we need to remember that equity is not a pie and that providing more for others doesn't necessarily mean that we need to take away from others.  For example, if we pay more taxes so that students have better school, we all benefit in the long run morally and financially.  

It made my heart warm knowing that my school family will be safer in the coming weeks because of this vaccine. Employees at my school have lost family members to COVID-19, have had to distance from loved ones due to the risk of working in-person, and have carried the responsibility of creating a positive educational environment with grace and dignity holding while holding the anxiety of the pandemic at bay.

In the journey of the last 11 months, getting the vaccine is an important moment. Most of the most memorable and impactful moments of the teaching during a pandemic have been difficult. The shutting down of schools on March 12, the struggle of planning for in-person teaching, and quarantining after being exposed to a student who tested positive for COVID-19 were all really tough moments. This vaccine as a milestone is different. It's a movement in the other direction. It's a step to things getting better. 

After all this time, it feels like we are finally on the path out of the woods. 

I know that not everyone is on this path right now, but trust me, it's there.