Virtual Band Hall
Updated: Oct 17, 2020
One thing that music teachers have always prided ourselves on is teaching students how to think outside the box. Looks like this year I will need to practice what I preach. After 35 years as a Band Director, I, like most of my colleagues, will now be teaching at least some of our classes online. While this is challenging (especially for a director that started her career without a computer, email, or smartphone) it's also very exciting! In just a few weeks we will be teaching our band classes in-person, synchronous (students zoom into the live class) and asynchronous (assignments given/completed/graded outside of the scheduled class). So I've created, with the help of Google slides and Bitmoji, a Virtual Band Classroom. I can use this with both my on campus band class and my online students. Students can click on the different icons/elements and be led down a veritable rabbit hole of information, videos, audio clips, and tools to help them be successful musicians. My hope is that once they get started they won't want to stop. As a teacher, I've found this to be a creative way to reevaluate my current teaching practices and incorporate things that I might not have considered in a normal day of traditional band instruction. And the classroom can be updated anytime with new music and icons, changing with the seasons or student input/interests. So, looks like you CAN teach an old dog new tricks after all. Here is October's class: