I have up to 140 students who pass through my music class each day. My goal is for students to "find their voice", whether it is their singing or speaking voice for expressing themselves or creating their own music, seeking knowledge, connections, and understanding through music.
Our students are diverse in every way--racially, economically, inexperience, and achievement.
They come from mid-to-expensive homes, apartments, and shelters, and we have more than 12 different languages spoken by our ELL students. We do our best to level the playing field for students who may be economically or socially disadvantaged so that our kids can just be kids. They are compassionate, bright, delightful young people. Despite the differences, we are a genuine school family. Our students are fun and creative, and they seek ways to expand our school community beyond our walls through community projects (food and donation drives, performances, and art shows). They grow food in our gardens, they play, study, and sing together, and they are thoughtful young people. I believe our students genuinely care about making the world a better place, and the teachers do their best to help them find how to do just that.
My Project
Our school PTO has supported our Music classrooms with some subscriptions for Flat.io and Soundtrap, plus we have Quaver Music Curriculum. All of these apps and resources help students create, record and learn more about music in class and at home; however, we struggle to get access to enough devices for our students in class. My fifth graders currently have to do three rotations with devices in order for each child to have a turn. These two Chromebooks will help get us closer to 2 to 1 device access. We have 7 purchased with another grant, 4 I purchased myself, and two more will get us closer to 2-1 devices. I would love to have enough devices so that we can make technology a regular part of our weekly lessons.
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