music is an art that comes from the heart

It turns out that writing a song is actually pretty difficult. I have never written a song before, but I imagined that it would be similar to writing poetry. Before we embarked on our ArtsSmarts project, I thought that our students would enjoy "playing" and "experimenting" with song. I imagined that as a class, and in small groups that we could use Garage Band on the iPads and "play" our way towards writing a song. Maybe I was right, but it started to feel like we could spend all the time in the world playing and never get a song written.

For some background information, I have to tell you that we don't have a music program at our school. We have band for students who are interested, and we have a choir. We are a small school, with a small staff, and we haven't had a music teacher that has taken on choir and music. I tell you this just so that you are aware of where we were starting from. Our students, largely, do not feel like they are musical. The few students who have had music training were in hiding, and it was fairly difficult to get them to take a risk and stand out in front of their peers. This certainly doesn't seem to be the case anymore as we've had a piano in our room for over a month and it now seems like everyone is a composer!

We knew that we wanted to write songs about the environment and consumption. My grade seven class would take on the role of ecologists/tree-huggers in our play, and the grade eights, who were ecology experts last year, would take on the role of developers and consumers. What I had hoped for was that I could front-end load the ecology information as quick as possible so that my students would have the necessary background to be able to write songs pertaining to the environment. Six of my current students were in my 6/7 class last year, and this information was not new to them. I believed that they would be able to lead the way. To say this was a challenge would be an understatement.

Here's the thing, song writing is risky business. You have to be willing to put your ideas out there. That's not easy. I have also come to see that creating comes from your heart, and learning about different ecosystems from a text book and a few videos does not really foster the kind of love for nature that is needed to write a song about it. I could spend the entire blog telling you all about the mistakes I made, but instead, I will briefly touch on my mistakes as I tell you what I would do differently if I were able to go back in time or if I ever take on a project like this again.

1.) Get outside!
I would spend more time outside learning. We took on this project in January, in Saskatchewan, which might not be the best time to be learning about ecosystems. I should have done some outdoor educaiton in the fall. We could have gone to Eagle Creek, and taken nature walks down by the river. We also could have spent time writing poetry in nature. I could have given the students a format to follow and let them go sit under a tree to write a few poems.  The poems could have been sensory in nature, describing the beauty of what they saw, felt, smelt, and heard.

2.) Using photos to create wonder and awe
I should have thought bigger. I should have given the children something to be inspired by: a photo, and small news piece, short videos, things that would have caused awe and wonder. I could have added this little piece to our daily morning Language Arts routine. Our planet is awesome and we should have been celebrating it every day. To be fair, I did show the students many fascinating and interesting articles and videos, but I only started the eco info when we began this project. The kind of deep learning that was required for the song writing needed to be taking place all year long in small doses.

3.)  Build confidence through scaffolding
I could have given the students time to create a small music piece. (Not just once, but several times.) I should have put them in groups of 3-4 students and given them a the task of creating a small song. I could have started really small and built on their growing skills as time progressed. At first the tasks could have been simple, like create a poem about an animal following this three line format.:
 The  (noun),
(where it is)
(verb).
Ex:
The bird,
in the tree
sings!
After the poems were created, their next job would be to make a simple beat to speak the poem to. Students could have been given twenty minutes to create the poem and beat, and then been told they would share their creation. After each performance the creators could bow while the class cheers and claps. This would have been a way to scaffold the process so that by the time we worked with our artists, the students already saw themselves as creators of music. This would have also helped their confidence.

I am an introvert. I was the last kid that would have been creating music or volunteering for an acting or dancing part. In fact, this project would have likely scared the heck out of me. I would have wanted to create the props and background. All along I have been aware that what I'm asking kids to do is take a risk and that for some of them this makes them uncomfortable. I also know that this is where growth comes from: those moments when you take a risk not knowing if you will succeed or fail. If you succeed, the growth is in confidence. If you fail, the growth is in trying again in a different way. While I am telling you the things I would change, I realize that this could be taken as failure. I haven't failed, I have just learned that a different approach may have worked better.

We have talented artists, and thankfully, even though I may have failed to prepare my students adequately, we do have amazing songs and raps. The artists met several times with our students and would start by sharing what they had already created. Often they had already worked out the melody on the piano and the chorus and then asked the students to help them create the verses. This was often done in small groups instead of the whole class. A few of the songs were songs that the artists had already started, but this project gave them the inspiration or push to complete the songs.

Over the past several weeks we have been practicing and learning the songs. One song called In the Beginning was created by my class from start to finish under the direction of Elizabeth Bekolay. They created the melody on the spirit flutes and worked on spoken word poems to describe different animals of the forest. These lines are often beautifully told from the point of view of the animal they describe. After the song was finished, we asked for volunteers to create dances to go with each animal section of the song. Students were tasked with creating a dance that worked with the melody and beat of the song, but also symbolically represented that animal. The flute players were needed to play the songs for the dancers as the dancers collaborated and created their dances. During these sessions I saw some of the best student collaboration. I watched a student in my class, who often has trouble with collaboration, openly and willingly collaborating. She was open to other suggestions and actively giving positive support as well as sharing her own ideas. I wonder and hope that this positive collaboration will transfer over into other subjects. Collaboration is a learned skill, and I witnessed that learning taking place.

So we have 9 days to go before we perform our play for the entire school and wider community. I would love to say we are all done with the creation, but we are far from it. My class still has two dance pieces to create. We plan to push really hard over the next two days to create and memorize those dances so that when we get back after the spring break we can start running through the play every day. I know that it will come together and be quite amazing, but it's really hard to not be anxious at this late stage in the game.

I will share a few of our songs with you through the links below. We haven't created a recording of the students singing yet, but these are the early versions of the songs sung by our artists, Elizabeth Bekolay and Jordan Schultz. The last few are the flute pieces created by our students with Elizabeth.
Rap Battle
Impact Song
Spirit Flute: Butterfly
Spirit Flute: Owl

Here is the official invite for anyone who is interested in attending. We may open up a second showtime once we have had a chance to get some feedback from parents.

Thank you to The Saskatchewan Arts Board and their fundholders:

Learning science and social studies through art...

When learning about ecology, economics, consumerism, and sustainability, will students have a deeper more enduring understanding if we weave that learning through fine arts? This is one of our inquiry questions for our ArtsSmarts grant project this year. I completely believe that students learn more deeply when we tie their learning into fine arts, but this year we are putting this notion to the test. This is our biggest ArtsSmarts project to date, and it involves numerous artists, experts and agencies. In short, our multidisciplinary project involves creating a musical that is loosely based on the Dr. Seuss book the Lorax. It will feature original songs that are written, composed, and performed by our students in collaboration with the artists. As well, students will work with Artist Mike Merlin to collaboratively choreograph original dances to accompany the songs. We have also undertaken a mural that is currently in progress to be the backdrop and our lasting message.


We started this project in January by front-end loading the curricular outcomes for each grade. The grade seven students in my class, known as "the ecologists," have been learning about ecosystems and sustainability, with a specific focus on the Boreal Forest Biome. For the grade eight students, known as "the developers," this project builds from the Student Action for a Sustainable Future work that we did last year and moves into economics and consumption. Our goal was to try and cover the content quickly, and then tie the learning into art representations, student reflections, and a researched persuasive essay.

In order to move quickly through the content, I relied on the textbook to read through and discuss topics with students. We also followed up a lot of that learning with videos, reflections, and art. To be honest, that approach didn't work well. For some students, taking in vast amounts of information through reading and discussing works well, but for many I found that they just didn't connect well to the information. Was it the style of teaching and learning or the content? I'm not sure, but if I could go back and do the front-end loading again, I would approach it differently. However, the goal of the front-end loading was to give students a solid base to draw from when it came to writing songs and creating the play. I thought that the learning would drive the creations, but now I anticipate that the creation will drive the learning, and I'm excited to see that unfold.

During February we connected with the Saskatchewan Environmental Society. They came and presented concepts to the students about waste management, reduction of waste, and recycling old materials into new materials. They helped us to get thinking about a new waste reduction campaign that we will run at our school. Last year, as part of our Student Action for Sustainable Future, my class, who are now in grade eight, focused on waste reduction. We conducted a waste audit and then worked hard to make our current recycling and compost program. This year both grades wanted to do further work with waste reduction and have just started to audit the amount of waste. The grade eights plan to focus on lights and power usage, and the grade sevens want to support that work, but also branch out into paper waste. As the current recyclers, they see a lot of paper waste. I think this is great because it ties nicely into the concept of trees and having healthy forests.

Boreal Forest expert and photographer John Murray spent a half day with each class. His presentation was fascinating and engaging, and the students asked so many great questions and were so captivated. John donated most of his time to us, and we really appreciate that gift. I could write a whole blog post about the things he told us about mushrooms and trees and their symbiotic relationship. Did you know that some mushrooms use their long roots to bring nutrients to a tree so that it can be stronger and healthier? I'm hoping that John attends our show as he has graciously agreed to let us raffle one of his amazing owl photographs.

In February we started to work with Artists Elizabeth Bekolay and Jordan Schultz. If you've ever been out to Beaver Creek you may have met Elizabeth. Currently both Artists work at Brightwater Science and Environmental Centre. Elizabeth and Jordan create music together that they have dubbed gypsy rap. One of their songs plays throughout the ArtsSmarts documentary that was created during our project last year. Over the past five weeks they have met with students in small groups to create the  music for our play. I thought that this part would flow more easily, but song writing is difficult and many of our students are hesitant to share their ideas. After several sessions where we struggled to draw ideas out of the children, it occurred to me that we forgot to play. Last year and the year before we always warmed the students up by playing drama and word games. Kids have to feel safe to take risks and at this age. Sharing your ideas or your opinion is a huge risk: people might laugh at you or think your ideas are dumb. At the start of each session we've created a circle and play silly drama and word games. Once we see that they are forgetting to feel self conscious and are loosening up, we move into song writing mode. The songs are almost complete and next week we will begin the task of learning and memorizing them. What I love about these songs is that they are melodic and mix with rap. The words are carefully chosen and have a profound message. I am pretty excited about the songs. I think the rap battle, which I'm already finding to be an ear worm, is going to be epic.

We've also started our dance work with Artist Mike Merlin. Mike is also a musician so he has been helping Elizabeth and Jordan lay down a beat for specific songs. He has been meeting with groups of students to start creating the numerous dances that we will need to accompany each song. This work has only just begun, but I know with his gifts and talents, Mike will have our students doing amazing work with dance in no time.

Finally, I have to tell you about the mural. It's the work that has progressed the quickest and is the closest to completion. We have worked with several artists to collaboratively create the most amazing student mural I have every seen. Our artists include: Kevin Wesequate, Lesley Kerpan, Alex Semenoff, and Nicole Paul. The artists have brought their own design and style to the mural, and have taught the students so many great painting techniques and skills. I do believe that we have students who would spend the entire day painting on the mural if we let them. The concept for mural itself was inspired by Dr. Seuss, Ted Harrison, and The Beehive Design Collective. Many minds and many hours have gone into discussing what this piece should represent and what it could look like. Briefly, the mural moves from pre-development, into development, and then towards sustainable living. It will be available for public viewing on Monday, March 9th at the Mendel Art Gallery in the auditorium. I plan to write another blog post on the progression of the mural and the work that has gone into it in another blog post on the visual art component of this project. In that post I will discuss the work we did with the Mendel Art Gallery and explain the show that we have put together.

After working with Kevin Wesequate and seeing his latest work, students were inspired to zentangle the trees.

The destruction begins - mining the earth and cutting the trees to make our "thneed" the snark.

One of the students added one of the early versions of a wind turbine.

Smogulous smoke rises out of the numerous buildings

Grade 8 student painting a flower

Alex, Nicole, and Lesley discuss the concept

Student graffiti for the side of a building

This project would not be possible without the funding provided through the ArtsSmarts program funded by:

With additional financial support from Loraas Recycling.