Dear CT-ACDA,

It is August! I hope you are all well, feeling encouraged and ready to create art in new and innovative ways.
The CT-ACDA is here to help you in any way we can!

This newsletter features the work of our brilliant Repertoire and Resources Coordinator and Chairs.
This is the first in a series of conversations and ideas from our R&R chairs! Be on the lookout in the coming weeks for more contributions by our R&R Chairs, via email and Facebook for more!

The last section of this newsletter contains online resources, COVID-19 Study updates, curricular ideas/tutorials and more, from ACDA EAST, ChorAmor and The ACDA National Office.

The CT-ACDA offers our sincerest thanks to Joshua East for serving as an R&R Chair for the past year - and many congratulations to Joshua on his new appointment as a high school director in Kansas! We wish both he and his husband, Jake Narverud all the best with their new adventures and we will miss both of them so much. Joshua and Jake, thank you for being such wonderful members and contributors to our CT-ACDA family!

We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Brian Jones, Director of Choirs at Canton Middle/High Schools, to the position of R&R Chairs for T/B Choirs. Welcome and Congratulations Brian!

I hope you all enjoy these last few days of summer! There will be a Virtual Happy Hour and Fall Conference Information coming your way...very soon!

With Gratitude,
Amanda Hanzlik, President, CT-ACDA

LET'S DO BETTER - TOGETHER

Connecticut ACDA

“Do the best that you can until you know better.
Then when you know better, do better.”
- Maya Angelou

It is the desire of the CT-ACDA Repertoire and Resource Chairs to actively and collaboratively pursue the vital conversations and learning necessary to recognize and reveal areas where we can do better in our classrooms and communities - specifically in the areas of equity and representation.

By sharing resources that are supporting our own self-reflection and growth, we hope to encourage conversations, collaboration and ideas from our Connecticut choral community that will lead to action and change for those marginalized by our current practices.

We are listening and learning. Please join us.

“As choral artists, we understand that critical self-reflection is a part of the artistic process; at this time, we feel called to hold up a mirror to our own practice.”

- Black Voices Matter Pledge

https://www.blackvoicesmatterpledge.org

Conversation:
Social Emotional Learning and Mindfulness

Many schools/districts, including mine, have spent time in recent years focusing on emotional intelligence and mindfulness with our students through a prescribed social-emotional curriculum. Learning skills with our students to be present in the moment, understand our emotions, show empathy for others and make responsible decisions seems like a slam dunk for classroom culture. In fact, the encouraged implementation during our school day has brought about many meaningful conversations with my students.

Recently as I have been deeply reflecting on many aspects of my classroom culture and teaching practices, I am asking myself more pointed questions on the desired and perceived impact on my students as compared to what may actually be taking place in certain SEL and mindfulness exercises and conversations. I’m not yet convinced that each of my students feels that their life experience, cultural background and emotional history is truly honored and celebrated in the current practices of SEL in our classroom curriculum. Therefore, I have work to do.

Here are some of the questions I am asking:

How can I allow and encourage all of my students to participate, articulate and express in a way that is truly genuine to their identity and experience?
How do I become more aware of my own bias toward my experience and emotional vocabulary and actions?

I was recently introduced to the writing and research of Rhonda McGee, law professor and author of The Inner Work of Racial Justice. Her work and presentations have been helpful for me in making new connections to mindfulness in the classroom and validating the diverse emotional needs of my students. This particular panel discussion is especially focused on how mindfulness can help us to understand and navigate our own racial bias as we do the work toward inclusiveness together with our students. If this is a topic you are in which you are interested, I encourage you to watch A Mindful Approach to Race and Social Justice in America with Rhonda McGee, Jon Kabat-Zinn and Anderson Cooper

If you have found SEL practices that work toward honoring the experience of each of your students, or if this is something you’re also currently reevaluating, please reach out. I would love to continue the conversation with you!

Sarah Gleason, Repertoire and Resources Coordinator

Conversation:
Developing an Antiracist Classroom

Many music department traditions were shattered by the onset of COVID-19. Concerts, musicals, field trips, festivals, graduations—all gone. And with the future uncertain and the number of cases still high, chorus teachers are watching a semester of social distancing, limited class size, and distance learning barrel down at them, wondering “What am I going to do during a whole year of this?”

When faced with such an ominous dark cloud, it’s easy to lose sight of the silver lining. The refrain we hear from the George Floyd protests demands not just more incremental steps; the entire rotten system needs to be torn down and rebuilt from a place of equity. Why not consider a similar mindset for the chorus classroom? If COVID demands that we reinvent the wheel anyway, why not make a better wheel, a wheel equipped to meet the challenges exposed by the times? Or are we really to believe that the wheel we’ve been using for generations is fine just the way it is?

Consider this article about Developing an Antiracist Music Theory Classroom. Whether you teach theory or not, the text contains some significant ideas. Why do we do the things we do every single year? What are the origins of those traditions? What damage might they cause? With everyone’s routines now disrupted, could those traditions be reimagined in a way that is more just? How might we leverage our students’ strengths and skills to reinvent choral music to meet the challenges of our time? Why do we insist on asking students to embrace our music, when this pandemic gives us the opportunity to embrace their music instead? How can we meet the moment in our own profession, rebuild a system already torn down by disease into something better?

We have been forcibly freed from tired traditions and age-old ensemble structures. Will we hunker down and eventually go “back to normal”? Or will we craft a new normal that flourishes in this environment and brings all our students into the future?

Chris Wasko, Middle School Repertoire and Resources Chair

Conversation:
Implementing Antiracist Changes in your Classroom

As I write this post, my head is swirling with thoughts and ideas about what I could be doing to better recognize and celebrate contributions of black, brown, and Indigenous musicians in my classrooms. This summer I’ve been a sponge….trying to soak up as much information in an effort to realize what I didn’t know I didn’t know. I’ve been viewing many online presentations, reading, working with our school district’s anti-racism committee, and THINKING. Thinking about how it is my responsibility to become an even more informed teacher who is an active anti-racist.

Here are two wonderful discussions I recommend you listen to….

Black Voices Matter with Alexander Lloyd Blake (through A Cappella Academy): https://youtu.be/7MNekpwH-H8
Building Culturally Relevant Schools with Dr. Gloria Ladson Billings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr2monteBbo

After listening to those discussions, here are the changes I am going to begin implementing next school-year:

Focusing more on aural skills/traditions and teaching more tunes by ear.
Having students’ grades reflect their PROGRESS more than meeting external standards.
Changing the way I select students for my ensembles to be more inclusive and expansive. For example, "You need to be able to do X, Y, and Z to move up to the next choir. Unlike last year, where I looked at specific summative assignments to gather my data, this year you can show me you are capable of X, Y, and Z by either demonstrating A, B, or, C.”
Programming more repertoire written/created by black, brown, and Indigenous musicians.
MORE!

I haven’t created specific lesson plans and documents yet, but I’d love to engage in discussions around these ideas and more with anyone willing to chat! Let’s share what we create and find!

Lauren Verney-Fink, High School Repertoire and Resources Chair