We look forward to the spring, and Veronica sneaks in to discuss her preparations to return to the classroom.

Here's hoping everyone has a restful and safe Winter Break.

S7E15 Recorded 12.15.2020

What do you do when your kids don't turn in enough work, or work that is too poor quality for a public facing virtual ensemble video?

How do you keep a virtuous cycle of energy going when your kids are checked out? We don't have the answers but tune in anyway!

S7E14 Recorded 12/8/2020

Feeling pressure to produce something at the end of the semester when your concerts are cancelled and kids are way behind? Why? Make sure you're setting reasonable expectations for yourself and your students this term.

Recorded November 30 2020 S7E13

Happy Thanksgiving, whether you're celebrating alone or commuting to visit family, we hope you'll join our PodFam for some reflections on gratitude.

Recorded November 20, 2020. S7E12

Sus has to do evaluations for her student teacher and is struggling with wrapping her brain around writing for an education department and not a school of music.

Recorded 11/15 S7E11

Olin solicits suggestions on what to spend his next six weeks focusing on, what projects can he work on and how can he plan for a winter when every two weeks we have a completely new understanding of how the world is changing.

Special Guest star: Quentin Tonus-Cargile. Sorry.

Recorded November 8 2020. S7E10

Sus is selected as GBHS's teacher of the year, now in the running for Placer County Schools TotY. We discuss growth and professional development that led her here, answer a few questions off her questionnaire, and discuss some ideas we're taking away from the pandemic into our teaching in the future

Recorded 11/3/2020 instead of watching election coverage. S7E9

We continue to patch the holes in our teaching as we are grappling with hybrid learning. Due to Sus officiating a wedding over the weekend, this is a beer podcast, not a coffee podcast. You're welcome.

Recorded October 27, 2020 S7E8

Sorry for the missing week folks, Sus's audio was lost in our conversation on adjusting Pacing for Hybrid Learning. We'll revisit that. This week we talk about how we are adjusting our teaching to a Hybrid model and what that looks like.

Recorded 10/18/2020 S7E7

The PAC-12 announced that they will resume football this fall but Bands will not be allowed to play at or anywhere near games, leaving Olin without a fall marching season. The Hybrid Model now proposed for both John and Sus's schools effectively negates rehearsal, so the question remains: what is a performing ensemble without performance opportunities?

S7E6 Recorded 10.4.2020

The counties where Sus and John teach are meeting the thresholds to open schools, so this week we grapple with what performing arts courses look like without rehearsal in preparation for students in the classroom, some students still online and the current guidelines in CA that preclude instrumental or choral rehearsals.

S7E5 Recorded 9.27.2020 

This week we sat down with our friend Patrick about his work opening West Park High School as their band director. He discusses the opportunities of starting a new program, and the challenges of doing so during distance learning in a pandemic.

S7E4 Recorded 9.20.2020

This week, we discuss the challenges we're continuing to face in our digital teaching and share ideas for engaging and meaningful lessons for our students in a remote teaching environment.

S7E3 Recorded September 13, 2020

Welcome Back, for real this time. First Family Episode of Season 7 with Veronica. We debrief our first few weeks of teaching and discuss dipping our toes into digital in this new normal.

S7E2 Recorded 9.6.2020

Welcome Back! We're opening our seventh season with an interview with Messrs. Jonathan Grantham and Patrick Dandrea from Amador Valley High School. They have been doing extensive work in maintaining an ensemble program in a digital environment, and recently hosted a directors band to showcase their ideas as a launching point for other teachers. 

That Presentation can be found here:

• YouTube Live Link
• Session Slide Deck
  • There are some additional strategies for solfege and rhythm reading included at the end of the deck.
• Additional Resources
  • Overview videos we've used for students, some asynchronous projects, and planning template documents.

Recorded 8/30/2020

This is the last regular episode of our Sixth Season. This is the end of semester potpourri, a look back at the year, what we're excited about for the summer and projects we hope to tackle.

"We have no idea what the fall is going to look like but you need to plan for it" - your admin team, probably.

We don't have a lot of answers but we talk about messaging and planning and the differences between university, high school and middle school.

Recorded May 24, 2020

John finishes his last week, Sus wraps up her virtual choir project, Olin is not looking forward for OSUMB instrument return and Veronica laments the regression of her 7th graders. 

Recorded May 17, 2020

Back at it again, we discuss recorded lessons vs. synchronous learning sessions and the pros and cons of both.

Recorded 5.2.2020

Veronica debriefs her first week back after local school districts took almost a month off to prepare for digital learning.

Recorded April 19 2020

We bring the spouses back on for a dive into what it's like being confined with a music teacher and some ways to mitigate the problems that stem from that. (Take 2: Sus's Audio is fixed)

Recorded April 16, 2020

John and Sus have been teaching since March 16 in secondary settings, but now Olin and Veronica are moving back into teaching after their spring breaks and debrief the challenges being faced.

Sorry about the bad audio (again) this time John got complacent with his audio set up, since it had been set up all week for teaching.

Recorded April 5 2020.

Jesuit has some survey data based on two weeks of teaching digitally, we break down some of the points that jump out to us as we enter week three of this new paradigm.

Recorded 3/29/2020

We debrief our teaching and lessons learned from trying to adapt to digital teaching and learning in the first week of shelter in place in California.

We had a small hiccup with Sus's audio at the end, so she missed out on a win this week... =(

Recorded March 22, 2020

We sit down with the incoming CMEA VP, Chad Zullinger to talk options for digital and distance learning as we try to adapt to school closures and our new normal. 

CMEA Resources mentioned can be found here:

https://calmusiced.com/resources/covid-19-information/

Recorded March 15, 2020

What has merit in a meritocracy besides musicianship? That's the question we try to tackle today.

Recorded March 8, 2020

Veronica dives in with the question that boils down to "when is it time to cut bait" with beginners who are showing no progress. We try to tackle the problem from a few angles.

We debrief our week, ending with a presentation at the California All State Music Educator's Conference. We also discuss our favorite clinics we participated in and Sus reminds herself how much she loves CCDA.

I sit down with Jim Mazzaferro (and his bass) to ask a few questions about developing your bass player, as well as a few questions about guitarists as the conversation progresses.

Forgive the transitions, balancing Jim and his bass as he demonstrates proved to be a challenge.

Jim's bio can be found here

Recorded 1/30/2020

Sus checks in with ways to develop your musicians outside of the normal cycle of formal concerts. What value do informal performances (informances) bring to your program?

Note: Audio is bad on this one, (sorry!) We had trouble with the H6. Olin's audio remains unscathed.

Recorded 02/02/2020

John sits down with Barb Catlin the director at Pomona College and CIT, as well as the incoming president for the California Alliance for Jazz to discuss working in the rhythm section as a new director and a horn player.

Barb's Bio can be found here: http://www.barbcatlin.com/bio

Sus inquires after John's three year checklist for literature and we find ourselves discussing the challenges and processes of choosing literature for our groups.

And... we're back. Quick check-in on how 2020 is shaping up and some of our goals for the semester.